AbstractBACKGROUNDPostmortem muscle moisture loss leads to a decrease in carcass weight and can adversely impact overall meat quality. Therefore, it is critical to investigate water holding capacity (WHC) to enhance meat quality. Current research has primarily focused on examining the correlation between signaling molecules and meat quality in relation to the glycolysis effect on muscle WHC. But there exists a significant knowledge gap regarding the mechanism of WHC in Jersey cattle‐yak meat.RESULTSJersey cattle‐yak meat pH decreased and then increased during postmortem aging. Lactate content, cooking loss, pressing loss, drip loss and centrifuging loss of Jersey cattle‐yak meat increased and then decreased during postmortem aging. The glycogen content of Jersey cattle‐yak meat was significantly higher than that of yak meat at 6–120 h, being 8.40% higher than that of yak meat at 120 h. The activity of key glycolytic enzymes hexokinase (HK), pyruvate kinase (PK), phosphofructokinase (PFK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in Jersey cattle‐yak meat was lower than that in yak meat. Correlation analysis showed that Jersey cattle‐yak meat WHC was positively correlated with the activity of HK, PK, PFK and LDH.CONCLUSIONSThe WHC of Jersey cattle‐yak meat was higher than that of Gannan yak meat, and it was significantly positively correlated with the activity of key enzymes of the glycolytic signaling pathway. Therefore, the glycolysis rate can be reduced by inhibiting enzyme activity to improve Jersey cattle‐yak meat WHC and meat quality. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.