Abstract
ABSTRACT The effects of microwave cooking on the changes of physical properties, protein denaturation, microstructure and volatiles of yak meat were investigated. Various microwave power settings were used for cooking the yak longissimus meats, and SDS-PAGE, cooking loss, colour difference, shear force, microstructure and volatile flavour compounds of longissimus muscle were evaluated. Cooking losses (37.03–45.92%) and shear forces (257.20–315.57 N) in microwave heated meats were higher and lower, respectively, than these in boiled meats (p < .05). Cooking loss, a* values, and shear force significantly (p < .05) increased as the prolonged microwave cooking time, while L* value decreased (p < .05) and more muscle fibres fractured and contracted. High power (700 W; 100%) microwave cooked yak meat had higher L* values, but lower a* values and shear force than meats cooked at medium (560 W; 80%) or low (420 W; 60%) settings. Significant higher cooking loss and volatiles were found in medium power cooked meats compared to high and low power groups. The results suggested that microwave cooking could yield yak meat product with better texture and volatiles attributes but higher cooking loss and decolorization compared to conventional boiling cooking, and maybe an applicable processing method to obtain high quality yak meat products.
Highlights
Yak (Bos grunniens) is one of the domestic animals in the world, with 94.5% of population distributed around Himalayas in China, and minors found in Mongolia and Russia (Tian et al 2013; Bao et al 2015)
The results suggested that microwave cooking could yield yak meat product with better texture and volatiles attributes but higher cooking loss and decolorization compared to conventional boiling cooking, and maybe an applicable processing method to obtain high quality yak meat products
The results revealed that at the same microwave power, cooking loss increased with the extension of the microwave heating time
Summary
Yak (Bos grunniens) is one of the domestic animals in the world, with 94.5% of population distributed around Himalayas in China, and minors found in Mongolia and Russia (Tian et al 2013; Bao et al 2015). Yak meat is high in protein and low in fat with sufficient contents of health fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (Wang et al 2012b; Tian et al 2013), which is considered as a healthy food material with few contaminations of pesticide and veterinary drug residues (Unpublished data). Yak meat has gained growing demands in most areas of China for its high edible quality and food safety. Improvements in processing technologies are highly demanded for obtaining better quality of yak meat products
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