Improvement of ultrasound-assisted thermal treatment on organoleptic quality, rheological behavior and flavor of defective dry-cured ham

Abstract

Intense adhesiveness, softness and sourness are usually organoleptic and textural defects in dry-cured ham. To improve sensory and flavor qualities of defective dry-cured ham, biceps femoris of Jinhua ham with sensory defects were subjected to different levels of ultrasound-assisted heating (control group, 300 W & 40 °C, 300 W & 50 °C, 1000 W & 40 °C, and 1000 W & 50 °C). Sensory scores, texture, dynamic rheology, thermostability, water distribution and volatile compounds of ham samples were investigated among these treatments. The treatment (1000 W & 50 °C) improved sensory scores than that of other treatments (P < 0.001) and a decrease of 0.65-folds in adhesiveness values was observed at the group of 1000 W & 50 °C compared with the control; the enthalpy of actin decreased and the population of free water from 2.71% of control group increased to 11.35% of 1000 W & 50 °C, indicating that intense denaturation of proteins could accelerate protein aggregation and decrease the interaction between water and protein molecules, which further contributed to the improvement of texture of defective dry-cured ham after ultrasound. Furthermore, the treatment of 1000 W & 50 °C decreased the content of rancid and sour compounds, and accelerated the formation of esters. Partial least square regression confirmed that the decrease of rancid and sour compounds improved flavor quality of defective dry-cured ham.