Acceleration of curing period of pastrami manufactured from buffalo meat: II-Fatty acids, amino acids, nutritional value and sensory evaluation

Abstract

Upon accelerating the curing period of pastrami (dry cured meat) prepared from buffalo lean round muscles using heat treatment (~71ºC internally), the results indicated that: the peroxide and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values increased with increasing the aging period. Percentage of the released free fatty acids was 1.21 after heat treatment and increased gradually to reach 1.47 after hanging in air at room temperature for drying and complete curing up to 6 days. The major saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in all of the pastrami samples were palmitic (16:0), oleic (18:1) and linoleic (18:2) fatty acids. The main three identified polyunsaturated fatty acids (linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic) were of high percentages in the accelerated cured samples than in the control one. The ratio of the unsaturated: saturated fatty acids was similar in either the heat treated (1.28:1) and the control (1.27: 1) pastrami samples. Similar findings were found for the ratio of total essential amino acids (EAAS): total amino acids (AAS). The Essential Amino Acids Index (EAAI) that possesses higher percentage for the heat treated sample than that for the control one proved the higher biological acceptance of the heat accelerated cured pastrami sample. The predicted protein efficiency ratio (PER) of all the investigated samples reached more than 2.42 of casein. Sensory evaluation of the pastrami sample processed to an internal temperature of ~71ºC proved by the panelists to be of attractive color, more tasty, of good characteristic odor and more tender than the control samples which were prepared and cured for 3 weeks without using heat treatment.