18C-34 |
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H. SONG, Dept. Food Science and Human Nutrition, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1302 W. Pennsylvania Ave, Urbana, IL 61801 and K. R. Cadwallader, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. American country-style ham represents one of the first agricultural products exported from North America. Today, after more than three centuries, country-style ham is still a popular meat product because of its distinctive flavor. However, little is known about the characteristic flavor constituents of this type of ham. The purpose of our study was to identify key aroma-active components of various types of American-style country hams. Country-style hams were purchased from manufacturers located in Vir., N.C., and Ky. Volatile compounds were isolated by direct-solvent extraction followed by a solvent assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE) cleanup step. Aroma extracts were fractioned into two parts (neutral/basic and acidic fractions) and then analyzed by gas chromatography-olfactometry (GCO), aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA), and by GC-MS. Results of GCO and AEDA indicated the involvement of numerous volatile constituents in the aroma of country ham. The neutral/basic fraction was dominated by compounds arising from lipid oxidation (such as(Z)-4-heptenal, (E)-nonenal, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal), and via Maillard/Strecker and associated reactions (3-methylbutanal, 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, methional, phenylacetaldehyde, p-cresol). This fraction also contained numerous esters (e.g. ethyl 2-methylbutanoate). The acidic fraction contained mainly short-chain volatile acids (e.g. butanoic and hexanoic acids) and Maillard reaction products (e.g. 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone). To our knowledge, this is the first detailed study of aroma-active components of country-style ham. These compounds may serve as useful quality markers leading to improvements in ham production and storage practices.
Session 18C, Food Chemistry: Food composition, analysis and volatiles
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |