Browsing by Subject "jälkisuolaantuminen"

Literature review deals with manufacturing of air-dried meat, safety of products and quality aspects. Particular emphasis was given to different salting methods. Meat air-drying process consists of three main steps: salting, post-salting and ripening/drying. When using dry-curing and brine-curing methods salt will diffuse into the meat. High collagen and fat content of the meat correlates negatively with diffusion rate. Vacuum treatment during the salting will accelerate diffusion of salt into the meat. The aim of this study was to find alternative salting method for the dry-curing method used by the client because the used method is slow and needs a lot of manual work. Pork neck was salted with four different methods: dry curing (KS), dry curing+thumbling (MS), dry curing+vacuum packing (VS) and brine curing (LS). During the salting step salt content was determined at different time points (both before post-salting and ripening steps). During the ripening weight losses were determined at different time points. Salt, protein, fat, and water content were measured from the products. Products from VS- and LS-batches together with client’s corresponding products were sensory evaluated. Salt diffusion during the salting step took place unevenly due to the heterogeneity of the used meat material. Pork neck is challenging material to be air-dried. Shorter curing time for the MS , VS-and LS-methods was sufficient compared to the KS-method. VS-and LS-methods needed less manual work during salting step than KS- and MS-methods. LS-method differed most from the client’s method (KS) and it was considered the most difficult method. MS-and VS-methods could fit for the client’s use but more research and experiments based on this thesis are needed.