Accelerated processing of dry-cured ham. I. Viability of the use of brine thawing/salting operation
2006
Barat, JM | Grau, R. | Ibanez, J.B. | Pagan, M.J. | Flores, M. | Toldra, F. | Fito, P.
In a previous study, the brine thawing/salting operation using frozen hams as raw material was proposed in order to obtain accelerated processing of dry-cured hams. The time needed to reach the same NaCl concentration on a dry weight basis and the same NaCl concentration in the ham liquid phase for the deeper areas at the end of the post-salting stage were determined. The aim of this work was to study the influence of the brine thawing/salting operation on the whole dry-cured ham manufacturing process, using the traditional thawing and salting methods as control. The obtained results indicate that although a strong reduction in the thawing, salting and post-salting stages is obtained by using brine thawing/salting, the time needed in the dry-curing and maturing phases increases compared to those traditionally processed, probably due to the absence of pile salting and thus the reduction in the thickness of the ham piece as a consequence of the ham pressing. From the composition and microbiological point of view, no significant differences were observed among the hams processed by the different treatments.
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