PHYSICOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF MODEL MEAT EMULSIONS IN RELATION TO THE PREPARATION OF STABLE SHEEP AND GOAT MEAT SAUSAGE

The capacity of water and salt‐soluble proteins obtained from the meat of goat, sheep, chicken and pork to emulsify peanut oil was compared at different protein concentrations in an aqueous medium. At a given concentration, the maximum phase‐volume ratio (øm) of oil in the emulsion for water‐soluble proteins was in the order: goatchicken sheeppork. For pure actomyosin, the order of øm was the following: goatsheep porkchicken. The same order for the actomyosins was also verified by viscometric experiments. From gel electrophoretic analysis, the number and nature of the polypeptide chains of pure actomyosins prepared from various meat sources were found to be different from each other. At higher protein concentrations, øm was observed to exceed 0.6 both in the presence of salt extracted proteins and meat slurries. Melted sheep and goat fat formed very unstable emulsions in the presence of their respective meat slurries. GLC experiments indicated that the poor dispersibility of the sheep and goat fat was due to the presence of excessive quantities of saturated fatty acids so that the melting point was too high. When sheep fat was mixed with 50% peanut oil, then mixed fat formed excellent emulsions with the sheep meat slurry and øm was observed to exceed 0.7. Using model meat emulsions, sheep meat sausage was prepared and found to be acceptable by a taste panel. Copyright © 1979, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved