Aroma volatiles in cooked alligator meat

Volatile components from cooked (convection oven at 176.7 degrees C for 30 min) alligator meat were isolated by vacuum simultaneous distillation and solvent extraction (V-SDE) and dynamic headspace sampling (DHS) and analyzed by gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, or olfactometry. We identified 56 compounds in V-SDE extracts and 13 in DHS extracts. Volatile profiles were similar for all alligator meat samples regardless of alligator size (length). However, concentration of volatiles increased as alligator size increased. Most volatile compounds were lipid-derived aldehydes, which made up 73.9-79.4% of total volatiles in V-SDE extracts and 82.4-89.2% in DHS extracts. Hexanal, the most abundant compound, and (Z)-4-heptenal were considered responsible for the green, grassy and fishy, rancid off-odor of cooked alligator meat samples.