High pressure applied to frozen ham at different process stages.: 2.: Effect on the sensory attributes and on the colour characteristics of dry-cured ham

This paper describes the effect of high pressure (400 MPa and 600 MPa) applied to frozen hams at early stages of the dry-cured ham process: green hams (GH) and hams at the end of the resting stage (ERS), on the appearance, some texture and flavour parameters and on the instrumental colour characteristics of dry-cured hams. Pressurized hams showed slightly lower visual colour intensity than the control ones. In general, pressurization did not have a significant effect on the flavour characteristics of the final product. The 600-MPa hams from the ERS process showed significantly lower crumbliness and higher fibrousness scores than the control and the 400-MPa hams. However, none of these differences were enough to affect the overall sensory quality of the hams negatively. Regarding instrumental colour characteristics (L*a*b*), an increase in lightness was observed in the biceps femoris muscle from GH hams pressurized at 400 MPa and 600 MPa but not in the ERS hams. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.