FINELY COMMINUTED MEAT-PRODUCTS - THE EFF ECT OF VARIOUS FAT SOURCES ON THE STABILITY

Fat is an important ingredient in sausages as it contributes to their stability and sensory properties and also reduces the overall finished cost of these products. The stability of fat within a sausage mixture is attributed to the formation of an interfacial film or the entrapme nt of water and fat within a protein matrix. Both events prevent mobil ization and coalescence of fat and the rendering of water and fat on c ooking. Batter stability is attributed to the end-point temperature of comminution and is thought to depend upon the melting characteristics of the fat. These characteristics are determined by the chemical natu re of the fat. Experiments were performed to determine the influence o f pork, mutton and butter fat on the production parameters of finely c omminuted cooked meat products such as frankfurters. The influence of batter composition, comminution end-point temperature, fat type and us e of hot fat was investigated by measuring the separation of jelly and fat from cooked batters. Batters were prepared in a bowl cutter, with the lean fraction being comminuted first, followed by the addition of fat. If necessary the batter end-point temperature was controlled by either adding liquid nitrogen or warming the bowl. The batters were ha nd filled into cans and then heated in boiling water for 30-40 minutes , depending on the can size, to an internal temperature of 85-90-degre es-C. The data indicate that as the amount of fat in the batter was in creased, jelly release declined or remained constant. Fat release some times increased slightly. That is, the binding ability of the batter w as enhanced by fat addition. There were small differences in the amoun t of fat released for the different types of fat used, although on ave rage slightly more mutton fat and butter fat were released with increa sing fat addition. No optimum temperature of final comminution was obt ained with regard to minimal cookout, but after the batter had risen t o about 10-degrees-C fat and jelly separation increased slightly for b oth pork fat and mutton fat batters. Provided sufficient fat comminuti on was achieved below 10-degrees-C, a stable batter resulted. Exceedin g 15-degrees-C during comminution caused batter instability. Using hot mutton fat did not significantly improve the stability of mutton fat batters over that of pork fat batters.