Influence of different smoking methods and conditions on the quality of canned frankfurters

Frankfurter type sausages have a market share of approximately 60 % of all canned sausages in Germany. Differences within these group of products exis ts with respect to composition, different sizes and type of casings, packag ing and shelf life (half-threequarter- or fully preserved). The high heatin g influence which is necessary to get a fully preserved can, leads sometime s to faults in the water- and fat-binding and the consistency of frankfurte rs. Another mistake is the bursting of natural and artificial (collagen) ca sings during or after heating. While some influences to manufacture threequ arter- and fully preserved canned frankfurters with a good eating quality a re considerable known (water- and ht-binding, structure formation), the inf luence of the smoking method and technology up to now is only not well know n. The frankfurter type sausages were filled in sheep casings (caliber 20-2 2 mm), collagen casings and cellulose-peeling casings (both caliber 21 mm) and were smoked with different smoking systems. Important for colour, odour and taste as well as for the bursting resistance, but for each smoking sys tem different, is temperature, relative humidity and time during the precon ditioning (curing and drying) and smoking the sausages. The results for she ep casings are represented in tab. 1. In most cases the results found out f or the sheep casings are representative for the other casings. To get a suf ficient bursting resistance for the sheep and collagen casings during the h eating process it is necessary to have drying loss (calculated to the filli ng weight) of 15 % for the threequarter and 20 % for the fully preserved ca ns.