Food Chemistry

12.9 Meat Aroma 605

via a separate fluid bed. The packaging materials
used protect the dry mixture from light, air, and
moisture.

12.9 Meat Aroma

Raw meat has only a weak aroma. Numerous
intensive aroma variations arise from heating,
the character of the aroma being dependent on
the type of meat and the method of preparation
(stewing, cooking, pressure cooking, roasting
or broiling-barbecuing). The preparation effects
are based on reaction temperatures and reactant
concentrations. Thus, a carefully dried, cold
aqueous meat extract provides a roasted meat
aroma when heated, while an extract heated
directly, without drying, provides a bouillon
aroma.

12.9.1 Taste compounds

Meat aroma consists of: (a) nonvolatile taste
substances, (b) taste enhancers and (c) aroma
constituents. The latter compounds or their
precursors originate essentially from the water-
soluble fraction. The constituents listed in
Table 12.22 have been identified as the taste
substances of beef broth and roasted meat
juice. Solutions of these substances in the given
concentrations (Table 12.22) give the typical
taste profiles, which are composed of sweet, sour,
salty, and glutamate-like (umami) notes. The
meat note is produced by odorants.

12.9.2 Odorants

Dilution analyses were used to elucidate the
potent odorants (Table 12.23) of boiled beef
and pork and of the meat and skin of fried
chicken. Omission experiments (cf. 5.2.7) show
that octanal, nonanal, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal,
methanethiol, methional, 2-furfurylthiol, 2-me-
thyl-3-furanthiol, 3-mercapto-2-pentanone and
HD3F are the key aroma substances of boiled
beef. These compounds are also present in boiled
pork and chicken, but species-specific differences

Table 12.22.Taste compounds in beef broth and pot

roast gravy

Concentration (mmol/l)

Compound/Ion Brotha Roast gravyb

Aspartic acid 0. 05 0. 18

Alanine –c 9. 41

Glutamic acid 0. 31. 71

Cysteine –c 0. 48

5 ′-AMP 0. 14 0. 64

5 ′-IMP 0. 47. 82

Hypoxanthine –c 3. 62

Carnosine 6. 223. 4

Anserine 0 .7–c

Lactic acid 25. 6 155

Succininc acid –c 2. 16

Carnitine 2 .0–c

Pyroglutamic acid 2 .6–c

Creatinine –c 43. 3

Creatine –c 20. 3

Sodium 2. 335. 6

Potassium 31. 3 170

Magnesium 3. 012. 1

Calcium 1 .0–c

Chloride 3. 118. 9

Phosphate 10. 149. 4

aGround meat (500 g) suspended in 1 l of water and

boiled for 2 h, followed by fat separation and filtration.

bMeat (2 kg) fried for 20 min and braised for 4 h after

the addition of 1 l of water. The meat juice or gravy is

poured off.

cDoes not contribute to taste in the sample.

in concentration exist. The meaty/caramel-

like note typical of beef is produced by

2-furfurylthiol,2-methyl-3-furanthiol and HD3F,

which occur in relatively high concentrations in

this meat. In comparison, the lower concentration

of HD3F in pork is due to the considerably lower

contents of the precursors glucose 6-phosphate

and fructose 6-phosphate.

The aroma of boiled pork is not as intensive as

that of beef and the fatty note is more pronounced.

The concentrations of the fatty smelling carbonyl

compounds, e. g., hexanal, octanal and nonanal,

are lower in pork, but in proportion to the concen-

trations of 2-furfurylthiol, 2-methyl-3-furanthiol

and HD3F, they are higher than in beef. This dif-

ference appears to favor the intensity of the fatty

note in the odor profile of pork. In chicken, the

fatty notes become even more noticeable due to