Textures and flavors are closely related, especially when animal protein products are concerned. The type of product you want to produce will determine not only the flavor, but the desired texture as well. For example, you would not want your hamburger to have the firm dry bite of hard salami and vice versa. Consumers understand the basic flavor of a hot dog, but add Chicago style and the concept changes drastically. Some products have a well-defined flavor, like a Sriracha meat stick, and some do not, like barbecue. When designing a new item, it is important to understand the interplay of ingredients and their impact on the texture and flavor of food items, since both qualities define the eating experience.
The Building Blocks
There are four components to any animal protein item: the protein itself, water, salt, and other non-meat ingredients.
Protein, the first component, can be factored by species, muscle selection, fat selection, and lean to fat ratio. In many cases, the first two factors are product driven. For example, ham comes from the hind leg of swine. You can buy turkey ham, and there the muscle selection and species are defined. With a ham, the developer determines the lean to fat ratio. It is desirable to have a fat cover on a bone-in-ham for baking but usually less desirable in a sliced deli ham for sandwiches. Fat amount and selection is very important as well. Pork belly fat is much softer and has a lower melting point than its back fat, making the back fat much more desirable in genoa salami in regards to particle definition and appearance. Fat is also flavor! Ever heard the saying “No waste, no taste?” Fat and water are key determinants of juiciness and mouthfeel.
This leads to the second component, water. According to the USDA Agricultural Research Service, lean muscle contains around 70-78 percent water depending on species and muscle selection. Formulating products with additional water has economic implications and affects the quality of the end products. In addition to affecting juiciness and mouthfeel, water facilitates flavors faster to the taste buds. Water may also be needed to help with mixing, emulsifying, and distributing other ingredients.
The third major component is salt. A preservative, flavor enhancer, and protein extractor, salt has many functional properties in animal proteins. How much salt is added, when it is added, the amount of physical action (e.g. mixing or tumbling), and time all affect the level of protein extraction, bind, and water retention.
The final component is other non-meat ingredients. These ingredients can be grouped as functional or flavor; though there is crossover between the two groups, ingredients generally fall into one or the other. Some common ingredients that fall into this fourth component are described below.
Phosphates can be a useful tool in making a juicy and flavorful food. In meats, phosphates have a breadth of function: they can increase water holding capacity, amplify ionic strength to allow actin myosin fibers to attract more water, improve stabilities of emulsions, bind divalent cations (Ca++, Mg++, Fe++), reduce oxidative rancidity, lower viscosity of meat, and have a synergistic effect with sodium chloride. They come in many different forms, but the most common is sodium tripolyphosphate.
Sodium nitrite is a key ingredient used in the meat industry, though its use is becoming less common. Nitrite is used when making a cured meat item. While naturally occurring ingredients exist for curing, sodium nitrite is the most popular. In many items, sodium nitrite is a required ingredient for both food safety and product identity.
Carbohydrates, including fibers, starches, gums, and sweeteners, assist with moisture management in meats by absorbing, immobilizing, or binding water. They are key additions for controlling texture and flavor. Sweeteners like sugar are typically used to sweeten and help balance flavors.
Finally, acids and bases affect pH balances in meats. In some products, such as pepperoni, lowering the pH is desirable. Lactic acid bacteria are added to pepperoni to lower the pH, which helps speed up drying and creates a desirable flavor. Other times, a lower pH can be harmful to the product for it can denature the proteins, causing poor yields and an undesirable texture. It is generally okay to add acids as a surface treatment, like a lemon pepper pork loin rub, but if you’re using it internally, some considerations must be made. Ingredients that buffer pHs such as sodium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, or the salts of organic acids can be used. It can be a tough balancing act, especially since the pH is a desired flavor component.
Another way of using an acid is to encapsulate them. The acid granule is coated with a hydrogenated fat that is solid at ambient temperatures. The coating will melt once a certain temperature is reached, usually between 140 and 155 degrees Fahrenheit. This allows for the addition of citric acid for flavor while avoiding protein denaturation. By the time the coating melts, the proteins will already be set and texture maintained. This practice of encapsulation can also be used for salt. For example, while developing a hamburger you want to avoid extracting the salt soluble proteins and limit the amount of bind, but you still want a salt savory flavor.
While encapsulations have great benefits, they do come with several processing issues. The coats are fragile and can be ruptured, thereby exposing the internal substrate and foil what you are trying to accomplish. When using an encapsulate, it is best to add it last into the mixing process, avoid any extreme physical action after its addition such as grinding, and get the item into its final form (sausage casing or mold) and cooked as quickly as possible.
The Taste
Flavor is an obvious and variable component when considering the eating experience of meats. Spices, whether whole, ground, or extract, are commonly used in the flavor systems of meats. In some applications, it is desirable to see the spice particulates, like fennel seeds in an Italian sausage or thyme leaves in a Cajun rub. These particulates add an appealing flavor, as well as visual and tactile experience. If particulates are aesthetically unappealing, fine ground spices or spice extractives can be used. Besides stable availability and cost, extractives pose a unique advantage: the ability to add a lot of flavor at very low quantities.
Non-meat additives and flavors are also widely used. Whether you’re adding pistachio nuts to a mortadella or olives to a loaf, these additives enhance the flavor and visual appeal of a product. Sometimes just a flavor is needed, such as adding a dairy flavor to a cheddar bratwurst to bring out the cheese note.
There are several concerns when adding these adjuncts: they can add excess water to the formulation, bleed color, or even affect the pH. When using fresh or individually quick frozen vegetables, the moisture content needs to be considered. Therefore, a dried vegetable could make more sense. Additionally, if an item is acidic like a pickled jalapeno pepper, that acidity needs to be addressed by neutralizing and/or rinsing away the brine.
The Timing
When developing a desired texture and flavor, ingredients can and should be added in stages. For a sausage maker, adding the ingredients in stages is critical to the product’s success. The salt, water, and phosphates get added early in the process with the lean portion of the meat block to extract proteins followed by the addition of flavor and fat parts of the block. Similarly, to make a hot ham, a neutral marinade of water, salt, and sodium phosphate can be injected into a ham muscle onto which a rub of red peppers and spices is added prior to stuffing into casings.
Entirely different flavor systems are used when dealing with whole muscle products versus ground products. While adding color and whole or ground spices into Italian sausage, an Italian pork roast will have very little flavor injected into it. If flavors are injected into the roast, they will be clear extractives to avoid tiger striping (where color is only in the path of the injector needles entering the muscle). In ground items, you have a lot more control over the bind of the meat product: fat levels can be adjusted to impact protein extraction levels; flavors can be more evenly mixed into the meat. Whole muscle products require more time and physical action to manipulate. Again, sodium phosphate can help by increasing the moisture uptake and juiciness of the finished product. Also, physically tumbling the muscle will help break down collagen and soften the tissue.
When designing a new meat item, one should follow Stephen R. Covey’s second habit from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and “Begin with the End in Mind.” Understand what you want, even if you hand make it, design a gold standard, and then add ingredients that will help turn raw materials into the desired finished product.
Falk is the senior food scientist and meat specialist at Asenzya Inc. Reach him at [email protected].
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