Flavour intensity and acceptability evaluation of smoked sausages
Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different spices on the flavour intensity and acceptability of cooked, smoked sausages. A total of 112,944.51g meat block was prepared containing 80/20 pork trim 56,245,46 g (49.8%) 80/20 beef 28,576.32 g (25.30%) and 50/50 pork trim 28,122.73 g (24.89%) to form batter with 11,339.80 g (10%) water, 2,494.76 g (2.2%) salt, 2,267.96 g (2%) corn sytrup solids, 1,153.98 g (1%) dextrose, 294.83 g (0.26%) ground black pepper, 2500 ppm (283.50 g; 0.25%) sodium phosphate, 156 ppm (283.50 g; 0.25%), curing salt, (6.25% NaN02), and 547 ppm (56.70 g; 0.05%) sodium erythrobate. The batter was divided into five treatments. Thus, T1 Wisconsin style = batter + coriander + msg + ground celery; T2 = andouille = batter + red pepper, white pepper + garlic powder + ground thyme + onion powder; T3 chipotle = batter + chilli powder + ground chipotle pepper + garlic powder+ smoke flavouring powder + ground oregano; T4 old fashioned = batter + msg + ground nutmeg; T5 whiskey fennel = batter + whiskey + dextrose (0.60) + whole fennel. The sausages were stuffed into natural hog casing (32-35mm), hand linked and smoked cooked at 85°C for 150 min and 78% humidity to 70°C internal temperature, cold showered and kept overnight. They were oven-warmed and evaluated for flavour intensity and preference by a 10-member taste panel using a hedonic scale on which 1 = not intense and 10 = intense, while the preference ranked on the scale on which 1 = favourite and 5 = least favourite. The results showed that T2 had the most intense flavour (p<0.05), while T1 was most preferred (p<0.05) and T4 was least preferred. It is suggested that changing the spices to create varieties of sausages for consumers be encouraged and that T1, T2 and T3 be given wider publicity for consumer acceptability in order to increase their production and placement on the market and to provide better justification and recommendation from a marketing strategy aspect.