Effect of salting duration on salt content and proteolysis in Kraški pršut dry hams after the resting phase

The objective of the present study was to reduce salt content in Kraški pršut dry ham by means of shorter salting period. Three groups of hams (equilibrated for weight, fatness and pH) were salted for 15 (HS), 11 (MS), and 8 (LS) days. After the end of salting, hams were submitted to resting (87, 91, 94 days for HS, MS and LS group, respectively). Processing losses were recorded at the end of each phase. After 102 days (end of resting), semimembranosus (SM) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles were sampled for determination of dry matter (DM, g/100g), salt (NaCl, g/100g DM), total nitrogen (N, g/100g DM), non-protein nitrogen (NPN, g/100g DM and proteolysis index (IP, %). Shortened salting was accompanied by lower ham weight losses at the end of this phase (P < 0.0001) but did not affect the losses in the resting phase and in total. As a result, slightly lower DM was observed in LS compared to HS hams (29.5 vs. 30.9, P = 0.13 in BF and 37.4 vs. 40.7, P = 0.08 in SM). A 7 day shorter salting period (LS) resulted in notable salt reduction (36.4% and 27.8% for BF and SM, respectively), while 4 day reduction (MS) had lesser impact (11.7% and 6.0% for BF and SM, respectively). There was no effect of salt reduction on the IP at the end of resting period. However, in SM a difference between LS and HS hams was significant for N (13.1 vs. 11.9, P < 0.01) and NPN (1.79 vs. 1.54, P < 0.01).