The Effect of Salt Addition and Postmortem Holding Time on Cooked Yield and Texture of Hot-Stripped Ground Fowl Meat

Breast and leg (thigh and drumstick) meat was stripped from unchilled, uneviscerated fowl carcasses after bleeding for 2 min, scalding for 2 min at 58 C, and feather removal. The meat was then ground and assigned to one of four sublots: breast meat without sodium chloride; breast meat mixed with 2% (w/w) sodium chloride; leg meat without sodium chloride; and leg meat mixed with 2% (w/w) sodium chloride. Three 90-g aliquots were removed at the end of mixing time, formed into circular patties, and blast frozen at −34 C. These patties were designated as 1.5 hr postmortem holding time. Remaining sublots were held at 2 C, and sampled at 4 and 24 hr by removing aliquots to form 90-g patties, which were then immediately blast frozen. Cooked yield, moisture and fat contents, and objective texture were determined from patties oven-cooked to 74 C from the frozen state. Patties with salt had significantly higher cooked yields and moisture contents and exhibited lower hardness and cohesiveness values and higher springiness values than patties without salt. Patties from leg meat took less time to cook, had higher cooked yields, moisture, and fat contents than patties from breast meat. Texture attributes, pooled over salt treatments, also indicated that leg meat was less hard, less cohesive, and less chewy than breast meat. Differences attributed to postmortem holding time were statistically significant (P≤.05) for the springiness attribute only; springiness significantly declined at 24 hr.