Aroma profile and consumer liking of salted and dried chicken meat: Effects of desalting and cooking methods

Abstract

Twenty-four dried and salted broiler breasts, a chicken charqui–like muscle food, were submitted to desalting in cold water and different cooking methods (grilling, roasting, frying with olive oil, and sous-vide cooking). Samples were assessed by levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, volatile compounds, and odor-liking analysis. Desalted and sous-vide cooked samples presented the highest levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and volatile compounds derived from lipid oxidation. Grilling, roasting, and frying promoted an increase of Maillard-derived volatiles in dried salted broiler meat. This difference in aromatic profile led to a high odor acceptability of samples submitted to more intense thermal treatments such as grilling, roasting, and frying. In contrast, prolonged cooking (sous-vide technique) and desalting in cold water led to a marked decline in consumers’ liking due the rise in volatile compounds derived from lipid oxidation. In conclusion, based on the results, it seemed to be reasonable to hypothesize that dried and salted broiler meat submitted to high temperatures during cooking (≈180–200°C) tended to generate high Maillard-derived volatiles, while long cooking times led to a great thermal degradation/oxidation of lipids, which generates high content of lipid-derived volatile components.