Restructured, shelf-stable steaks from shark meat gel

Abstract

A gelation-dependent process to prepare a convenient food product from shark meat was developed. Pieces of skinned and deboned shark were soaked overnight in cold water, drained and the washed meat was homogenized in an equal amount of cold water. The homogenate was converted into a gel by lowering its pH to 3.5 using acetic acid. Hardness of the gel was dependent upon its moisture content. The gel spread in stainless-steel tray was steamed for 15 min, cooled, cut into steaks and aerobically packaged in polyethylene pouches. The product was stable against microbial growth when stored for 2mo at 10°C or 4wk at ambient temperature, although ambient temperature storage for more than a week resulted in yellowing of the steamed gel. The 10°C-stored steaks were deacidified and salted by dipping in an aqueous solution of 50 g/L each of NaHCO3 and NaCl for 15 min before frying in vegetable oil. The product was acceptable in terms of texture and flavour by a panel of experienced tasters. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.