The effect of injection level and cooling method on the quality of cooked ham joints

The effect of cooling method and injection level on cooling rate, weight loss and quality of large cooked ham joints was investigated. Two cooling methods, vacuum (VC) and conventional (CC) and two injection levels (20 and 30%) were examined. VC reduced the cooling rate (70 °C to 4 °C) significantly in comparison to the CC (2.5 h vs. 12.5 h). Under these test conditions, VC conformed to recent safety guidelines for cooked meat joints of a reduction in temperature to 5 °C inside 10 h in comparison to CC. The injection rate had no affect on the cooling rate. Increased weight loss due to vacuum cooling was off-set by increasing the level of brine injection in pork legs from 20 to 30% and getting a yield after VC similar to that for CC hams injected at 20%. Injection rate had no affect on the sensory attributes but cooling method did; VC hams were slightly tougher (P<0.05) and drier (P<0.01) than CC hams. While VC hams injected to a 30% rate were less tender and juicy than CC hams injected at a 20% rate, as indicated by sensory scores and some instrumental texture parameters, they were similar in shear value and in overall acceptability.