The effect of sodium chloride levels on the taste and texture of dry-cured ham

In order to investigate the effect of NaCl levels (1.5%, 3.5%, 5.5% and 13%) on the taste and texture of dry-cured ham, TPA, myofibril ultrastructure, proteolysis index and free amino acids were evaluated. The proteolysis index (30.76% +/- 2.05-11.88% +/- 1.90), cohesiveness (0.74 +/- 0.04-0.60 +/- 0.01), springiness (0.83 +/- 0.03-0.71 +/- 0.04), and the total free amino acids (9885.3 mg/100 g +/- 677.98-3505.15 mg/100 g +/- 378.20) decreased with the increase of salt addition, while the hardness (8701.99 g +/- 513.37-12057.53 g +/- 783.89) and adhesiveness (- 15.73 +/- 2.53 to - 32.01 +/- 4.95) increased with the increase of salt addition. The myofibril ultrastructure indicated that hams with higher proteolysis index (> 20%) showed more obvious degradation of M-line and Z-disk, and more disordered fiber structure, which was closely related to the degradation of myofibrillar proteins (actin, desmin and troponin-T). Among four groups, the dry-cured ham with 5.5% salt had the highest levels of moisture (45.73% +/- 1.13) and umami amino acids (1422.77 mg/100 g +/- 119.87), as well as the lowest chewiness (3346.89 +/- 121.19). The ham with 5.5% salt also had higher sensory scores of texture (4.83 +/- 0.1), taste (5.50 +/- 0.2) and overall acceptance (5.51 +/- 0.09) as compared to the ham added with other salt levels. These results indicated that 5.5% NaCl treatment showed positive effects on the texture and taste of dry-cured ham, which meets the consumer's demand for dry-cured meat products.