Radio frequency cooking of pork hams followed with conventional steam cooking

摘要

Radio frequency (RF) is a volumetric heating technology that reduces the time needed to cook foodstuffs, but heating is not evenly distributed. The aim of this work was to develop a two-step cooking process in a RF tunnel and in a steam oven (RF-ST) for pork hams and compare it to cooking in a steam oven (ST). The temperature distribution was monitored during cooking and the accumulated lethally was calculated. Cooking losses and physicochemical and sensory properties of the cooked product were analysed. Hot spots and overheating problems were identified during the RF cooking process and were reduced by shielding the ends of the hams with aluminium foil and by adjusting the times of both, RF and steam cooking. The total ST process time (360 min) was reduced by 50% in RF-ST (180 min). Hardly significant differences were observed in the technological and sensory quality of the final product. Regarding the food safety of the RF-ST process, the lowest accumulated lethality in RF-ST process was observed in the outer part of the hams, which can be increased by extending the ST processing time, obtaining a more evenly distributed accumulated lethally in comparison to the ST process.