An agent for the treatment of meat, preferably in a raw state, for improving juiciness of its ring, color and tenderness.

摘要

The quality of meat and meat products is improved by treating them with one or more basic amino acids or salts thereof, exemplified by arginine, arginine glutamate, histidine, histidine hydrochloride, lysine and ornithine. The amino acid or salt is added to raw or partially processed horse-flesh, beaf, mutton, pork, chicken, cuttle fish, tuna, mackerel, or whale meat salted with red pepper, in an amount of at least 0.02%, preferably between 0.3-1.5%, based on the weight of the raw meat. The treatment is applied by dipping the meat in a solution of the amino acid, by spraying thin slices of the meat with a solution or powder of the amino acid, by injecting a solution of the amino acid into the meat, by smearing the surface of the meat with the amino acid or by admixing the amino acid with the meat in a divided state. The treated meat may be formed into a paste, a sausage product or a canned product such as corned beef or press ham. In the Examples, the quality of treated meat or meat product is evaluated in terms of the colour of the fresh meat and the palatability and degree of shrinkage after cocking. Certain examples disclose the treatment of the following meat mixtures: (5) minced pork meat, salt, sugar, sage, pepper and mace; (6) chopped beef, ice water, salt, sugar, pepper, coriander, mace and sodium ascorbate to which mixture there was subsequently added chopped pork meat, sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite; (8) tuna fish, lard, salt, sodium nitrite and sodium ascorbate; (10) shoulder of pork, minced pork fat, salt, sodium nitrate, wheat starch, sugar, spice and L-glutamic acid; (11) whale meat with a seasoning consisting of soy sauce and sugar; (12) beef, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, sodium chloride, sugar, pepper, sage, sodium ascorbate and water to which mixture there was subsequently added lard seasoned with sodium glutamate and salt, for the production of corned beef. Certain of these mixtures were stuffed into natural or vinylidene casings to produce sausages.