Problems with traditional smoked bacon
Traditional franked bacon processing is limited by the processing conditions, and many characteristics can no longer meet the needs of contemporary consumers. The first is that the curing technology of traditional smoked bacon needs to be improved. The traditional marinated bacon is usually marinated by dry pickling. The product has poor salting, high salt content in the finished product, poor color, long curing time, and a large amount of high-salt wastewater in the curing process.
In order to speed up the curing process and prevent the raw meat from spoiling and deteriorating during the curing process, it is usually cured by increasing the salt content. This makes the proportion of salt in the traditional savory bacon pickling process account for 5% of the raw meat. Above, some areas even reach 10%. In order to reduce the salt content in the finished bacon, it is necessary to soak the salt after watering, which not only increases the processing time, but also causes the product quality to be reduced, and discharges a large amount of sewage to pollute the environment.
Secondly, the traditional smoking technology is unscientific, affecting the further development of smoked bacon products. In traditional smoking technology, direct contact between burning products and meat, incomplete combustion of sugar and pyrolysis of protein, fat due to the existence of traditional bacon, and the development of society, consumers' health awareness is constantly increasing, life The rhythm is accelerating, so the willingness to consume bacon is decreasing. In order to improve consumers' preference for traditional bacon, many researchers have studied and explored the processing technology of traditional bacon, and formed a modern processing technology of bacon, which improved the quality of bacon and the convenience of eating.
Improvement of traditional smoked bacon processing technology
At present, the technical improvement of traditional bacon is mainly focused on the improvement of the pickling technology and the smoking process, and on this basis, research and development of modern processing technology to maintain the traditional flavor, on the other hand, some research and development in the development of bacon dishes. Some ready-to-eat bacon dishes based on traditional Hunan cuisine have been produced.
(1) Research progress on traditional smoked bacon pickling technology
The improvement of bacon's pickling technology is mainly the use of vacuum curing technology to speed up the curing and ensure the safety in the curing process. Vacuum curing technology can reduce the amount of salt used and reduce the amount of nitrite added, while the waste pickling solution is not discharged during vacuum curing. Under vacuum conditions, oxygen in muscle cells is expelled, and vacuum curing can effectively prevent browning of meat without adding antioxidants; vacuum curing has a lower processing temperature and can protect the color and flavor of meat. , aroma and heat-sensitive nutrients, greatly improving the quality of preserved foods.
Studies have shown that: vacuum pickling can effectively prevent the discharge of high-salt water in the curing process. The color of the meat in the curing process is better than the traditional dry pickling method, which is a pleasant rose pink; the total number of vacuum-cured colonies is lower than the traditional dry Pickling method, but the amount of cocci and mold in vacuum cured bacon is higher than the traditional dry pickling method, becoming the dominant strain, the difference of other strains is not significant, and vacuum pickling can effectively improve the absorption rate of the salt preparation and improve The utilization rate of the salting preparation. Studies have shown that by vacuum curing technology, the salt consumption of bacon is reduced by 30%, the curing time is shortened by 1/3, and the amount of wastewater removed during the curing process is reduced by 80%.
(2) Research progress on bacon smoked technology
Smoke in the processing of traditional smoked bacon is an important factor affecting the quality of bacon, but the process of smoking varies greatly from place to place, resulting in uneven product quality and some safety risks. Some scholars have studied the smoking technology of traditional bacon from the aspects of regulating smoking materials and smoking technology. By comparing the effects of different smoking materials on the microbial, bacon color, flavor components and benzopyrene residues in the processing of bacon. In order to find out the influence of smoked materials on the quality of bacon, on this basis, research and development of hardwood sawdust as the main component, with citrus peel (or grapefruit peel), bamboo shavings (or bamboo shavings, 箬Leaves), rice husks, etc. are configured as composite smoked materials.
The low-temperature smoking process can not only impart excellent smoky flavor and color to the bacon, but also reduce the evaporation rate of the surface of the bacon, avoiding dry and crusted surface of the bacon and affecting the taste. And the lower smoke temperature can also avoid the massive production of 3-4 benzo (α) hydrazine and other harmful substances, making bacon products safer and healthier.
(3) Research and development of smoked ham
Due to the dry pickling method of traditional bacon, the salt permeation rate is slow, the curing time is long, and the salt content of the meat pieces is not uniform. Therefore, in the processing, the raw meat is usually divided into small pieces (0.5-2kg), traditionally marinated. Technology is difficult to marinate large pieces of meat.
Using a vacuum salting technique, the frozen raw material meat is immersed in a saturated salt solution under vacuum (60-80 KPa) for 3-5 hours, and then vacuum-thawed at 3-6 ° C for 36-48 hours. The curing method uses vacuum and atmospheric pressure. Combined with intermittent vacuum curing, the curing time is 10-15 days. The curing temperature is 4-15 ° C, and the vacuum is 50-80 KPa. The dried ham meat is baked at a temperature of 15-40 ° C and a relative humidity of 60-80%, and is smoked at the same time as baking. The smoked material can be made of sawn wood, rice husk, miscellaneous wood, etc. The method of smoking can be carried out by direct flame combustion or by electric heating. The smoke is used in a separate smoking room. The smoke is introduced into the baking room through the pipeline for smoking. A filter is installed at the entrance of the smoke to block the dust in the smoke. The time for smoking is 30-50 days. Baking the smoked ham The surface of the ham is washed with an aqueous solution containing 0.5-1.0% lactic acid, 0.05% nisin, and 0.001% natamycin to remove dust, smoke and oil on the surface. It is then dried at 50-55 ° C for 1 hour to dry the surface. The smoked ham produced by the technology has a salt content of 5.8-7.3% and a water content of 25-30%. The appearance of the product is dark red to brownish red, the fat is golden yellow, the taste is delicate, the product is moderately salty, and has the scent of traditional cured meat products and the inherent aroma of Chinese ham.
Fat coking and cracking and other factors produce harmful substances such as heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and the products have safety risks. Moreover, traditional smoked bacon products also produce carcinogens such as benzopyrene and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons after being smoked with wood chips, which poses a hazard to human health, and a large amount of smoke discharged during the smoking process causes environmental pollution. The third problem is that counterfeit bacon is flooding the market.
Due to the long processing cycle and high production cost of traditional bacon, unscrupulous traders use illegal means to process inferior bacon, mainly using inferior raw meat. The baking time is shortened during processing, the moisture content of the product is high, and it is easy to deteriorate, and the surface color of bacon Deep, the product has a pungent smoky flavor, while the bacon has poor flavor inside.
The fourth is that traditional smoked bacon is inconvenient to eat. Traditional smoked bacon is dusty and smoked on the surface. It needs to be cleaned with hot water before use. It removes the dirt on the surface. At the same time, it needs to be soaked for a long time to remove the excess salt of bacon. This is not only time-consuming, troublesome, but also soaking. The unique flavor components of the processed bacon will also be lost, affecting the sensory experience such as the flavor and taste of the bacon.