Process for acidifying ground meats
AssigneeStauffer Chemical Company Division of Rhone-Poulenc, Inc.
InventorsEugene Brotsky, Charles W. Everson, William E. Swartz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Meats having the necessary low-interior-acid level for acid foods and which are more natural, better tasting, and have a better texture than that presently obtained using the encapsulated-acid process can be prepared by a process including the steps of salting a meat emulsion to extract salt-soluble protein for binding, extruding the emulsion into a hot salt solution, cooking with agitation in the hot salt solution to heat set the exterior of the protein, followed by further treating of the meat in an acid solution containing salt to reduce the pH of the meat particles. The use of expensive fat-coated acids is unnecessary to obtain an acidified meat product.
Claims20
A process for preparing acidified ground meat particles comprising:
- (a) treating ground meat to extract binding protein from the meat;
- (b) forming the treated meat into particulate form and cooking the formed meat particles in a solution containing salt sufficient to prevent loss of salt from the meat during cooking for a period of time and at a temperature sufficient to denature at least a portion of the protein and set the shape of the meat particles;
- (c) contacting the product of step (b) with a food grade acid solution containing sufficient salt to prevent gelatinization of the meat for a period of time sufficient to decrease the internal pH of the meat to a pH of 4.6 or below.
A process for preparing acidified ground meat particles comprising:
- (a) treating ground meat with salt to extract salt-extractable protein from the meat;
- (b) forming the treated meat of step (a) into particulate form;
- (c) cooking the particulate meat of step (b) in a salt solution for a period of time and at a temperature sufficient to denature a major proportion of the meat protein and set the shape of the meat particles;
- (d) contacting the meat particles of step (c) with an aqueous solution of a food grade acid and salt for a period of time and at a temperature sufficient to reduce the pH at least one pH unit below the natural pH of the meat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.