Meat flavor components, isolation

Isolation and Characterization of Volatile Sulfur-Containing Meat Flavor Components in Model Systems... 

Werkhoff P., Bruning J., Emberger R., Guntert M. et ah (1990) Isolation and characterisation of volatile sulfur-containing meat flavor components in model systems. J. Agric Food Chem. 38, 777 91. 

Amino acid specific Maillard products were isolated from the extracts by preparative GC or HPLC and identified by MS-, IR-, 1 H- and c-NMR-spectroscopy. Proline derived components are important constituents in bread, malt and beer. More than 120 proline specific Maillard products were characterized. Cysteine and methionine derived components were predominant in roasted coffee and meat flavors. Thirty cysteine- and twenty methionine-specific Maillard products were identified for the first time. 

The red swamp crayfish is the major ccnmercial species. While the tail meat has been the major edible portion of crayfish, its hepatopancreas, also known as crawfish "fat" in Louisiana, is traditionally considered a rich source of natural crayfish flavors. Kinlin et al. (2) used steam distillation as a method of isolation and analyzed the volatile components of hepatopancreas from a boiled crayfish sample after the sample had been stored frozen for 3-4 months. Information on the flavor components in freshly boiled crayfish is needed for crayfish product quality improvement. 

There are tvo approaches to meat flavor analysis one is concerned vith the isolation and identification of volatile flavor components, and the other involves identification of non volatile flavor precursors. 

Reaction of an aqueous solution of cystine with thiamin, glutamate, and ascorbic acid produces a complex mixture of compounds with an overall flavor resembling that of roasted meat. The reaction was carried out at 120 C for 0.5h at pH 5.0 in a closed system. The aroma compounds were isolated by means of the simultaneous steam distillation/solvent extraction method. The flavor concentrate was pre-separated by liquid chromatography on silica gel and subsequently analysed by GC and GC/MS. Unknown flavor components were... 

By way of contrast, a total of 70 sulfur-containing compounds were identified in the volatile components isolated from our model meat flavor system. A rough survey of the chemical classes represented in the processed meat aroma is shown in Table I. 

The aroma substances that comprise flavors are found in nature as complex mixtures of volatile compounds. A vast majority of volatile chemicals that have been isolated from natural flavor extracts do not provide aroma contributions that are reminiscent of the flavor substance. For instance, n-hexanal is a component of natural apple flavor (1) however, when smelled in isolation, its odor is reminiscent of green, painty, rancid oil. Similarly, ethyl butyrate has a nondescript fruity aroma although it is found in strawberries, raspberries, and pears, it does not uniquely describe the aroma quality of any of these individual fruits. It has long been the goal of flavor chemists to elucidate the identity of pure aroma chemicals that have the distinct character impact of the natural fruit, vegetable, meat, cheese, or spice that they were derived from. Often, these are referred to as character impact compounds (2). 

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