Flavor compounds and sensory profiles of a novel Chinese marinated chicken.

BACKGROUND: Marinating is a Chinese traditional meat-processing method using aged brine that brings popular flavor together with food safety issues. In this study a novel method named quantitative marinating (QM) was developed to improve Chinese traditional marinating (TM). Flavor compounds and sensory profiles of two marinated products were determined to verify if the improved marinating method could maintain the characteristic flavors of TM. RESULTS: Fifty-four, 60, 60, 60 and 44 volatile flavor compounds were identified from four processing stages of QM and TM respectively. Contents of taste compounds first increased and then decreased in the processing stages of QM. The total free amino acid contents of QM and TM products were 789 and 536 mg per 100 g respectively. The total nucleotide content of QM product (22.21 mg per 100 g) was higher than that of TM (20.75 mg per 100 g), while the fatty acid content of QM product (26.66 mg g(-1)) was lower than that of TM (44.43 mg g(-1)). Finally, QM received higher sensory scores than TM. CONCLUSION: Volatile flavor compounds, taste compounds and sensory properties of QM were richer than those of TM, indicating that QM can not only maintain the original aroma of TM but also have advantages in taste compounds.