Effects of NaCl on Edible Quality of Salted Rabbit Meat

In this paper, the rabbit meat was salted for 48 h with 0%, 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% and 15% of NaCl, respectively. Then the effects of NaCl added in different amounts on the processing quality and lipid oxidation of rabbit meat were investigated. Results showed that, with the increase of NaCl addition, pH value, cooking loss rate, brightness value (L^*), redness value (a^*) and yellowness value (b^*) of salted rabbit meat decreased. On the contrary, the hardness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness and chewiness of salted rabbit meat increased in turn. The elasticity of salted rabbit meat increased firstly and then decreased, and reached the maximum at 3% of NaCl addition. Meanwhile, the addition of NaCl also had an impact on lipid oxidation in salted rabbit meat. Both peroxide value (POV) and thiobarbituric acid reactant value (TBARS) in salted rabbit meat showed an upward trend with the increase of NaCl addition, and had a maximum value at 9%, then decreased slightly with the increase of NaCl addition. After curing, the nutritional value of fatty acids decreased, and the content of saturated fatty acids (SFA) increased on the whole. The content of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) decreased, while the content of monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) changed little, and the ratio of n-6/n-3 and PUFA/SFA decreased. In general, proper addition of NaCl (0%~6%) can improve the texture characteristics of rabbit meat, enhance the water retention ability, but accelerate lipid oxidation.