Comparison of Marinating Methods of Hunan Flavor Marinated Beef by Mass Transfer Kinetics

In order to improve the efficiency, quality, and utilization rate of raw ingredients for Hunan flavor marinated beef, bovine leg meat was used as raw material and traditional marinated (atmospheric pressure, 95 ℃) was used as control, The NaCl mass transfer coefficients, sensory quality, texture characteristics and microstructure of beef under different vacuum marinated, micropressure marinated, pulse marinated conditions were studied to optimize the best marinated process. The results showed that the optimal marinated process was pulse marinated process: −50 kPa, 80 ℃ combined with +50 kPa, 95 ℃, pulse frequency 4 times, and marinated duration 2.7 h, Under these conditions, the sensory score (89.6) and NaCl mass transfer coefficients value (2.71×10⁻⁶ m²/s) of beef were obtained. They were superior to the optimal conditions of vacuum marinated (-50 kPa, 80 ℃), the optimal conditions of micropressure marinated (+50 kPa, 95 ℃), sensory scores of traditional marinated (85.2, 86.1, 83.6), and the NaCl mass transfer coefficients (1.91×10⁻⁶、1.92×10⁻⁶、1.64×10⁻⁶ m²/s). The texture characteristics of pulse marinated beef were significantly improved (P<0.05), and the rate of mass change was significantly lower than that of micropressure and traditional marinated beef (P<0.05). Scanning electron microscope showed that pulse marinated had the least effect on beef microstructure, which was beneficial to reduce nutrient loss, improve NaCl mass transfer coefficients. Pulse marinated can effectively improved the efficiency of Hunan flavor marinated beef, shorten the marinated time, reduce the loss of raw ingredients, and improved the product yield.