Fatty acid and triglyceride profiles of intramuscular and subcutaneous fat from fresh and dry-cured hams from Hairless Mexican Pigs

The study was designed to compare the fatty acid profiles and triglyceride composition of subcutaneous and intramuscular fat of raw and cured hams from Hairless Mexican Pigs. Curing (180 days) was developed throughout several ordered steps: salting, stabilization, drying and ripening. For the salting step, hams were rubbed with nitrate salt, and kept on salt 1 day per kilogram at 0–4 °C and at relative humidity of 80–85%. The rest of the process consisted of small increments of temperature (from 0–24 °C) and small decrements of relative humidity (from 82–68%). The curing process decreased (P<0.05) significantly the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids (raw: 59.2±0.3% and cured: 55.3±0.4%) and increased the saturated ones (raw: 34.4±0.3% and cured: 39.4±0.5%). Subcutaneous and intramuscular fat had similar (P>0.05) percentages of unsaturated (57.60±0.3 and 56.88±0.4%, respectively) and saturated fatty acids (37.5±0.33 and 38.3±0.4%, respectively). With the exception of the monopalmitate, the curing process decreased (P<0.05) the levels of all acylglycerols studied.