Pressure-assisted gelation of chemically modified poultry meat batters

Changes were induced in the characteristics of poultry meat protein using specific chemical modifiers to investigate the effect of pressurization, prior to heating, on gelation, texture and thermal behaviour of meat batters. Values of hardness and chewiness were higher in cooked meat batters treated with urea than in a salt-only sample, but cohesiveness was similar. The β-mercaptoethanol treatment produced a heat-induced gel with very similar properties to the salt-only gel. The rheological behaviours of salt-only and β-mercaptoethanol samples were very similar, but storage modulus values were higher in samples with urea, which accelerated gelation. The pressure-induced reduction of differences in the textural properties of meat batters suggests that hydrophobic interactions play an important role in heat-induced gelation. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that urea clearly destabilized chicken meat batters, while β-mercaptoethanol had very little influence on their thermal behaviour. Pressurization tended to equalize batters and final cooking definitively equalized them.