A procedure to determine the water-binding capacity of meat trimmings for cooked sausage formulation

An attempt was made to determine the water-binding capacity of each individual trimming in a multicomponent system. Three types of experimental cooked sausages (finely chopped luncheon sausage, coarsely chopped sausage and ring sausage with potato starch) were made of five different meat trimmings: two pork trimmings and two beef trimmings, and one beef trimming used as a replacer. The water-binding was determined by the Tuominen-Honkavaara method by stepwise addition of water (basic formulation and four water additions) to the formulations and determining the firmness by a consistometer. The water-binding of each trimming was obtained by replacing the trimming by an additonal trimming. A total of 3 sausage types×5 meat trimmings×5 water levels giving 75 experimental batches of 5 kg each were made. The average water-binding values of the same meat trimming combination in each sausage type were practically the same, and therefore the total averages for the same meat trimming combinations of each of the three sausage types were used for the subsequent calculations. The determination of the water-binding values of the meat trimmings were solved by forming five equations with four unknowns each, and then solving the unknowns using Microsoft Excel's 'Solver' function. By this procedure it was possible to determine the water-binding of individual meat trimmings in sausage systems. This procedure can be used for the determination of the technological properties of meats for linear programming.