Determining the Optimal Cooking Time for Cooking Loss, Shear Force, and Off-Odor Reduction of Pork Large Intestines

The objective of this study was to determine the optimal cooking time by considering the cooking loss, shear force, and off-odor reduction of pork large intestines. Commercial pork large intestines were purchased, quartered perpendicularly, and cooked in boiling water for 40, 120, 180, and 240 min. Cooking loss of the samples increased after 240 min of cooking (10.92, p<0.05) while shear force value was lower at 240 min (4.45) compared to that at other cooking times (p<0.001). The amount of major volatile organic compounds showed a decreasing trend with increasing cooking time. In particular, the amount of methyl pentanoate (17,528.71) and methyl isobutyrate (812.51), compounds with a relatively low odor threshold, decreased significantly after 120 min of cooking and no change was observed thereafter (p<0.05). In addition, the amount of 2-pentanol (3,785.65) and 1-propanol (622.26), possibly produced by lipid oxidation, significantly decreased at the same cooking time (p<0.001). In the principal component analysis, only the 40 min cooking time was significantly different from other cooking time by high amounts of 1-propanol, 2-pentanol, and methyl isobutyrate. In conclusion, in the present study, the optimal cooking time for pork large intestines was 120 min in terms of off-odor reduction, cooking loss, and shear force.