抄録
Any of known methods of measuring the moisture retention of meat can hardly be taken as cenvenient because of too long a time required in their practice. One of the authors working out recently a new procedure that allows to rapidly evaluate the moisture affinity of raw flesh, they set forth in this paper the significance of the newly designed index “the factor of water intake” which is reflected in numerical values of Kamaboko jelly-strength.
An Mg portion taken from the meat or fish to be examined is homogenized in a blender for 3 minutes with Wg of water or salt solution, W being an appropriately chosen multiple of M. Then, a 100g portion of the homogenate is centrifuged in duplicate for 15 minutes at 3400-3700 r. p. m. If Cg is the mean weight of the supernatant separated thus from the homogenate, the factor of water intake (Q%) for the meat or fish is evaluated by means of the formula
Q=W/M(100-C)-C.
Now, Q proved to be dependent on experimental conditions such as the value of W/M and the time of homogenizing as well as centrifuging. Under a strictly defined condition, however, the fluctuation in Q was possible to be restricted within a limit under 1.7%.
On the basis of the present result and the implications of published works on Kamaboko, it is emphasized that jelly-strength of Kamaboko may rightly be predicted from the factor of water intake evaluated for raw fish.
