Sensory and chromatographic evaluations of water soluble fractions from air-dried sausages

Low molecular weight water soluble compounds were extracted from Danish salami, Italian sausage, and Spanish Chorizo. The extracts were fractionated by gel filtration chromatography revealing peptides with a molecular weight less than 4200 Dalton. Fractions consisting of smaller peptides and free amino acids had enhanced savory taste impressions described as mainly bouillon, bitter, sour, salty and plastic with odor notes of boiled potato. Determination of amino acids in the fractions before and after hydrolysis revealed the presence of mainly hydrophilic peptides in all fractions. Partial least squares regression of the amino acid data and the sensory results indicated that bouillon taste was related to a mixture of different amino acids and peptides, that potato odor in particular correlated with high content of tyrosine, free and as the peptide residue, that bitterness was related to the level of certain hydrophobic amino acids, and that sourness was related to glutamic acid.