Sex and crossbreed effects on the characteristics of dry-cured ham

The right ham of 76 gilts and 82 barrows from five different crossbreeds, which included Duroc (DU), Landrace (LR), Large White (LW) and Belgian Landrace (BL) lines — DUx(LRxLW), LWx(DUxLW), LWx(LRxLW), BLx(DUxLW) and BLx(LRxLW) — were processed to produce dry cured hams. The external appearance of the hams, and the colour and thickness of the subcutaneous fat were determined. Chemical analyses, appearance, texture, flavour and odour were evaluated on biceps femoris (BF) muscle. The hams from the barrows showed a thicker and whiter layer of subcutaneous fat, higher marbling and lower processing loss than those from gilts. Hams from DU-sired pigs presented the highest marbling, but the worst texture characteristics. The texture characteristics of the hams from the LBx(LRxLW) cross were similar to those of the hams from DU-sired pigs. The hams from the LW-sired crosses showed the highest intensity of holes surrounding the coxo-femoral joint. The LBx(DUxLW) could be the most suitable among the five crosses studied for dry-cured ham production under the processing conditions used in this study.

...Many studies have shown differences on dry-cured ham characteristics among traditional breeds (Bittante et al., 1991; Cˇ andek-Potokar et al., 2002; Gallo et al., 1994; Gou et al., 1995; Sabbioni et al., 2002) whereas there are few studies where comparison between autochthonous breeds and their crossbreeds with improved genotypes are studied (Antequera Rojas et al., 1993; Antequera et al., 1994; Franci et al., 1997)...
...Lower weight losses in hams of crossed animals respect to pure breed were found by Guerrero et al. (1996), whereas Gou et al. (1995) and Oliver et al. (1994) reported no difference in ham processing losses between various genotypes but nobody of them used pigs from unimproved breeds...
...The weight loss at the end of the seasoning period of the present trial was lower than those related by some authors (Gou et al., 1995; Cˇ andek-Potokar et al., 2002) but higher than those reported for Parma hams by Sabbioni et al. (2004)...

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R. Bozzi, et al. Characteristics of "Toscano" cured ham of Cinta Senese and Large White...

Citations (22)

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