Studies on meat flavor. 3. A novel method for trapping volatile components from uncured and cured pork

Volatile components from uncured and cured pork were trapped onto a solid adsorbent (Florisil cartridge) and in an organic solvent (pentane) using the novel nitrogen purge-and-trap (NPT) technique. A total of 32 compounds not previously reported in the meat-flavor literature were identified. It was also evident that the meat-flavor concentrates prepared by the NPT method showed the presence of heterocyclic and phenolic constituents not detected in the aroma concentrates previously prepared by us using continuous steam distillation-extraction. Of the 26 compounds that were found only in the uncured-pork aroma concentrates, 2-methylhexanal, tetrahydro-cis-2,4-dimethylfuran, 3-propyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole, 4-methyl-1-decene, nonylcyclopropane, 5-propyldecane, 1,3-dimethoxybenzene, (1,1-dimethylethyl)-4-methoxyphenol, 3-amino-5,6-dimethyltriazolo[4,3-a]pyrazine, 2-butylphenol, and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate were newly identified. In the present investigation only the two newly identified components 2-methylcyclopentanol and 2-butyl-2-octenal were identified uniquely in the aroma concentrates of cured pork.