QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF SMOKED SAUSAGE MANUF ACTURED FROM COMMON CARP FISH IN RELATION TO DIFFERENT LIQUID SMOKING METHODS AND COOKING

To overcome the low popularity of common carp fish (Cyprinus carpio), mainly the undesirable flavour and the presence of much spines in flesh, processing of smoked comminuted flesh products as the fish sausage seems to be the solution for such a problem. Smoking of carp sausage was carried out by 4 methods which were 1) "Ti" spraying or liquid smoke aerosol method, 2) "T2" dipping or soaking for 20 seconds in a 25% liquid smoke solution,3) "T3" direct mix where liquid smoke was directly blended with the sausage ingraedients, and 4 "T4" where spices, salt, starch and fat received separately a repeated spray treatment with liquid smoke before sausage processing. Cooking of sausage was carried out in water at 85oC for 15 minutes. Analysis revealed very slight differences between treatments with respect to the moisture content, provided that sausage of T3 tended to have slightly higher water content regardless of cooking; the latter caused some decrease in the moisture content. Before as well as after cooking, T2 sausages had lower pH value (4.82-4.90) compared to the other treatments; T1, T3, and T4 (5.81-5.99), while the control sample had higher pH value (6.06 - 6.07); cooking increased the pH value except the T2. Phenols followed the same trend of organic acids in tissues (as indicated by the lower pH value); being higher for T2, followed by Ti, T4, T3, and control either before or after cooking; the later caused marked loss of phenols with cooking water. Smoking treatments and cooking did not affect the total volatile nitrogen (T.V.N) or thiobarbituric acid (T.B.A) values of the fish sausage. Cooking yield and loss varied within 1% for the different treatments. Water holding capacity (WHC) and plasticity were evidently high for T2, sausage which also had the lowest total bacterial count lipoitic and proteolytic bacteria either before or after cooking, smoking as well as cooking were efficient in reducing the bacterial loads. Best eating qualities as indicated by the panel test were found for T2, which is suggested for commercial production.