Consumer evaluation of cold smoked fat in beef sausages

The two primary methods of infusing smoke flavor into meat products is through natural smoke and liquid smoke with each type comprising of different smoke compounds resulting in differences in organoleptic properties. The different specific smoke compounds absorb differently in water and fat. Limited research has been conducted on smoking fat, and how it alters the organoleptic properties of fat. The objective of this research was to determine if cold smoking fat prior to addition into sausages would generate a smoky flavor that the consumers would accept. The consumers rated cold smoke fat samples the lowest (P < 0.05) for like of flavor and overall like with no difference (P > 0.05) between the natural smoke and liquid smoke samples. Like of flavor was correlated (P < 0.05) to overall like (r = 0.87), like of texture (r = 0.63), and like of juiciness (r = 0.53). There were a greater (P < 0.05) percentage of consumers who liked the flavor of the natural smoke (80.8%) and liquid smoke (68.5%) sausages compared to cold smoke fat sausages (49.3%). Consumers who ranked the natural smoke or cold smoke fat treatment the highest for like of flavor did not like the flavor of the other treatments. Whereas, consumers who ranked the liquid smoke treatment the highest for like of flavor where neutral for the flavor of natural smoke treatment, and did not like the flavor of the cold smoke fat treatment