Abstract:

Effects of heating conditions, including setting temperature, setting time and heating method on the gel properties were investigated by texture analysis and determinations of whiteness, water-holding capacity, microstructure, TCA-soluble peptides content, protein solubility. Results showed that heating temperature, time and method all had a significant effect on the gel properties of horse mackerel surimi. The optimum condition for processing horse-mackerel surimi was a two-step heating method with setting at 30 ℃ for 5 h (or at 40 ℃ for 4 h) and then heating at 90 ℃ for 20 min, which resulted in the formation of high compacted and uniformed three dimensional network structure observed under scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Horsen mackerel surimi gel showed a structure with aggregates of sparse packed spherical proteins, arranged in clusters when setting at 50－70 ℃, which indicated the modori phenomena occurred.

Key words: horse-mackerel surimi, heating condition, suwari, modori, gel properties