Abstract: Tibet Zhongsa yak meat was used to explore the effects of different heat treatments including microwave heating, stew cooking at high pressure and cooking at room temperature on flavor and texture characteristics of yak meat. The results indicated that the types of volatile flavor components in cooked yak meat included aliphatic hydrocarbons, alicyclic hydrocarbons, aliphatic aldehydes, aliphatic ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic alcohols. The major volatile flavor components were aldehydes. Totally 137 volatile compounds were identified in microwave cooked yak meat, which was much more than those in stew cooked yak meat at high pressure (133) and cooked yak meat at room temperature (128). Ten aldehydes were found in microwave cooked yak meat, 5 in stew cooked yak meat at high pressure and 4 in cooked yak meat at room temperature. In addition, microwave heating could result in low hardness and high springiness of stew cooked yak meat. The quality of microwave cooked yak meat was the best as evaluated from the viewpoint of flavor, texture and sensory characteristics.

Key words: Zhongsa yak, flavor, microwave heating, texture characteristics