The key aroma compounds in the pre- and postrigor roasted mutton were studied in this study. The results showed that 33 and 30 odorants were detected in the pre- and postrigor roasted mutton, respectively. Eight aroma compounds, including 3-methylbutanal, pentanal, hexanal, heptanal, octanal, nonanal, 1-octen-3-ol, and 2-pentylfuran, were confirmed as key odorants by aroma recombination and omission experiments. The aroma profiles of pre- and postrigor roasted mutton both presented great fatty, roasty, meaty, grassy, and sweet odors. Particularly, the concentrations of hexanal, heptanal, octanal, nonanal, 1-octen-3-ol, and 2-pentylfuran in postrigor roasted mutton were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those in the prerigor roasted mutton. The postrigor back strap was more suitable for roasting than the prerigor back strap. The pre- and postrigor roasted mutton could be obviously discriminated based on the aroma compounds by orthogonal partial least squares discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA) and principal component analysis (PCA). Hexanal and 1-octen-3-ol might potential markers for the discrimination of the pre- and postrigor roasted mutton.

Reducing or replacing sodium nitrite without compromising the sensory attributes of meat products has always been a focus of the meat industry. In this study, five treatments, CT (without nitrite and plasma treatment), NT (with nitrite treatment), PT15, PT30, and PT45 (without nitrite and with plasma treatment for 15, 30, and 45 min, respectively), were designed to investigate the effect of atmospheric nonthermal plasma treatment replacing nitrite on the sensory attributes of roasted lamb. Results showed that PT45 decreased the residual nitrite of roasted lamb by 30% compared with NT, and nitrite was not detected in the PT15 and PT30 samples. The inhibition effect of plasma treatment on the lipid oxidation reached values from 86.69% to 89.89% compared with NT. Compared with CT, the redness of plasma-treated samples was increased by 9.30% to 31.40%, and the redness of NT samples was increased by 30.87%. In addition, the volatile compounds (OAVs > 1) of the PT30 sample were higher than those of the NT sample. The overall sensory score of the PT30 sample was higher than that of the CT sample and was similar to that of the NT samples. In conclusion, the sensory attributes of roasted lamb were enhanced by plasma treatment, and the 30 min plasma treatment is recommended.

This study investigated the influence of four different methods of cooking (charcoal grilling, electric barbecue grilling, superheated-steam roasting and infrared grilling) on the volatile profile of lamb meat patties. The study included the patties of the oyster cut muscle of lambs cooked using charcoal grilling, electric barbecue grilling, infrared grilling and superheated-steam roasting methods. The principal component analysis (PCA) of electric nose data showed a total variance of 73.71%. The e-nose values showed differentiation of the volatiles released from the lamb meat patties. Data of PCA of e-nose and GC-MS revealed good separation between groups. Significance (p < 0.05) was found for the flavour profile values of charcoal-grilled and superheated-steam-roasted samples while the lowest significance was observed between infrared- and electric-barbecue-grilled samples. Saltiness and sourness were higher in superheated-steam-roasted patties than charcoal-grilled samples through e-tongue. The main volatile compound found in all the lamb patties was 2,3-octanedione with a content of 20.43 µg/g–27.83 µg/g. 1-hexanol was highest at 34.74 µg/g in the charcoal-grilled samples while 2,3-octanedione was highest at 35.83 µg/g in superheated-steam-roasted patties.