Physico-chemical, textural and structural characteristics of sous-vide cooked pork cheeks as affected by vacuum, cooking temperature, and cooking time.

This paper describes the influence of different factors on sous-vide cooked pork. Pork cheeks were cooked at different combinations of temperature (60°C or 80°C), time (5 or 12h) and vacuum (vacuum or air packaged). Weight losses were lower and moisture content higher in samples cooked for a shorter time (P=0.054) and at a lower temperature (P<0.001). Samples cooked at 60°C showed more lightness (L*) and redness (a*) (P<0.001). Lipid oxidation showed an interaction between cooking time and temperature (P=0.007), with higher TBARs values for samples cooked for 12h at 60°C and lower for those cooked for 12h at 80°C. Samples cooked at 80°C for 12h showed lower (P<0.05) values for most textural parameters than all the other types of samples. Vacuum packaging showed no influence on any of the studied variables. For the treatments evaluated, cooking temperature×time combination seems to be more important than vacuum packaging in the textural and colour parameters of pork cheeks.