Physicochemical properties of foal meat as affected by cooking methods.

The present study deals with the effect of four different cooking techniques (roasting, grilling, microwave baking and frying with olive oil) on physicochemical parameters (cooking loss, WHC, texture and colour) and lipid oxidation (by TBARS measurement) of foal meat. Thermal treatments induced water loss (P<0.001), being lower in foal steaks cooked in the grill (25.8%) and higher in foal samples cooked in the microwave (39.5%). As it was expected, all the cooking methods increased TBARS index, since high temperature during cooking seems to cause an increase of the lipid oxidation in foal steaks. Statistical analysis displayed that WHC was affected (P<0.001) by thermal treatment, since the smallest WHC values were observed in samples from microwave treatment. Thermal treatment also caused a significant (P<0.001) increase in the force needed to cut the foal steaks. Regarding colour parameter, cooking led to an increase of L*-value (lightness) and b*-value (yellowness), while a*-value (redness) markedly decreased in all samples.