Exploration on the stability changes and flavor profiles of duck soup during cooking

Duck soup is an important dish with unique flavor and rich nutrition, commonly prepared by households and restaurants. However, its preparation mainly relies on empirical understandings of cooks rather than scientific guidance, leading to unstable taste and variable quality. Therefore, in this work, changes in emulsion stability, taste and flavor profiles of duck soup were explored during cooking. Results revealed duck soup cooked for 2.5 h exhibited highest stability index. The rise of soluble protein and zeta-potential, as well as reduction in particle size, all contributed to the improvement of stability index. Optical microscope observation showed micro-nanoparticles in soup were uniformly distributed at 2.5th h. Bionic system analysis revealed soup samples differed significantly in umami, saltiness and richness. Taste amino acids exhibited notable increase and 5ʹ-adenosine monophosphate (5ʹ-AMP) + 5ʹ-inosine monophosphate (5ʹ-IMP) reached the highest level at 2.5 h, indicating more pronounced umami taste in duck soup at this time. Using multivariate statistical analysis, (E)-2-nonenal, 3-octen-2-one, 1-octen-3-ol, and 2-pentylfuran were screened as pronounced difference markers in the sample cooked for 2.5 h. An appropriate equilibrium between stability, taste and flavor profiles of duck soup achieved after 2.5 h of cooking. The research provides guidance for industrial processing of high-quality duck soup.