Effect of different cooking methods on the smart sensory and protein digestive properties of Mianning hams

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of four different cooking methods, namely, steaming, boiling, microwaving and stir-frying, on the smart sensory and protein digestive properties of Mianning ham. The results of the electronic tongue and electronic nose showed that the flavor of steamed and boiled Mianning ham was better than those of microwaved and stir-fried hams. The analysis of amino acids revealed that glutamic acid was the main flavor presenting amino acid. The highest total amino acid content was found in the microwaved Mianning ham (17.80%) and the lowest in the steamed one (9.74%). <i>In vitro</i> digestion showed that the digestibility of the untreated ham was significantly lower than that of the treated ham. The particle size of the digested samples was significantly lower than that of the hams that had not been digested <i>in vitro</i>. The cooked ham without <i>in vitro</i> digestion had the largest particle size (4 591.33 nm) and the microwaved ham with <i>in vitro</i> digestion had the smallest particle size (146.10 nm). The results of sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that the protein of the digested Mianning ham degraded more thoroughly than that of undigested hams.