Development of a sensory lexicon for smoky and applications of that lexicon

Abstract

Smoking of food is one of the oldest methods of food preservation and still is used widely to help preserve foods such as meats, fish and cheeses. Apart from its conservation function, the smoking process also has a considerable influence on the sensory characteristics of the products. A highly trained, skilled descriptive sensory panel identified, defined and referenced 14 attributes related to the flavor of food products labeled as smoked or smoky. The lexicon included: Smoky (Overall), Ashy, Woody, Musty/Dusty, Musty/Earthy, Burnt, Acrid, Pungent, Petroleum-Like, Creosote/Tar, Cedar, Bitter, Metallic and Sour. Definitions of these attributes were written and references were found that anchor a 0-15 point scale. This lexicon was used to evaluate the differences among smoked products under different circumstances such as products on the market versus products smoked at home, different woods used to smoke products and the length of time a product spends in the smoker. There are many methods used to impart this smoky flavor and due to health, environmental and economic concerns, many producers use nontraditional methods while hobbyists thrive on the traditional methods. Descriptive analysis was used to see if there are differences between products smoked using an at-home smoker and market products. Using principal component analysis, cluster analysis and analysis of variance, it was found that market products were significantly different than products smoked using an at home smoker. The market products were significantly more Sour and less Smoky, Ashy, Woody, Musty/Dusty and Acrid. Many types of woods are used to smoke products and many market products distinguish themselves based on the wood used. Six highly trained panelists evaluated pork that was smoked with either hickory, mesquite, cherrywood or Applewood and was smoked for 1, 2 or 4 hours. The flavor profiles of the smoke flavor was similar between the types of woods although as the length of time in the smoker increased and the intensities of most attributes rose, the differences among products smoked with different woods became more pronounced. Apple wood smoked products had higher intensities for Overall Smoky, Ashy, Burnt, Pungent, Petroleum-Like, Creosote/Tar and Cedar, while cherry wood smoked products had lower intensities for all attributes. Hickory and Mesquite smoked products were not significantly different from each other and typically scored between the other two woods. Smoking is a slow process and many popular restaurants that smoke their own products find that their claims of smoking for long periods of time are beneficial to their image. Descriptive analysis was used to see how the flavor changes based on the length of time the product (pork) was in the smoker. The samples of pork ranged from not smoked to smoked for 15 hours, with samples at every 2.5 hour increment. For most attributes, the intensities went up with the amount of time the product was in the smoker. The only exceptions were Musty/Earthy and Sour. The regression analysis revealed that Smoky, Ashy, Acrid, Creosote/Tar and Bitter are all at least moderately correlated with the time the product spent in the smoker.