Elucidating the effect of various roasting methods on the water-holding capacity and volatile flavor profiles of ultrasound-assisted pickled roast duck meat

The present study investigated the impact of various roasting methods (OV: Oven, AF: Air Fryer, CO: Combined steaming and roasting oven) on the color, water-holding capacity (WHC), texture characteristics, moisture distribution and volatile flavor profile of ultrasound-assisted pickled roast duck. In comparison to the OV and AF roasting methods, the CO roasting method resulted in roasted duck with excellent color, higher WHC, and improved tenderness, as evidenced by the significant increase in myofibrillar fragmentation index value (P < 0.05), the transformation of β-sheet structure into random coil and the reduction in moisture migration. Several characteristic flavor compounds such as benzaldehyde, pentanal, and hexanal were enriched in the CO treatment. The composition of fatty acids corroborated this result. On the other hand, compared to static pickling, duck meat subjected to ultrasound-assisted pickling showed greater improvements in texture and WHC while significantly increasing fatty acid content, playing a crucial role in the formation of roast duck flavor. In addition, ultrasound-assisted pickling increased malondialdehyde formation but did not cause intense lipid oxidation. In conclusion, ultrasound-assisted pickling and the CO roasting method effectively improved the color, WHC and promoted the release of volatile flavor compounds in roasted duck. This finding offered new avenues and theoretical references for the development of the roasted duck industry.