Losses in Mass and Sensory Properties of Thermally Treated Lamb Meat

In this research, three groups of 12 lambs (6 male and 6 female) of the Pirot improved race were examined. The first group of lambs was fattened for 60 days, the second 120 and the third 180 days. Nutrition of the lamb to rejection (40 days) is the mother's milk. After 40 days, it switched to pelleted concentrate (with 18% protein) and a quality hay, which was ad libidum as the concentrate. At the end of the fattening, the lamb is slaughtered by the usual technique. The objectives of this study were 1) to determine the effect of fattening and a gender on sensory properties of baking lamb meat, and 2) to determine the effect of heat processing on sensory attributes and cooking and breaking loss. Losses on the weight of the cooking and baking, between the first and third, as well as between the second and third groups show a significant difference (P<0,01) both in male and female lambs. There are no significant differences for male and female lambs in all three groups in terms of loss mass of meat (%) during the heat treatment. During the cooking, ie, the roasting of the meat, minimal, insignificant, differences in the loss of mass among the male and female lambs were observed. It can be concluded that the gender of lambs has no significant effect on the loss in meat mass during heat treatment. The smell, taste, and softness in all three groups are not significant in male and female lambs. Mean juicy values are significant (P<0.01) higher for the second in relation to the first group in both genders lambs. The sensory characteristics of roasted meat of female lambs in the three groups were assessed with higher grades compared to male lamb meat. Statistically significant differences between the genders in terms of meat taste were determined in the second (P<0.05) and the third (P<0.01) group of lambs. It can be concluded that thermally treated meat of female lambs has better sensory qualities than the male lamb's meat.