Modern process and equipment for fermenting-ripening of Jinhua ham

Modern process for fermenting-ripening of Jinhua ham was studied by tracing traditional process of Jinhua ham, and the equipment was developed. The orthogonal experiment was carried out according to the principle of "strengthening high temperature for ripening and shortening the processing time", keeping traditional processing feature of "low temperature dehydration, mid-temperature fermenting and high temperature ripening", and modern processing parameters were optimized. Results show that the time of modern processing(45～80 d) is shortened 55.5%～70% of traditional processing time. Dehydrate ratio of the ham is strongly correlative with processing time, temperature and humidity. The dehydrate ratio of Jinhua ham fermented with modern proccessing for 80 d(43%±1.16%) has exceeded the traditional level, the flavor of Jinhua ham fermented with modern processing for 80 d has attained or exceeded the level of the first grade traditional Jinhua ham, and its meat surface has no mildew spots. Processing parameters such as temperature, humidity and fresh air input can be automatically controled by using the modern equipments developed in this research. The optimum processing conditions obtained through the regression analysis based on dehydrate ratio of ham, had well consistency with the results of sensory evaluation test.