Meat Rolling and kneading technology

Rolling and kneading is a technological operation to destroy the tissue structure of muscle fibers by means of mechanical force.  The tumbling process can accelerate the seepage velocity of the liquid medium in the meat pieces and promote the dissolution of salt soluble protein, thus shortening the pickling time, improving the meat product quality and yield, enhancing the binding property between the meat pieces, enabling the product to have better slicing property and obviously improving the product quality.  Rolling and kneading is commonly used in combination with saltwater injection pickling technology to speed up pickling, and is widely used in western ham production.  At present, some large domestic meat products enterprises also have applications.  In the tumbling process, when meat pieces are beaten and become soft, air will also be mixed in, and certain heat will be generated to raise the meat temperature and accelerate the oxidation process, thus adversely affecting the flavor and texture of meat products.  Therefore, vacuum tumblers are usually used to avoid air mixing and are preferably operated at lower temperatures.  In order to enhance the penetration promoting effect of tumbling, in recent years, China has carried out pressurized tumbling with aeration (such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, etc.) and variable pressure tumbling with alternating pressurization and vacuum.  Pressurized tumbling can effectively improve the seepage velocity of the pickling agent and greatly shorten the pickling time through the pressure effect and the driving effect of gas permeation.  This technology needs to be further improved and popularized.