Effects of microwave cooking and refrigerated storage of main broiler parts on lipid oxidation in chicken muscle and skin

From a total of 78 chickens, 24 carcasses were used to estimate the percentage for the individual cuts and their composition. Fifty-four carcasses were cut vertically into halves of which two-thirds were quartered, yielding front and hind quarters (Cuts 2 and 3). Half of these quarters were cut into individual pieces, yielding breasts and thighs with back ribs, drumsticks, and wings. The muscles and skin of one-third from each of the seven different cuts described above were analyzed raw for lipid oxidation products; while the remaining two-thirds were microwaved. Half of the microwaved cuts were analyzed 2 hours after cooking; the other half, after 4 days of storage at 4 C. The results indicated that the absolute amount of lipid oxidation products in chicken muscles and skin after microwave cooking and refrigerated storage was affected by the initial level of those products in the raw samples and by the particular cut of meat Cooking the different cuts of chicken carcasses by microwave significantly increased the amount of malonaldehyde (MA) and lipid-oxidation fluorescent products (LOFP) in the aqueous phase of Folch-extracted muscles and skin and in the organic phase of Folch-extracted skin lipids. Microwave cooking for the separate broiler parts (especially the drumsticks and wings, as compared to halves or quarters) produced the lowest amount of lipid oxidation products due to the shorter cooking time. Refrigerated storage of broiler parts cooked by microwave produced substantial amounts of MA and LOFP in the aqueous phase of the Folch extracted skin and in the organic phase of the Folch-extracted lipids from the muscles. (author)