Evaluation of the key aroma compounds in beef and pork vegetable gravies a la chef by stable isotope dilution assays and aroma recombination experiments.

Although the aroma compounds of meat processed as such have been studied previously, data on complete homemade dishes containing beef and pork meat were scarcely studied. Recently, 38 odor-active compounds were characterized in beef and pork vegetable gravies using GC-olfactometry. In the present investigation, the most odor-active compounds were quantitated in a freshly prepared stewed beef vegetable gravy (BVG) as well as a stewed pork vegetable gravy (PVG) by means of stable isotope dilution assays. Calculation of odor activity values (OAVs; ratio of concentration to odor threshold) revealed 3-mercapto-2-methylpentan-1-ol, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal, (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal, (E)-2-decenal, (E)-2-undecanal, and 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone as the most potent odorants in both gravies. However, significantly different OAVs were found for 12-methyltridecanal, which was much higher in the BVG, whereas (E,Z)-2,4-decadienal showed a clearly higher OAV in the PVG. Aroma recombination experiments performed on the basis of the actual concentrations of the odorants in both gravies revealed a good similarity of the aromas of both model mixtures containing all odorants with OAVs > 1 with those of the original gravies.