Comparative study on the effects of sous-vide, microwave cooking, and stewing on functional properties and sensory quality of goose meat

The effect of sous-vide (SV), microwave (M) cooking, and stewing (S) on selected functional properties of goose meat were investigated in this study. It was measured cooking loss (CL), texture and color parameters, and sensory evaluation was carried out. The material were 96 breast muscles (BM, n = 48 with skin and subcutaneous fat and n = 48 without skin) from 17-wk-old “Polish oat geese.” The kind of heat treatment and the type of goose meat and interaction the type of meat × heat treatment affected the amount of CL. The lowest value of CL was stated for SV samples. The meat with skin was characterized by a lower shear force value (SF), hardness, gumminess, and chewiness than samples without skin for all cooking methods. There were no differences in SF value for M and S samples with skin. The S samples characterized by the highest value of SF, hardness and the SV meat by the lowest for both kind of meat. The M samples characterized by the higher value of cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness compare to SV and S meat. All instrumental color parameters were significantly affected by cooking technology (P = 0.001). There were differences in color lightness (L*) of investigated cooked samples. The SV meat had the highest value of L* parameter and was characterized by a lighter color among others. The highest decrease in a* value was stated for S and lowest for SV meat. The SV showed more intense red color than remaining samples. The a* value decreased and b* parameter increases with an increase the heat treatment temperature. The value of b* was higher in S (about 100°C) samples than in raw meat and processed by SV (70°C). From consumer point of view the best color had goose breast muscles subjected to SV process. Considering all tested sensory features, the overall palatability of SV goose samples was rated as excellent, S as very good and M as good.