Characterization of pecan shells and their effect on the physical properties and acceptability of smoked chicken breast

Abstract

Pecan shells were used as a source of smoke for cooked chicken breast and compared with samples smoked with hickory, mesquite, and apple tree wood. The wood moisture content ranged from 7.94% to 11.43%, whereas ash ranged from 0.97% to 3.11%. The particle size varied among the smoke sources, with chopped pecan shells having more pieces in the "coarse" category. Several properties related to quality of the cooked meat were measured including moisture content, water activity, color, cook loss, expressible moisture, and maximum shear force. Moisture content ranged from 70.13% to 71.72%, whereas pH ranged from 6.39 to 6.43. Chicken breasts smoked with pecan shells were darker (L * = 72.86 compared to 74.94 to 76.57) and slightly redder (a * = 5.71; b * = 25.70) than other samples. Color development was localized to the surface of the meat. Cooking loss did not differ significantly among the samples (26.13% to 27.03%) nor did expressible moisture (9.68% to 11.87%). Meat tenderness was assessed by shear values, but did not differ among the samples. Consumer panels showed that all samples were well liked. Samples smoked with mesquite had slightly lower scores for flavor and overall likability, whereas the scores for samples smoked with hickory, apple, or pecan shells were no different.

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“…The contents of crude protein, crude ash, crude fat, and moisture were determined using the Kjeldahl method (Rizvi et al., 2022), burning gravimetric method (Fu & Kerr, 2020), Soxhlet extraction (Luque‐García & Luque de Castro, 2004), and Karl Fischer method (Fu & Kerr, 2020), respectively.…”