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A water-soluble extract of dry-cured ham was fractionated by gel filtration chromatography. Collected fractions (below 1200 Da) were sensory-analyzed and subjected to amino acid analysis with and without previous acid hydrolysis, in order to determine the amino acid and peptide distribution. Those fractions with the highest peptide amount were further separated by reverse-phase and cation-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography in order to isolate the peptides and sequence them. The results demonstrated the presence of small peptides, mainly dipeptides. The combination of these peptides and free amino acids may contribute to the characteristic taste in the savory fractions of dry-cured ham.

The content of nucleotide metabolites in the muscle L.dorsi from 9 exudative and 9 acceptable quality pork carcasses was determined during 7 d of aging in order to establish a period postmortem for detecting exudative meats. Hypoxanthine and inosine levels in exudative meats were different (p < 0.05) from those of normal meats up to 3 days of aging, while 5′-inosine monophosphate (IMP) and 5′-adenosine triphosphate (ATP) contents only differed during the 1st 4 and 6 h postmortem, respectively. The IMP/ATP ratio was only different (p < 0.05) at 2 h. Thus, 2 h postmortem is proposed as the optimal sampling time for the detection of exudative pork meats.

The content of nucleotide metabolites in the muscle L. dorsi was analyzed for the detection of pale, soft and exudative (PSE) pork meats at just 2 h postmortem. PSE meat was characterized by significantly lower (p < 0.05) amounts of adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) and higher adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP), inosine 5′-monophosphate (IMP), inosine (ino) and hypoxanthine (hyp) than normal meat. IMP and ino classified all the samples from both groups with statistical significance (p < 0.05). The K0 value, R′ value and IMP/ATP ratios were also useful indicators for full distinction of PSE meats. Thus, the assay of any of these nucleotide metabolites may allow a good detection of PSE meats at very short, only 2 h, postmortem time.