Gelation of chicken breast and thigh muscle homogenates: effect of pH and time of aging

Gelation properties of chicken breast and thigh muscle homogenates were studied at various pH values. Breast muscle homogenates showed a greater protein extractability at pH 5.8-6.6 and gel strength at pH 6.3-6.6 than thigh muscle homogenates. At pH 5.8-6.0 breast muscle homogenate gels were weaker than thigh muscle homogenate. The pH for optimum gelation, indicated by the highest stress at failure was 6.3 for breast and 6.0 for thigh muscle homogenates. The pH dependence of chicken breast and thigh muscle homogenate gel strengths, influenced by the muscle fibre type, probably was due to altered protein-protein and other meat component interactions and changes in protein extractability.