1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to meat products, and more particularly, to the addition of uncooked cherries or products produced therefrom to the meat product. The invention also relates to a method of making a meat product including uncooked cherries or cherry by-products.
2. Description of Related Art
While great numbers of people are reported to be making a conscientious effort to restrict their consumption of fat and cholesterol, meat products remain a principal source of both in many diets. More than seven billion pounds of ground beef are, for example, consumed in the United States each year. Another scourge of the average diet is sodium, a known contributing factor to high blood pressure.
Palatability and acceptance of conventional ground beef and other comminuted meat products are closely related to fat content. As the proportion of fat is reduced in such products, there is a significant diminution of flavor intensity, tenderness and juiciness.
One attempt in recent years to mitigate these effects of fat reduction relied on the addition of water to lean ground beef, together with iota carrageenan and encapsulated salt and spices. Because of loss of water from such a mixture by evaporation, it was noted that it deteriorated quickly after any heating or cooking, by becoming dry and losing flavor, to the extent that the cooked product was unacceptable if held for any length of time under warming lamps or if consumed away from the premises where cooked.
Another attempt to compensate for fat reduction also required the addition of water to lean ground beef, but with the inclusion of substantial amounts of oat bran, spices and seasonings. Lactic acid and beef flavoring were among substances added to compensate for the loss of flavor from the lower fat content. This mixture, too, tends to dry out and lose flavor under heat.
The present inventor has for several years manufactured and sold sausage products enclosed in natural casings and comprising a mixture of ground fresh lean pork, pitted and ground tart cherries, dry milk powder, small amounts of salt and seasoning, and usually, but not always, chopped pecan kernels. The average proportion of cherries in the sausage mixture has been about 18 to 20 percent by weight, whereas the proportion of milk powder has not exceeded about four percent, and the proportion of pecan kernels has not exceeded about five percent.
Unknown to the present inventor until after he had begun the manufacture and sale of such sausage products was an article in Food Engineering, October 1986, at page 31, in which a product called "Luau Links" was described as "dinner-sized fresh link sausages with chopped cherries, pineapple, and parsley" and "skinless for easier eating". The ingredients were listed simply as "pork, pineapple, water, cherries, sweet and sour sauce, salt, sodium caseinate, and spices". The article does not provide proportions or measurements, nor does it describe the procedure for preparing such a mixture. The product had never been manufactured commercially or sold to the public, and in this regard it is noted that the present inventor's sausage products were the first cherry-containing meat products to receive label approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the State of Michigan. It can be surmised that one reason why the "Luau Links" product did not reach the market was that the artificial casings employed to render it "skinless" would split promptly upon the application of heat due to the added water as well as the cherries and pineapple. However, this article contains the only prior suggestion by another party within the present inventor's knowledge that cherries (as contrasted with cherry flavoring) might be included in a comminuted meat mixture of any sort.
As noted above, another significant problem in the average diet is excessive mounts of sodium, a contributing factor to high blood pressure. A variety of processed meat products includes a significantly large mount of sodium for flavoring. For example, cured products such as ham and bacon are processed with sodium-based salts for flavoring. Typically, a brine solution is injected into the meat product. Alternatively, the meat product is immersed in a brine solution bath for a sufficient period of time. While the sodium-based salt achieves the goal of providing effective curing and flavor for the product, many persons having high blood pressure or heart disease problems cannot eat these products because of the high sodium content. Unfortunately, merely reducing the amount of sodium in these products is not an acceptable solution because the palatability and flavor is also reduced. Therefore, one problem present in the prior art is creating a reduced sodium cured meat product which is palatable to the prior consumer of traditionally cured meat products.