Lipid classes, fatty acids, flavor and storage stability of washed sheep meat

Lamb was used for all experiments, except flavor evaluations for which mutton was used. Washing ground lamb 4 times with high-pH (8.2) tap water, at a meat-to-water ratio of 1:4 and with a 15 min extraction/washing cycle, sharply lowered total fat content (primarily by removing neutral lipids), lipid oxidation potential, and the volatile branched-chain fatty acids which reportedly contribute to undesirable species-related flavor of sheep meat. A trained sensory panel determined that washed-cooked mutton had "very weak" species-related flavor (<2 on a 9-pointscale).