Nin.hr (M.D.T.); [email protected] (A.K.); [email protected] (I.L.) Ministry of Agriculture, Ul. Grada Vukovara 78, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; [email protected] Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetosimunska Cesta 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; [email protected] Mifamurtide Protocol Correspondence: [email protected]: Krvavica, M.; gum, J.; Topalovi, M.D.; Kegalj, A.; Ljubi i, I.; c cc Konja i, M. Alterations in Proximate cc Chemical and Mineral Compositions of Different Sex Categories of Mutton through the Dry-Curing Procedure. Animals 2021, 11, 3019. https:// doi.org/10.3390/ani11113019 Academic Editors: Luigi Faucitano and Federica Bellagamba Received: 29 July 2021 Accepted: 18 October 2021 Published: 20 OctoberSimple Summary: The older raw mutton categories are thought of to be of poor GYKI-13380 web quality and are poorly accepted by customers, mainly because of the toughness and intense odor. For that reason, they may be most often utilized in the production of a variety of meat solutions. In Dalmatia, mutton is mostly processed into a standard dry-cured item called kastradina. Its high quality is determined by the age and sex, along with the kastradina on the castrated and fattened rams (wethers) are the best accepted by consumers. This study examined the influence of sex and castration on the proximate chemical and mineral compositions of raw mutton and kastradina as indicators of their quality. Meat is mostly a supply of protein and a substantial supply of minerals (phosphorus, iron, zinc, potassium) inside the human diet plan. Therefore, it is vital to decide which things influence their composition essentially the most. The outcomes showed that sex and castration significantly impacted the salt content and the proximate chemical and mineral compositions of raw mutton and kastradina that could influence the high quality (nutritive and sensory) of kastradina. The findings suggested that the raw mutton of wethers and ewes could be a better-quality raw material for production of kastradina than could the ram mutton. Abstract: The aim of this research was to identify the impact of sex, castration, and processing on the chemical properties of mutton within the production of kastradina–a regular Dalmatian drycured meat item. Thus, the carcasses of 20 ewes (E), 20 rams (R), and 20 wethers (W) from the Dalmatian pramenka breed have been processed by dry-curing. On the 1st, 35th, and 60th days of processing, the samples from the scapulae were taken, then the proximate chemical, NaCl, and mineral analyses were performed, and important differences in between the majority of the parameters had been identified. As opposed to W, the R samples contained substantially extra proteins (p 0.01), NaCl (p 0.05), and potassium (p 0.05) and less fat (p 0.05). Furthermore, in comparison with the W and R categories, the E category of kastradina contained substantially additional calcium (p 0.05). The higher contents of intramuscular fat, potassium, and calcium and decrease content of NaCl could positively influence the sensory (marbling, flavor, juiciness, and tenderness) and chemical (fatty acid profile) properties of kastradina. These findings suggest that the W and E raw mutton could possibly be a better-quality raw material for production of kastradina than could the R, but additional research is necessary to get a a lot more complete picture of its top quality. Keywords: chemical composition; dalmatian dry-cured mutton; effect of sex and castration; kastradina; mineral composition; muttonPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published ma.
