摘要：In order to determine the effect of a 4- month extension of ripening phase on the composition of volatile compounds of Istrian dry-cured ham, 20 pork legs (Swedish Landrace) were processed in a traditional Istrian manner. The samples for analysis of volatile compounds were taken after 10 and 14 months of processing (2 groups of 10 hams). The samples were prepared using the technique of solid phase microextraction (SPME) and the determination of volatiles in the samples was carried out using instrumental methods of GC-MS. From a total of 40 isolated volatiles, 38 were identified at the dry-cured hams aged 10 months, (95.2% of the total amount of isolated compounds) and 29 volatiles were identified at the hams aged 14 months (96.37% of the total amount of isolated compounds). The 11 compounds were found in the hams aged 10 months that were not found in the hams aged 14 months (2-hydroksypropan acid, butanal, 3-metilbutanal, 1-hexanol, 2-propyl-1-heptanol, 1-chloro-3-methylbutan, hexane, 2,3,5-trimethyldecane, n-decane, bicyklohex-2-en and α-pinene), and 2 volatiles were found in the hams aged 14 months that were not found in the hams aged 10 months (propane acid and non-2-en-1-ol). The most abundant group of compounds in both groups of ham were aldehydes (43.60% vs. 41.76%), followed by alcohols and carboxylic acids. All three of these groups of compounds were present in hams aged 10 month (83.5% vs. 87.72%), but differences were not statistically significant. The most common volatile in both groups of hams was aldehyde (4-hydroxy-3-metilbutanal). There was a higher value of this compound in the hams aged 10 months, but the difference was not statistically significant. From this research it can be concluded that the extended phase of ripening influenced the composition of volatile compounds of Istrian dry-cured ham and for a large number of identified compounds the differences were statistically significant.
