2.2.2. Sensorial Quality

To measure the degree of acceptance or rejection of the three groups of flavored ham, a hedonic test was performed at 7, 14, 28, and 60 days of storage, at mid-morning in the test room of the university for 45 minutes approximately. It was carried out by 30 panelists (the same ones who participated in the triangular test described above; regular consumers of dry-cured ham; between 20 and 70 years old, 48% women, belonging to the university community). The attributes to evaluate were: Visual appearance: color assessment relating to the red color and presence of saffron. Odor: assessment relating to the characteristic odor associated with curing process and mixed with saffron. Flavor: assessment relating to the characteristic taste associated with the salt and curing process mixed with saffron. Samples were kept at environmental temperature for half an hour before the tasting. Three flavored dry-cured ham slices, one from each group, were placed in plastic plates and codified with three random numbers. Cold water and toasted bread were supplied to each panelist before testing each sample for cleansing the palate. Panelists, untrained consumers, were instructed at the beginning of each session for 15 minutes. The test they were to perform and how to proceed after eating each slice of flavored ham was explained to them.

The samples were rated on a 5-point hedonic scale, as follow: 1 = "Do not like it", 2 = "Slightly dislike it", 3 = "Neither like it nor dislike", 4 = "Like it" and 5 denoted "I like it very much". The consumers chose the expression in relation to their perception and acceptance of the flavored group. Then, the panelists indicated the concentration they liked the most overall.

### 2.2.3. Analysis of Safranal in Dry-Cured Ham

The transfer of aromatics from saffron to the meat product—flavored dry-cured ham with this spice—was analyzed by HS-SBSE–GC-MS. The volatile compounds were desorbed from a polydimethylsiloxane-coated stir bar (0.5 mm film thickness × 20 mm length; Twister, Gerstel GmbH (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany) using an automated thermal desorption unit (TDU, Gerstel) mounted on an Agilent 7890A gas chromatography system coupled to a quadrupole Agilent 5975C electron ionization mass spectrometric detector (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA, USA) equipped with a fused silica capillary column (BP21 stationary phase; 30 m length, 0.22 mm internal diameter, and 0.25 μm film thickness; SGE, Ringwood, Australia). The carrier gas was helium with a constant column pressure of 20.75 psi. From each group, 200 mg of flavored dry-cured ham was used (every sachet was divided into four equal parts and 25 mg from each part was used) for each time point (7, 14, 28, and 60 days of storage). These 200 mg were analyzed in triplicate to detect and quantify the major component of saffron (safranal), which is the main compound that can be used to distinguish and classify cured ham flavored with saffron [22]. Thus, 36 vials of 10 mL were used, and the method validated in a previous study [22] was used to analyze the transfer of aromatics from saffron to dry-cured ham.

Mass spectrometry data acquisition was performed in the positive scan mode; however, to avoid matrix interferences, the MS quantification was performed in the SIM mode using the major ion of safranal.
