*3.3. Color*

The influence of AC on the color of sausages are shown in Table 3. L\*, b\*, ΔE\*, and whiteness value of the sausages notably (*p* < 0.05) improved with an increase in AC. These changes exhibited that color of the sausages became slight lightness, yellowness, and whiteness, which was put down to the larger amounts of AC and smaller amount of pork fat in sausages. As the proportion of AC increased, a\* value decreased significantly (*p* < 0.05), suggesting that the redness of the replacement group was less than control due to the AC with a white crystal-clear appearance. Similar observations in L\* and b\* were found by [11], who used boiled *Pleaurotus eryngii* to substitute the pork back fat in sausages.


**Table 3.** Color and textural profile of sausages with substitution of pork fat by *Auricularia cornea* (AC).

Notes: Values are given as mean ± standard error. Different letters in the same row indicate significant differences (*p* < 0.05). Control (0%), AC25 (25%), AC50 (50%), AC75 (75%), AC100 (100%) substitution of pork fat by AC, respectively.

### *3.4. Cooking Loss and Water Holding Capacity*

Cooking loss is a crucial factor for juiciness and is associated with water or fat binding capacities during the heating process [25]. The cooking loss of sausages is presented in Table 2. The substitution of pork fat by AC exerted a significant effect (*p* < 0.05) on cooking loss (Figure 1). The sausages with low-fat replacer contents showed higher cooking loss. Cooking loss in of replacement group was 2.29–2.86 folds reference to that in the control. Because the AC found much more water than in pork fat. Another reason may be that the capacity of AC to retain water during cooking was decreased. AC100 showed the highest cooking loss, which was significantly higher than that of the control (*p* < 0.05). Similar observations were found by [11] who used boiled and deep-fried *Pleaurotus eryngii* instead of fat in pork sausage, and [24] who used *Lentinula edodes* as a pork lean meat replacer in sausage.

**Figure 1.** Sensory evaluation for the replacement of pork fat with AC in sausages.

The water holding capacity of the sausages is also shown in Table 4. The WHC increased as the percentage of AC increased. The WHC of the control was significant (*p* < 0.05) lower than that of all replacement groups. AC25, AC50, AC75, and AC100 were increased by 1.45%, 5.32%, 7.81%, and 11.06%, compared to the control, respectively. This
