Hiroshima Prefectural Food Technology Research Center, 12-70 Hijiyama-honmachi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 732-0816, Japan
In order to develop a new method of producing “Shiokara” of sea cucumber's guts, sea cucumber's guts were autolyzed without salt by hydrostatic pressure (HP) treatment. No microorganisms could grow in the sea cucumber's guts under HP treatment of 60 MPa. The HP-treatment condition of the guts was set at 30° for 24 h, at which the concentrations of total free amino acids, total nitrogen and formol nitrogen were approximately 7 times, 4 times and 5 times higher than that of raw sea cucumber's guts, respectively. When the HP-treated guts to which 5% NaCl was added were compared with those processed by the conventional method (5% NaCl), the HP-treated guts were superior to those of the conventional method in terns of “Umami” and “After-taste” by sensory evaluation.