Experiment 1

For the production of the product was used meat of rabbits of New Zealand breed of 90 days old, the grinding of the meat was carried out with an electric mill of the mark Torrey, model M-12-Fs 3/4HP. Subsequently, salt, nitrous salt, garlic, paprika, oregano, cumin all in powder, vinegar and colored chili were added according to the formulation presented in Table 1. The ingredients were mixed manually to a homogeneous mass. The mixture was allowed to stand for 24 hours at 4 °C; later it was embedded in pork gut, making ties with thread to give the traditional form of the "chorizo". Once the sausage was made, it was subjected to 140 °C for 15 minutes in edible oil for frying. Once the fried sausage was obtained it was sectioned in samples of approximately 20-25 grams of weight, which were offered to 150 participants to carry out the sensorial test with a single time of maturation (Figure 1).

Table 1 Formulated sausage type "chorizo" made from rabbit meat 

Figure 1 Flow diagram Experiment 1. 

Experiment 2

For the elaboration of the product, the grinding of the meat was carried out with an electric mill, and then the ingredients were integrated: salt, paprika, garlic, nitro salt, oregano, cumin powder, vinegar, chili of color and chili guajillo scalded, according to the formulation presented in Table 1. After mixing the meat with the ingredients, it was allowed to mature for 24 hours, and then it was stuffed into pork gut previously prepared for the preparation of sausages. After drawing, sensory tests were performed at different maturation times. For the sensory tests, samples of "chorizo" were subjected to 140 ° C for 15 minutes in edible oil for frying. Once the fried "chorizo" was obtained, it was sectioned in samples of approximately 20 - 25 grams of weight, which were offered to 150 participants in each day of evaluation. The established maturation times for the sensory tests were 48, 120, 216 and 312 hours; between each sensory test the "chorizo" was stored in refrigeration at 4 ° C (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Experiment 2 Flowchart 

Sensory test

The sensorial test was carried out in the meat workshop of the Academic Division of Agricultural Sciences of the Autonomous Juárez University of Tabasco. To carry out the test a similar preparation was carried out as would be done by a common consumer. In both experiments the sensorial test was based on a structured hedonic scale of 10 points, considering the rating of 10 (I like it very much), until 1 (I dislike much). The minimum value to consider the product as accepted was 6 points overall. The evaluated attributes were: color, smell, taste and texture; additionally each participant issued a "global" rating on the product (Table 2).

Table 2 Chemical composition and energy value of rabbit meat (source Dalle Zotte and Szendro 2011) 

For both tests a panel of 150 untrained judges was used for a single maturation time in experiment 1; in Experiment 2, 150 untrained judges were used for each of the maturation times.

Statistical analysis

The experimental design for both experiments was completely randomized and the statistical analysis of the results obtained; descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were performed using statistical software Statgraphics 5.1.

Experiment 1

The current information about sausage based on rabbit meat and its acceptance are scarce. In the present study the results of experiment 1 show that the general acceptance of the product obtained an acceptable rating, (^{Wambui et al., 2016}) mentions that in rabbit sausages there is a significant influence between the sensorial properties of the product and its chemical composition . In spite of having been accepted by the participants, the "color" aspect of the rabbit chorizo, obtained the lowest rating according to the established hedonic scale (^{Pérez and Andújar, 2000}) and (^{Triki et al. 2013}) mention that color is the factor that most influences the appearance of a product and acts as a selection factor by the consumer, however (Quintero - Salazar et al., 2011) states that the color assessment in sausages is mostly subjective. In the case of "chorizos" made in Mexico, (^{Guerrero et al., 2002}) indicates that different varieties of Capsicum spp. in the formulations, being the guajillo chili the one that is used more frequently.

Authors such as (^{Gómez et al., 2001}), (^{Revilla and Vivar 2005}) mention that variations in the color of sausages such as "chorizo" can be directly related to the majority composition of the sausage, amount of moisture or fat, as well such as the nature and quantity of dehydrated chili (pepper), or, if appropriate, paprika, used in the formulation; this is in agreement with what has been reported by ^{Cobos et al. (2014}) for rabbit "chorizo", in which color differences are directly related to the amount of fat and moisture, as well as the nature and quantity of chilli ) dehydrated or ingredients such as paprika.

Additionally (^{Pérez-Dubé and Andujar-Robles, 2000}) indicate that the addition of nitrates and nitrites is a factor that can exert an effect on the sausage color, since its addition favors the formation of nitrosomioglobin, which according to (^{Montes et al. 2013}) is a pigment characteristic of curing. (^{González - Tenorio et al. 2013}) reports that the appearance of extraneous colors not associated with product characteristics would result in their rejection; which coincides with the low score given to the chorizo "color" in experiment 1. Due to the above, in the present study, the proportion of paprika and guajillo chili used in the second experiment was modified to improve the "Color" ".

Experiment 2

In experiment 2, the sensory test showed that the overall acceptance of the sausage was higher with maturation during 216 hours, compared to the evaluated maturation times (48, 120 and 312) (P <0.05). Currently the research on the maturation of rabbit-based meat products is scarce; (^{Koohmaraie et al., 2002}) points out that changes in tenderness of meat according to maturation time are related to the activity of the calpastatin/calpain enzyme complex in muscle fibers; said complex regulates the degradation rate of the protein, and consequently the quality of the meat.

Although the activity of the calpastatin/calpain enzyme complex was not evaluated in the present study and the information on its activity in rabbit meat is scarce, the results obtained by (^{Wang et al., 2016}) indicate that the activity of calpastatin/calpain may be a potential indicator of the quality of rabbit meat, and consequently determine the characteristics of the products made with that meat. As for the evaluated aspects of the sausage: texture, color, smell and taste, the highest scores were obtained in sensory evaluation with a maturation of 216 hours (P <0.05); these results are novel, because there are no bibliographical references for rabbit chorizo. (^{Acevedo et al., 2014}) establishes that the "texture" aspect is directly influenced by the raw material; as well as the proportions of meat, fat, connective tissue in the product, the presence of starches or non-meat proteins in Catalan sausage (butifarra), which is a sausage elaboration and formulation similar to "chorizo".

In relation to the "color" aspect, in the experiment 2 the obtained score was higher with 216 h of maturation (P <0.05), with respect to the maturation times evaluated, as well as the one obtained in experiment 1; this improvement in score can be related to the modification made to the formulation for experiment 2, in which chili guajillo was added. This agrees with (^{Cobos et al., 2014}) who points out that, for rabbit "chorizo", the type and amount of chili used in the formulation directly affects the color of the sausage.