Salt-Induced, Low-Temperature Setting of Antarctic Fish Muscle Proteins

Freshly prepared salted pastes (2.5%, w/w NaCl) of muscle tissue of the Antarctic fishes Pagothenia borchgrevinki (white muscle) and Dissostichus mawsoni (red and white muscle) rapidly formed cold-set gels. Set times were minutes rather than the hours required to cold-set salted pastes of fish from cold- temperate waters. Cold-setting was related to habitat temperature and the stability of fish muscle myosin, the protein responsible for gel formation.