Abstract: Yak butter is a traditional food for Tibetan herdsmen. Market research found that herdsmen prefer manual yak butter. The purpose of this paper is to find the difference in quality between manual and machine-made yak butter. The basic physical and chemical indexes, texture, fatty acid, Sn-2 fatty acid and volatile components of yak butter were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, gas chromatography, texture analyzer and other experimental techniques in this study. The results showed that the moisture content was 13.32 g/100 g, fat content was 83.49 g/100 g, the wiredrawing length was 0.24 mm and viscosity was 5.84 mJ of manual yak butter. They were significantly higher than those of machine-made yak butter (P<0.05). The number of volatile components of some manual yak butter was greater than that of the machine-made yak butter, and the flavor substances were more abundant. It indicated that the taste of manual yak butter was better than that of machine-made yak butter. However, the nutritional index of machine-made yak butter was better than that of manual yak. The protein content was 2.23 g/100 g, unsaturated fatty acid content was 37.52% and Sn-2 palmitic acid content was 41.10% of machine-made yak butter. They were significantly higher than those of manual yak butter (P<0.05). The results of this study can provide theoretical references for the quality improvement of mechanical yak butter.
2020, Vol. 46 
