Rapid Enzymatic Fermentation of Anchovy Sauce by Protease

We evaluated the possibility of rapid fermentation of anchovy sauce using a commercial protease. The fermentation characteristics were monitored by response surface analysis. The content of total nitrogen was high (around 1 %) with fermentation at 51.7～57.5$^{\circ}C$ after 10.2～16.4 hours, but rapidly decreased at higher temperatures (6$0^{\circ}C$ or over), while the $R^2$ of polynomial equation was 0.9185 (p<0.05). The amino acid content rapidly decreased to approximately 600 mg% and less at high temperature (6$0^{\circ}C$ and over), and the $R^2$ was 0.9578 (p<0.01). The free amino acids were affected more by fermentation time when fermentation temperature was lower, and the $R^2$ for total free amino acids was 0.8496 (p<0.10). The $R^2$ for sweet free amino acids was 0.9144 (p<0.05). According to the results of this study, the optimal conditions for anchovy sauce fermentation were predicted to be 52.5～56.9$^{\circ}C$ and 13.3～16.4 hours, and the predicted values and actual values of each response variable were similar to each other when the fermentation was performed at a random point within the optimal range. Also, the comparison of the quality between the quick anchovy sauce and sauces currently on the market showed that the content of sweet amino acids was higher in the former than in the latter.