## 3 Results and Discussion  
### Physical and Chemical Parameters  
Subcutaneous fat is an important component of the final product, indeed, even when ham is sold in slices, fat is commonly left on. However, few studies have investigated its characteristics separately from the other section of the slice. Instrumental color parameters are shown in Table 1. According to CIELAB color values, L* and a* were affected by different seasoning times, whereas b* did not change significantly. Since b* variable is linked to yellowness and the formation of yellow-colored polymers has been associated to oxidative deterioration [20], it seems that the oxidative status of subcutaneous fat was not affected by the tested seasoning lengths. On the contrary, L* reached the greatest values as seasoning time increased, while a* showed the highest score in S16 hams and the lowest in S18 hams with S14 samples being similar to both. Analogous L* scores were reported by [PERSON] et al. [21] studying the effect of sex and salting time on dry-cured ham characteristics. L* has been positively correlated to fat saturation [22], which is in accordance with the slightly higher content of saturated fatty acids (SFA) of S18 hams, as shown in Table 2. Compared to our results, higher values of a* and b* and lower of L* were observed in Iberian and Iberian \(\times\) Duroc dry-cured hams reared according to two different systems [22]. Total lipids (Table 2) significantly increased moving from raw to seasoned hams, but not among different seasoning classes. The most abundant fatty acid was the oleic (C18:1), followed by palmitic (C16:0), linoleic (C18:2), and stearic (C18:0) acids, in agreement with several studies [14; 23; 24]. Myristic and myristoleic acids showed the highest content in S18 hams and lowest in S16 ones, with R0 and S14 hams showing intermediate amounts. Palmitic, stearic, and oleic acids showed lower content in R0 hams than in dry-cured ones, \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & **Seasoning** & & **RMSE 1** & \(p\) \\ \hline  & **S14 (\(n=10\))** & **S16 (\(n=10\))** & **S18 (\(n=10\))** & & \\ \hline Instrumental color & & & & & \\ L* & 76.125 b  & 77.948 a  & 79.068 a  & 1.923 & 0.0178 \\ a* & 2.804 a  & 3.763 a  & 2.238 b  & 1.086 & 0.0302 \\ B* & 3.964 & 3.192 & 4.158 & 0.912 & 0.0869 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Instrumental color of subcutaneous fat trimmed from Toscano dry-cured ham. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & **Seasoning** & & **RMSE 1** & \(p\) \\  & **R0 (\(n=30\))** & **S14 (\(n=10\))** & **S16 (\(n=10\))** & **S18 (\(n=10\))** & & \\ \hline Moisture (\%) & 16.955 a  & 2.941 b  & 3.161 b  & 2.744 b  & 7.728 & \textless{}0.0001 \\ Total lipids & 68.423 b  & 76.718 a  & 76.246 a  & 78.091 a  & 4.774 & \textless{}0.0001 \\ C120 c140 & 0.051 a  & 0.0386 & 0.025 & 0.027 & 0.029 & 0.0343 \\ C14:0 & 0.420 a  & 0.434 a  & 0.409 b  & 0.459 a  & 0.040 b  & 0.0366 \\ C15:0 & 0.011 & 0.011 & 0.010 & 0.013 & 0.002 & 0.1094 \\ C16:0 & 5.599 b [FOOTNOTE:b]Footnote b:  
with no differences among seasoning classes. Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) content was greater in seasoned than in raw hams, in accordance with oleic acid content, which is the major contributor to MUFA group in pork. This evolution was also observed by [PERSON] et al. (2018) studying the changes in the fatty acid profile of subcutaneous fat of Iberian ham during dry-curing process. However, they also reported a decrease in the most important polyunsaturated fatty acids, which was not observed in the present study except for arachidonic fatty acid. Significant differences were observed only for eicosadienoic and eicosatrienoic fatty acids, but their amounts were at the lowest level in R0 samples, whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) showed similar amounts regardless seasoning length. Eventually, saturated fatty acids (SFA) were affected by seasoning with the lowest content in R0 hams and the highest in S12 and S18 hams, while S14 samples were similar to both.