## 3 Results and Discussion
### Changes in Physicochemical Parameters during the Production of Smoked Dry-Cured Ham
NaCl content was significantly (\(p<0.05\)) affected by muscle type, the production phase, and their interaction (Table 4), and increased significantly during the salting, smoking, and drying phases of production. This is a consequence of the salt distribution throughout the ham. A different trend was observed depending on the muscle type: in the BF muscle, the  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Phase of Production**} \\ \hline  & **Raw Ham** & **After Salting** & **After Smoking** & **After Drying** & **After Bipening** \\ \hline  & **Water (\%)** & & & & \\ BF & 74.82 \(\pm\) 0.12  & 72.33 \(\pm\) 0.37  & 68.93 \(\pm\) 0.85  & 63.41 \(\pm\) 0.55  & 56.78 \(\pm\) 0.30  \\ SM & 74.42 \(\pm\) 0.22  & 64.12 \(\pm\) 0.36  & 63.79 \(\pm\) 0.29  & 59.21 \(\pm\) 0.53  & 42.54 \(\pm\) 0.75  \\ \hline  & **Intramuscular fat (\% of dry matter)** & & & \\ BF & 5.54 \(\pm\) 0.54  & 5.05 \(\pm\) 0.19  & 2.57 \(\pm\) 0.18  & 5.38 \(\pm\) 0.44  & 12.45 \(\pm\) 0.45  \\ SM & 6.00 \(\pm\) 0.44  & 5.72 \(\pm\) 0.23  & 5.55 \(\pm\) 0.25  & 11.02 \(\pm\) 0.71  & 14.86 \(\pm\) 0.35  \\ \hline  & **Protein (\% of dry matter)** & & & \\ BF & 88.19 \(\pm\) 0.91  & 87.11 \(\pm\) 1.60  & 78.20 \(\pm\) 0.82  & 70.35 \(\pm\) 1.23  & 69.16 \(\pm\) 1.22  & 69.54 \(\pm\) 1.12  & 75.96 \(\pm\) 0.89  & 79.82 \(\pm\) 1.76  & 78.26 \(\pm\) 0.92  & 74.72 \(\pm\) 0.72  \\ \hline  & **Asch (\% of dry matter)** & & & \\ BF & 4.37 \(\pm\) 0.11  & 8.24 \(\pm\) 0.35  & 13.44 \(\pm\) 0.32 [FOOTNOTE:5]Footnote * * Means in the same row (corresponding to the same muscle) not followed by a common letter are significantly different (\(p<0.05\); Tukey test) (differences among sampling pointshighest increase was observed after the smoking phase (from 0.20 in raw ham to 12.47% of DM), after which it increased slowly until the end of the process (to 17.55% of DM). In contrast, the salt content in the SM muscle increased rapidly after the salting phase (from 0.18 to 16.78% of DM), as this muscle is in direct contact with salt during the salting phase and remained constant after the drying phase. At the end of the production process, a significant decrease was observed (11.20% of DM). A slower increase was observed in the muscle BF compared to the muscle SM because in BF the salt is homogeneously distributed throughout the ham muscle during the production process. The NaCl content after the ripening phase was higher (\(p<0.05\)) in the BF than in the SM which is in agreement with its higher water content. This is also confirmed by other authors [31]. The SM muscle is exposed to a higher concentration of salt during salting and to a higher dehydration during drying and has a higher salt content than the inner BF muscle after the salting, smoking, and drying phases. However, it should be noted that throughout the production process there is a tendency to equalize the salt concentration throughout the piece, therefore the salt equalization process results in a higher salt content in BF compared to SM after the ripening phase. The diffusion of salt into the muscle tissue from the SM muscle with a higher salt content continues due to the existence of a concentration gradient, which ultimately leads to the inner BF muscle with a higher water content also having a higher salt concentration [31], as found in this study. The increase in ash content in both muscles followed the same trend as NaCl as ash content depends on NaCl. Water activity (a\({}_{w}\)) was significantly (\(p<0.05\)) affected by M, P and M \(\times\) P interactions (Table 4). a\({}_{w}\) gradually decreased over the production period from an initial value of 0.97 and 0.96 to 0.88 to 0.86 in BF and SM, respectively. This decrease was more pronounced in the SM muscle and is due to the decrease in water content, salt diffusion, and the intense dehydration experienced by the ham during the dry-ripening phase [29]. The pH was only affected by production (Table 4).