2. Materials and methods
2.1. Manufacturing and sampling process
In order to carry out this study, 12 female goats were slaughtered according to the Muslim (Halal) way by severing the throat and major blood vessels in the neck. Thirty-six pieces were manufactured: 24 limbs (shoulders and legs; 1.26 ± 0.13 kg), and 12 ribs (front and back; 0.85 ± 0.14 kg). Raw pieces were absolutely homogeneous in size and shape. All pieces come from native breed goats of Northern Morocco (Mouley Abdesalem). The pieces were salted with an excess of coarse salt and placed in piles formed of layer of meat and salt. The half of every group of pieces was salted for 0.4 days/kg (A) and the other half was salted for 0.6 days/kg (B); the temperature of the salting room was maintained at 2–5 °C and the relative humidity was main- tained at 80–90%. After the salting stage, the pieces were removed from the pile, brushed, washed and transferred to a post-salting room where they were kept for 10 days at 2–5 °C and approximately 85–90% relative humidity. Next, the pieces were transferred to a drying ripening room where the ribs were held for 20 days and the limbs were held for 80 days at 12 °C and 75–80% relative humidity. Each batch of limbs was divided into two smaller batches as follows: A (A1, and A2) and B (B1, and B2). Batches A1 and B1 completed their maturation, while batches A2 and B2 were covered with a mixture of olive oil and paprika (O + P) before (50 days) they completed their maturation. Sampling was carried at the end of this processing step. Samples were vacuum packaged and stored at −80 °C until analyzed.