Roasted mutton is a traditional Chinese meat product which is loved by consumers because of its unique flavor. However, in China, roasted mutton is currently mostly produced in manual workshops, unified quality standards are lacking and there are many food safety problems with roasted mutton, which largely limit the development of the roasted mutton industry. The processing technology affects the flavor of the product, which in turn greatly determines the consumers’ acceptance. Current research on roasted mutton focuses on the selection of raw meat, the optimization of processing technology, and flavor substances. Based on the current research status of the processing technology of roasted mutton, the sources of volatile flavor substances of roasted mutton and the applications of electronic nose, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and GC-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) in the detection of volatile flavor substances of roasted mutton are summarized, in order to provide useful information for the development of China’s roasted mutton industry.

To investigate the effect of low voltage electrostatic field combined with high humidity thawing on the water-holding capacity of frozen lamb meat, lamb hindleg meat after 24 h of postmortem aging was frozen in a refrigerator at −18 ℃ for 24 h and then thawed. The effects of low voltage electrostatic field combined with high humidity thawing (current of 0.2 mA, voltage of 2500 V, 4 ℃, and relative humidity of 98%) on the thawing rate, water retention, moisture distribution, carbonyl content, total sulfhydryl content, solubility, surface hydrophobicity, protein secondary structure and protein tertiary structure of lamb meat were evaluated in comparison with those of another three thawing methods: refrigerator thawing (4 ℃, and relative humidity of 55%), low voltage electrostatic field assisted thawing (current of 0.2 mA, voltage of 2500 V, 4 ℃, relative humidity of 55%), and high humidity thawing (4 ℃, and relative humidity 98%). The results showed that among the four thawing methods, low voltage electrostatic field combined with high humidity thawing had the shortest thawing time (519 min), the lowest thawing loss (3.37%), cooking loss (30.60%), carbonyl content (3.85 nmol/mg) and surface hydrophobicity (21.90 μg), relative content of immobilized water (97.96%) closest to that of fresh meat (98.44%), the highest total sulfhydryl content (28.55 nmol/mg) and solubility (29.98%), and the most stable protein secondary and tertiary structures, indicating that this thawing method shortened the thawing time, effectively inhibited protein oxidative denaturation, and reduced the juice loss, and myofibrillar proteins from the treated lamb meat had the highest water hydration capacity and the best water-holding capacity.