Minced meat was mixed with NaCl in a small sized Stephan mixer (UMC 5, Stephan Food Service Equipment GmbH, Germany) at 4 °C. ESM powder, which was soaked in distilled water at room temperature overnight, was mixed into the batter. The initial pH of ESM was 9.93 when 0.5 g ESM was soaked in 25 mL distilled water. Then fat was mixed into the minced meat and the temperature was increased to 14-16 °C. In the final mixture there was 16% fat and 12% protein. 12 different recipes were made with 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% NaCl, respectively. These are lower salt concentrations than those commonly used commercially. For each salt level 0.5%, 1.0% or 1.5% ESM were added, and control samples were made without ESM. To better elucidate the effect of ESM no other additives like starch, spices or nitrite were used. All recipes were made in duplicate. The total of 24 formulations were made in randomized order. Approximately 40 g (exact sample weights were recorded) of the final mixtures were filled in 50 mL Falcon plastic tubes using individual plastic bags per batch for filling; 9 tubes were made per batch, centrifuged at 2100 rpm for 10 min at 10 °C to remove air bubbles and stored at 4 °C over night until further analyses. The next day, 8 tubes were cooked in a water bath until a core temperature of 70 °C, cooled in ice water for 30 min and consecutively stored at 4 °C until further analysis. Proximate composition and in vitro analysis were measured on a mixture of the cooked samples (tubes 1-6) made with the same recipe; these samples were stored at -20 °C before the analyzes were performed. Cooking loss, pH, texture profile analysis and color measurements were performed on cooked samples (tubes 1-6) in duplicate, whereas histology, LF-NMR T2 relaxometry and FTIR microspectroscopy were performed on both uncooked (tube 9) and cooked (tube 7) samples.