Abstract:The content of fatty acids, amino acids, nucleotides of Tan sheep from Yanchi, Ningxia roasted for different periods were analyzed. The results showed that the total protein content increased from 19.92% to 40.51%, and the total fat content increased from 3.51% to 12.75%. The total fatty acid content increased first(roasted for 0-8 min) and then decreased (roasted for 8-12 min) and increased finally (roasted for 12-20 min) with no significant difference (P>0.05). The content of oleic acid, stearic acid and palmitic acid were the highest among 25 fatty acid identified in all samples and their content exceeds 100 mg/100 g. The content of total hydrolyzed amino acids increased significantly (P<0.05), increased from 18.5 g/100 g in fresh meat to 49.42 g/100 g. Among all amino acid, lysine, leucine, and cysteine showed the most significant increases. Among the free amino acids, the contents of arginine, alanine and cysteine showed an increasing trend, the contents of histidine showed an decreasing trend and the changes of other free amino acids were not significant(P>0.05). The taste activity value(TAV) method identified that the key umami amino acids in roasted Tan mutton was glutamic acid, the key sweet amino acid was alanine, and the key bitter amino acids were methionine, phenylalanine, valine, and arginine. The main taste substances 5'-adenylic acid and 5'-guanylic acid in roasted Tan mutton increased significantly with increase of time. Collectively, the results of PCA analysis indicated that fatty acids, hydrolyzed amino acids, free amino acids and nucleotides in Tan mutton were significantly different during the roasting process.