International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition

Authors
P G Thenmozhi, M Vimalarani, S Sendurkumaran

Abstract
Study on cooking qualities of the cowpea samples reported that cooking time, volume expansion ratio, water absorption ratio, length and breadth elongation ratio and solid loss had increased during storage in all cowpea varieties (whole and dhal) stored in glass bootless and poly ethylene bags with and without vacuum. The organoleptic evaluation scores of the cooked whole gram and dhal samples ranged between excellent and good for all the quality attributes from 0 to 180 days. Variety VCP8 had excellent puffing and frying quality and also had high scores for organoleptic attributes followed by CO6, CO4 and P152. During storage, not only quantitative and qualitative losses occur, even the cooking quality of pulses is affected, especially cooking time. The cooking time of the stored pulse generally increased. The cooking quality of cow pea they found that as the storage period increased, the cooking time of the pulses also had increases. The method of storage (bin, mutpots and jute bags) of plusses did not have any beneficial effect on the cooking time of pulses. The time required for cooking the samples treated with tri calciuam phosphate was the maximum at the end of 12 months of storage in all the four pulses when compared to the cooking time of untreated pulses. Storage changes in cooking time and water uptake of four pulses namely green gram, red gram, black gram and Bengal gram stored for one year by rural families, at three regions of Andhrapradesh have been assessed by periodical evaluation by them revealed that the green gram took least time and Bengal gram the highest time for cooking. But the maximum increase in time taken for cooking the stored pulses was observed in greengram (52%) followed by black gram (35%) Bengal gram (31%) and red gram (29%). Though a progressive decrease in water uptake was observed between percentage decrease in water uptake and percentage increase in cooking time. There was a decrease in weight and volume of raw and cooked pulses with the increase in storage period. The initial cooking time 33 min, cooked weight (218.8g) and cooked volume (299.0 ml) of green gram had increased to 37 min, 243.4 g,326.5 ml/100 g after storing for 9 months at room temperature in jute bags. Okaka and potter studied sensory, nutritional and storage properties of cowpea powders processed to reduce beany flavor. Acidified water soaking of cowpeas followed by blanching reduced the beany flavor of drum dried cowpea powders. A taste panel preferred the low beany cowpea powders in a porridge like baby food formula but not in bread where the reduction in beaniness was less apparent or in main-moin, an Affrican traditional dish, where beany flavor is desirable. In the earlier days cowpea was used only for the preparation of “sundal” and “vadai”.Recent investigations showed that the cowpea could be made use in Indian dishes eithei alone or in combination with other ingredients. Developed products from cowpea and evaluated them for their acceptability. They prepared products such as pittu, omapodi, fried cowpea balls, pancakes, dosai, and idli were highly acceptable up to 100% level. Whereas in the case of bakery products 25-30% incorporation was accepted by the judges.