Abstract
The effect of trehalose on preventing crumbling was investigated when boiling red kidney beans (kintokimame). Superfine sugar was used as a sweetening control. The beans were immersed in hot water for 2 hr, trehalose or sugar was added, and the beans were boiled with an IH cooking heater for 40 min. The crumbled state, rupture property and sugar concentration of the beans cooled for 1 hr after boiling were then measured. The beans boiled with trehalose tended to soften earlier than those boiled with sugar; the former tended to crumble much less than the latter. The rupture properties of the beans boiled with trehalose suggested that they had been softened by the water retentivity of trehalose. There was no difference in the sugar concentration and tissue microstructure of beans boiled with either trehalose or sugar.
