Effect of Cooling Rate after Cooking on Salt Permeation: Does Salt Permeate into Food during Cooling?

Abstract

The permeation of seasonings into foods during cooling after cooking has been proposed to be influenced by the Soret effect. This would cause the content of seasoning in food to be higher with decreasing temperature after cooking. To verify this proposal, we cooked three kinds of food, i.e. potatoes, Japanese radish and devils tongue gel, cut into 2-cm cubes in a 1% salt solution. These food samples in the salt solution were cooled to 95, 80, 50, 30, and 0°C and were kept at the same temperature for 90 min. Half of the samples were rapidly cooled and the other half more slowly. The salt concentration was measured after 30 min and 90 min. The results show that the higher the temperature after cooking, the higher the salt concentration in the food sample. This result was confirmed by the sensory analysis. We also reviewed the Soret effect, but this did not seem to explain the proposal.