Effects of Egg White, Yam and Additives on the Physical Properties of Hanpen

Abstract

Hanpen is a type of Japanese traditional fish cake. Fish paste (surimi) is ground with salt, egg white, yam (yama imo), starch, and other ingredients, and then boiled, resulting in a product with a distinctive foamy texture. Recently, polysaccharide thickeners (chiefly guar gum) have often been added during hanpen production. We investigated the effects of these foaming agents on the characteristics of hanpen, such as taste and hardness, by means of sensory tests, physical property measurements, and optical microscopy. Fresh shark meat was used for preparing the hanpen samples, and the roles of egg white and yam were determined by omitting them from the list of common ingredients used for hanpen production. Hanpen's hardness increased in the absence of polysaccharide thickeners when egg white or yam was omitted from the set of ingredients. Its specific gravity also increased, and the taste was disfavoured. The hardness was largely reduced when polysaccharide thickeners were added, and many roundish bubbles were observed in the optical micrographs. The specific gravity of the hanpen samples remained almost unchanged, even with the omission of egg white or yam.