2020 Volume 53 Issue 4 Pages 238-245
We attempted a new application of nano-bubbling to culinary science, producing stable nano-bubble water endowed with food flavors, by introducing aromas present in ripe Japanese pepper (sansho) into the bubbling air. The pericarp of ripe sansho was roughly powdered and packed in a column. Purified N2 gas was passed through the column and introduced in to the nanobubble generator to produce nanobubbles in water within 40 min. The diameter of the bubbles was approximately 100 nm and the bubble density was 1×107 bubbles/mL. The resulting nano-bubble water was endowed with flavors arising from sansho. The introduction of sansho flavor by this novel nano-bubble generation method was more effective than that achieved by the regular method, which utilizes an instrument for the aeration of the water tank. The water flavored by nano-bubbling did not include the compound, hydroxy-α-sanshool, present in sansho, which averaged 0.61 ppm during direct water extraction; this compound sometimes causes unnecessary pungency and numbness when cooking with sansho. After four weeks of preservation as canned water, the strong flavor of sansho in water was found to be well maintained by the human panels. Overall, this new technique could be used effectively for the endowment of the flavors of various spices to water, without the development of other undesirable flavors during the cooking process.
