Abstract
A precooling step is necessary to convert heated soymilk to freeze-gel. In order to estimate the significance of precooling, soymilk was precooled at various temperatures and then frozen. Based on the appearance and stress-strain curve of thawed soymilk which was heated, precooled and freeze-stored, precooling at —5°C was most suitable for freeze-gelation. Although the effects of precooling temperatures on precipitation levels, syneresis and SDS-PAGE patterns were relatively small, there were great differences in freezing curves and ice crystal morphology. It was very important that the precooling temperature be lower than the freezing point of soymilk in order to form small and spherical ice crystals. The uniform distribution of these small ice crystals was considered to be important for the gel-like texture.
