Udon (Japanese noodle) is one of the traditional foods in our country.
The quality of the cooked noodle depends mainly on physical properties expressed koshi (hardness and springiness), articulation and smoothness.
Therefore, the physical properties of Udons prepared under the various cooking conditions were determined by the breaking test, creep measurement and stress relaxation measurement using a rheometer and a handmade equipment. As a result of also doing the sensory evaluation, cooked Udon that was organoleptically judged to be the most delicious was soft one with a high breaking strength. By a scanning electron microscope, the gelatinization of starch near the surface of cooked Udon and the porous sponge-like structure were observed, whereas core part of the starch retained their original granular form with an adequate swelling. The cooked Udon surface seemed to form the network structure with the corrugation. This structure may be involved in the smoothness of the cooked Udon.
