Cereals are used for staple food as a substitute of rice or wheat. For a new usage method of cereals, saccharified solutions from cereals (foxtail millet, common millet, Japanese barnyard millet, tartary buckwheat, and barley) were prepared using the production method of traditional syrup candy in Ishikawa Prefecture of Japan. Two sample solutions (A: Brix 20%, B: Brix 40%) prepared in each of cereals were examined for their potential as a primary cooking materials. The major sugar in all the samples was maltose, but glucose and fructose, which are sweeter than maltose, were enriched in sample B. Sample B from cereals presented a darker colour and lower flavour components when compared to sample A. By sensuality evaluation, light colour samples with average in flavour component value got good account. However, the colour and flavour of sample solutions varied depending on the cereals and processing. Thus, saccharifying cereals may provide new cooking materials for specific dishes or food production by improving the characteristics of the solutions.

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The aim of this study was to clarify the basic characteristics of flour made from Job's tears and its suitability as a wheat flour substitute. Job's tears flour required a longer time for gelatinization than wheat flour. Batter made from Job's tears flour and aged for 30 minutes was easy to prepare. Dough made from Job's tears flour with good consistency was obtained by adding about 1.5 times more water than that made from wheat flour. Crepes made with Job's tears flour batter that was aged for 30 minutes was easier to fracture than those made with wheat flour. Crepes made from Job's tears flour were less palatable than wheat flour crepes; however, providing information about the health benefits of Job's tears improved its evaluations. Cookies containing Job's tears flour had a hard texture and lower palatability. However, palatability improved upon replacing some of the extra water with butter. Job's tears flour had significantly higher antioxidant activity than wheat flour. Thus, baked goods made with Job's tears flour could be an excellent dietary source of antioxidants.

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Regular intake of vegetables suppresses the risk of lifestyle-related diseases. In Japan, a large amount of cruciferous vegetables that contain glucosinolates are consumed in cooked or pickled form. Glucosinolates are hydrolysed to isothiocyanates in plants by the enzyme myrosinase, which is released by tissue damage. Isothiocyanates have characteristic flavours and can inhibit carcinogenesis in some cases. In this study, we investigated the effects of NaCl and ascorbic acid concentration on myrosinase activity in vitro. Maximum myrosinase activity was observed for 1% NaCl or 0.1% ascorbic acid, although myrosinase activity was suppressed by a combination of NaCl and ascorbic acid. The degree of suppression of myrosinase activity decreased as the concentration of ascorbic acid increased.
We prepared lightly pickled turnip and Chinese cabbage with final NaCl concentrations of 1%, 2%, and 3% to determine the effect of NaCl on isothiocyanate formation in pickles. 3-Butenyl, 4-pentenyl, and phenethyl isothiocyanate were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses; these compounds were formed in the highest amounts at 3% NaCl in both types of pickles. Moreover, the addition of 0.4% ascorbic acid increased the formation of isothiocyanate by 1.4-1.6 times compared with the control in both types of pickles. In sensory evaluation, panellists preferred the pickles with 2% NaCl.

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The effects of soy protein isolate (SPI) on the gelatinization of rice flour (RF) were studied as a function of mixing ratio by compression measurements, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and confocal scanning laser microscopy. The total concentration was 16.7%w/w, and the SPI/RF ratios ranged from 0:10 to 10:0. Gels with SPI/RF ratios of 0:10 to 4:6 showed a decrease in Young's modulus, compression stress, and compression energy with increasing SPI concentration. On the other hand, gels with SPI/RF ratios of 7:3 to 10:0 showed an increase in the above-mentioned values as the SPI concentration increased. The concentration- dependent graph of Young's modulus appeared to follow a convex downward curve. The DSC endothermic peak appearing upon the gelatinization of RF shifted slightly to higher temperatures while the enthalpies of the SPI/RF mixtures decreased with increasing SPI concentration. The results of the compression test and DSC changes suggested that SPI inhibited RF gelatinization. The results of confocal laser scanning microscopy confirmed the phase separation of SPI and RF mixture.

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The annual processing weight of chickens in Kyushu is about 900,000 t, about 17% of which is occupied by chicken bones. However, chicken bones are rarely used in foodstuffs. In this study, we focused on chicken soup as a method to utilize the chicken bones. We investigated the influence of the cooking method (the heating method) on the taste component of the chicken soup. We compared two heating methods, gas and induction, with the same quantity of heat. The chicken soup was made of 1 kg of chicken bones, 2 L of water, and 3 g of salt, and was heated for 90 min. A fully automatic amino- acid- analysis machine and high performance liquid chromatography were used to analyze the amino acids of the chicken soup. The preference survey of the chicken soup was conducted by 20 years-old women, who used a five-point-grading method and a non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The free asparagine components in the chicken soup was higher when gas heating was used than when induction heating was used, but the total amino acid components of the chicken soup was almost same in both. The preference survey demonstrated that the degree of transparency of the chicken soup by gas heating was significantly higher than that by induction heating;the measuring instruments yielded a similar result. We considered that this difference is because of the difference in the convection velocity of the water at 98°C the velocity during gas heating was higher than that during induction heating.

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Japanese udon noodles, inoculated with the salt-tolerant yeast Hyphopichia burtonii M2 before being dried, were prototyped as a model for Inaniwa noodles. Cracks were observed in the noodles colonised with H. burtonii that extended from the inside to the surface of the noodles. Salt dissolution during the boiling process of these dried noodles could be approximated as a first-order reaction. The salt dissolution rate of the dried noodles with H. burtonii (λ=−0.230%/min) was faster than in the non-inoculated controls (λ=−0.169%/min). Thus, the presence of this halotolerant yeast, which creates cracks in the noodles, appears to promote salt dissolution during cooking.

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The aim of this study was to investigate the caseinolytic activity of the homemade shio-koji prepared from dry rice-koji. The results obtained were as follows:
1)The caseinolytic activity of the shio-koji decreased 84% after fermentation and maturation for 7 days at 24°C; however, after 2 months of refrigeration, the same level of activity was maintained. The sugar content of shio-koji increased slowly after it increased to 20% from 10% for the first 7 days. The salt concentration of the shio-koji was maintained at about 11% during the entire storage period.
2)Casein degradation by a 1:10 diluted solution of shio-koji that was used for the activity measurement progressed in a time dependent manner for at least 6 hours. Casein degradation was also assessed by SDS-PAGE.
3)The caseinolytic activity of undiluted shio-koji did not change after 30 minutes at 50°C, but its activity declined at higher temperatures.
4)The caseinolytic activity of shio-koji was three times that of ginger and about 1/8 of the activity exhibited by kiwi-fruit.

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