To improve the quality of sweetened Adzuki Ann (red bean jam), the effects of kneading time on the texture, as well as the organoleptical evaluation values of the products, were studied by measuring the hardness and adhesiveness with a texturometer, the content of free starch extracted from the Ann granules, the water holding capacity, the dehydrating rate, water activity, and the volume of sedimentated Ann granules in water. For more convenience and reproducibility, the samples were prepared by using the Brabender amylograph as a cooker under the constant heating rate and kneading conditions for the different times, and stored for 3 days. As a result, most of the physical properties changed markedly with incrasing time of kneading, depending on the increased amount of free starch extracted from the damaged cells of Ann granules. Furthermore, the retrogradation of gelatinized starch, occurred during storage seemed to give a great effect on the texture of stored Ann. The behavior of gelatinized free starch granules added to the Ann during processing gave some effects to the texture as mentioned above. The optimum content of the free starch was found to be as much as 0.75-1.45% for the preference by sensory test. The correlation between the data of sensory test and the hardness or the water holding capacity obtained on the same sample was so high that the physical methods of estimation such items could be well applied for the evaluation of sweetened Ann alternatively with the organoleptics accounting the ratio of contribution of 82% or more.
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