Quality characteristics of sauerkraut fermented by using a Lactobacillus paracasei starter culture grown in tofu whey.

The quality parameters of sauerkraut fermented using Lactobacillus paracasei in terms of its lactic acid bacteria count, texture, colour and biochemical properties were studied. As a starter culture L. paracasei grown in tofu whey was used for sauerkraut fermentation. The experiments were planned using central composite rotatable design of response surface methodology for input variables - culture volume (ml), fermentation time (days) and salt concentration (g/100 g). The linear and interactive effect of variables on responses was understood by statistically significant (p < 0.01) second-order models. Amongst all the input variables culture volume was found to have an overwhelming effect over all the responses. There was a significant (p < 0.01) increase in the lactic acid bacteria count of finished product; it was less hard but there was a departure in colour from the traditional product. The optimized condition for sauerkraut fermentation in terms of culture volume (ml), fermentation time (day) and salt concentration (g/100 g) was 30 ml, 28 days and 1 g/100 g, respectively. It was also observed that phenolics content was better in starter culture sauerkraut over the one traditionally prepared.

Quality characteristics of gluten free bread from barnyard millet-soy flour blends.

The effects of formulation of leavened bread by using varying levels (for 50 g base flour) of soy flour-barnyard millet blends (with 5.74, 6.25, 7, 7.75 and 8.26 g of soy flour), yeast (1.83, 2, 2.25, 2.5 and 2.67 g) and salt (0.63, 0.8, 1.05, 1.30 and 1.47 g) on textural, colour and specific volume were determined. A central composite rotatable design of response surface methodology was used to plan the experiments. The second order models obtained were observed to be statistically significant and capable of demonstrating the effects input variables on responses. All the textural properties were affected significantly by amount of soy flour and yeast in the dough. Soy flour had a significant effect on the colour of the bread making it more brown. Interaction of soy flour and yeast affected the specific volume to maximum extent. Two-tailed t test established that the efficacy of the models as no significant was observed between the predicted and the actual values.

Rheological properties of refined wheat - millet flour based dough under thermo-mechanical stress.

Designed experiments were conducted to study the rheological properties of baking dough prepared from different refined wheat flour (RWF) - barnyard millet blends with varying amount of water (WA), salt and sugar. Dough was subjected to thermo-mechanical stress in Mixolab, in which rheological properties were recorded in terms of five different torques. Second order polynomial models were developed using response surface methodology (RSM) to understand the effect of input variables (WA, barnyard millet, salt and sugar; all expressed as per cent of base flour) on torques recorded by Mixolab. Optimum values of input variables were obtained with constraints based on torque values which represented the qualities of acceptable bread dough. The models predicted that a dough with 57, 26, 1.8 and 3.3% of water, barnyard millet, salt and sugar, respectively, can be used for bread baking purposes.