KINETICS OF THERMAL SOFTENING OF 6 LEGUMES DURING COOKING

Puncture force was measured after cooking for lentils, chick peas, bro ad beans and three cultivars of beans, at 15 cooking times (up to 300 min) and 4 cooking temperatures. The legumes were soaked and then cook ed in distilled water (1:10 weight/volume ratio). A 2 mm diameter punc h was driven through the samples at 5 mm . s(-1) in a Texture Analyser TA.XT2(R). A rapid initial softening was followed by a slower softeni ng, both corresponding to a pseudo first-order mechanism. The effect o f temperature followed an Arrhenius' pattern. Apparent rate constants and activation energies were determined.