A SOUP MODEL STUDY COMPARING FLOUR PEAK VISCOSITY DURING HEATING AND VISCOSITY OF FLOUR GELS DURING REHEATING

A viscograph was used to study a model soft wheat flour-water gel syst em that was based on the apparent viscosity of commercial soups when r eheated to a serving temperature of 60-degrees-C. Unless flours were p roduced from highly field-sprouted wheats, there was no relationship b etween the hot paste peak viscosity attained during first heating and the viscosity of the same pastes that were allowed to gel, stored, and were then reheated to serving temperature. Sound, unsprouted flour pr oduced hot paste peak viscosities as low as 57 BU (50 g of flour/450 m l of water) and consistently high reheated gel viscosities. Adding mal ted flour to the model system, reduced the hot paste peak visocsity mu ch more than it reduced the viscosity of the reheated gels, especially at low levels of malt. The prediction of the viscosity at serving tem perature of flour-thickened soups could be better accomplished using d irect measurement of alpha-amylase activity or determination of the re heated gel viscosity rather than the viscograph hot paste peak viscosi ty.