Influence of dehulling, soaking solution and enzyme treatment on the cooking quality of improved varieties of pulses

The cooking qualities of six pulses, namely, chickpea, pigeonpea. mung bean , urd bean, lentil and field pea as influenced by dehulling, soaking soluti on and enzyme treatment were examined. Remarkable reduction in cooking time was noticed due to dehulling, which was most effective in field pea, follo wed by chickpea, pigeonpea. urd bean and mung bean. The pre-treatments of s oaking in NaHCO3 solution and pectinase significantly reduced the cooking t ime in both whole seed and dhal components. Sodium bicarbonate solution was more effective than the enzyme treatment in reducing the cooking time in w hole seed, whereas the latter was more effective in dhal samples. Effect of pectinase enzyme treatment was most pronounced in pigeonpea, followed by f ield pea and chickpea in dhal samples. Soaking in NaHCO3 solution resulted in the highest reduction of cooking time of chickpea and the lowest in pige onpea in case of whole seed samples.