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Starch Pasting and Textural Attributes of Elbow Macaroni as Impacted by Dough Moisture, Dough Mixing Time, and Macaroni Cooking Time

¹Application scientist, Novozymes NA, 77 Perrys Chapel Church Road, Franklinton, NC 27525, U.S.A. ²Corresponding author. Phone: (479) 479-3805. Fax: (919) 494-3450. E-mail: daus@novozymes.com ³Professor, associate dean, and associate director, 256 Food Industry Complex, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, U.S.A.

The effects of dough moisture, mixing time, and cooking time on uncooked and cooked elbow macaroni by means of starch pasting and macaroni textural characteristics were investigated. In conventional elbow macaroni production, cooking time was found to have significant contributions to cooked macaroni starch pasting properties, indicating that degree of starch cook dependent on cooking time was the main influence on cooked macaroni starch pasting phenomena. Dough moisture also showed some significant (P < 0.05) relationships with cooked macaroni starch pasting properties; however, mixing time did not show significant effect. Cooked macaroni starch pasting properties showed significantly (P < 0.05) high correlations with cooked macaroni firmness and stickiness. Cooking time was the only major variable contributing to variations in cooked elbow macaroni starch and consequently in pasting and texture characteristics. Cooking time was highly related to firmness and stickiness of cooked elbow macaroni (P < 0.0001, R² = 0.8148; P < 0.0001, R² = 0.6215, respectively). In addition, dough moisture had a slight significant (P < 0.05) effect on cooked elbow macaroni firmness and stickiness. Cooked elbow macaroni firmness and stickiness were found to be highly correlated (P = 0.0001, R² = 0.8459). Increases in firmness increased cooked elbow macaroni stickiness. As a result, when elbow macaroni was cooked for shorter times, firmer and stickier macaroni was obtained.