Cereal Chem 62:431-436   |  VIEW ARTICLE
Noodles. II. The Surface Firmness of Cooked Noodles from Soft and Hard Wheat Flours.

N. H. Oh, P. A. Seib. C. W. Deyoe, and A. B. Ward. Copyright 1985 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Surface firmness of cooked noodles was determined by applying an increasing compressive force to the surface of cooked noodles and measuring the initial slope of the force-distance curve. The steeper the slope, the firmer the surface. The coefficient of variation of the method was less than 7%, and the instrument data agreed with the subjective assessment of surface firmness by an untrained taste panel (r = 0.89, P less than 0.01). Surface firmness increased with increased rest time of the mixed dough prior to sheeting, increased rate of reducing dough thickness, decreased cooking time, and substitution of deionized water for tap water during cooking. The high pH of tap water was mainly responsible for its detrimental effect on surface firmness.