Cereal Chem 63:93-96   |  VIEW ARTICLE
Noodles. V. Determination of Optimum Water Absorption of Flour to Prepare Oriental Noodles.

N. H. Oh, P. A. Seib, K. F. Finney, and Y. Pomeranz. Copyright 1986 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

A mixograph and water absorption meter were used to predict the optimum absorption of a flour for production of oriental noodles. Increments of water were added each minute to flour (10 g) in the mixograph until the width and height of the mixogram increased significantly and abruptly. The mixogram absorption was 4-8 percentage points higher than that determined by the "handling" properties of a dough to produce long, dry noodles. To predict absorption for a noodle dough, a correction curve was derived from 29 flours, which showed a linear correlation with flour protein. Compared to handling absorption, absorption predicted by the mixograph and water absorption meter gave correlation coefficients of 0.91 (P less than 0.01) and 0.64 (P less than 0.01), respectively. The mixograph was easier to use and gave a more accurate estimate of absorption in a dry-noodle dough than the water absorption meter. The mixograph method accurately measured the change in absorption of dry-noodle doughs caused by differences in starch damage and flour granulation.