2014 Annual Meeting Abstract - Evaluating the Kramer Shear cell and Ottawa cell for determining texture of cooked macaroni

Poster Presentation
Analytical methods

8-P

Evaluating the Kramer Shear cell and Ottawa cell for determining texture of cooked macaroni
Y. LIU (1), F. A. Manthey (1)
(1) North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, U.S.A.

Cooked firmness of spaghetti is typically determined by measuring the work required to cut through a spaghetti strand using a knife 'tooth' probe as described by Pasta and Noodle Cooking Quality–Firmness, AACCI Method 66-50.01. However, using the knife probe on short goods, with their unconventional shapes, can be challenging. Short goods do not have a standardized method for obtaining cooked texture using testing machines. The Kramer Shear cell and various compression type cells like the Ottawa cell have been used to determine cooked firmness and overall texture of non-spaghetti shaped pasta. Variables in instrument setting and test parameters have not been optimized. Research was conducted using a texture analyzer with a 50 kg load cell to evaluate Kramer Shear cell and Ottawa cell for determining cooked firmness of macaroni. The Kramer Shear cell has blades that pass through 5 mm wide rectangular slots in its bottom plate. The Ottawa cell uses a solid plunger and has several bottom plates available. Two plates were evaluated; one with 5 mm and one with 2 mm wide rectangular slots. During the test, the plunger stopped 1 cm from the base plate. The entire cooked sample was added to the Kramer cell or to the Ottawa cell. The effect of initial sample dry weight (15, 25, 35, and 45 g) and cook time (8, 10, and 12 min) were evaluated. Results indicated that for the Kramer Shear cell the 15 g dry weight sample was too small and did not have enough cooked mass to differentiate the effect of cooking time on cooked firmness. The 25, 35, and 45 g sample sizes were large enough to detect differences in firmness for macaroni cooked 8, 10, and 12 min. The Ottawa cell with either the 5 or 2 mm wide rectangular slots required the 45 g sample size in order to detect differences in firmness of macaroni cooked at 8, 10, and 12 min.