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Effects of Processing Conditions and Sorghum Cultivar on Alkaline-Processed Snacks

¹Research associate, assistant research scientist, professor, and professor, respectively. Cereal Quality Lab., Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2474. ²Corresponding author. Email: esuhendr@taexgw.tamu.edu ³Nazaret Research Center, Nazaret, Ethiopia.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) grain was boiled or autoclaved in alkali, washed, drained, and dried into shelf-stable half-products (pellets). The pellets were deep-fat fried to produce a crunchy snack product. Effects of cooking time, drying method (pellet moisture content), and sorghum cultivar on unfried and fried pellets were evaluated. Increasing the alkaline cooking time from 30 to 60 min decreased the yield of the pellets from 96 to 84% (on a dry weight basis). Cooked sorghum dried at room temperature (24°C) for 18 hr, followed by oven-drying at 50°C for an additional 18 hr, produced pellets with a low moisture content (≤5%), that required a higher frying temperature (≥220°C). However, cooked sorghum dried at room temperature for 18 hr followed by oven-drying at 50°C for 5 hr produced pellets with 9% moisture and a lighterdensity highly acceptable product when fried at 220°C. Fat content of fried pellets averaged 18%. The optimum method for producing a light, crunchy, fried product was cooking for 60 min, drying to 9% moisture, and frying at 220°C. ATx631*Tx436, the hardest endosperm-texture sorghum used in the study, had the highest unfried and fried pellet yields. Dorado, an intermediate-to-soft endosperm-texture sorghum, and ATx Arg-1*Tx2907, a waxy sorghum, had lower yields. The fried pellets produced from Dorado and waxy sorghum (ATxArg-1*Tx2907) were more expanded than those produced from ATx631*Tx436.