Abstract:
The objective of this research was to study the preparation and qualities of clear noodle made from edible canna starches of three cultivars namely; Thai-purple, Thai-green and Japanese-green. The effects of amount of gelatinized starch, moisture content of dough and holding temperature after cooking on noodle appearance were investigated. For preliminary study, dough of Thai-purple canna starch was extruded by using a fabric bag through its perforated stainless steel plate into boiling water. Clear and long noodles were obtained when 10% gelatinized starch, dough with 61.7% moisture content and holding temperature at 40C were used. This condition was applied to an in-house constructed extrusion machine. Additionally, the dough moisture contents of 50 and 55% were also studied. 10% Gelatinized starch and 55% moisture content gave clear noodles with quality closed to commercial noodles. Consequently, the three canna starches were then prepared using the same condition. The chemical compositions of the noodles obtained were; 89.41 91.63 % starch, 0.21 0.33 % protein, < 0.01 % lipid, 0.16 0.20 % ash (on dry weight basis) and 15.24 15.46 % moisture content. Measured diameters of noodles were in the range of 0.73 0.88 mm. The cooking losses were 0.93 1.55 % dry weight whereas tensile strengths were 9.13 9.89 g. Cooking times were 1.5 2.0 min. The energy values derived from 100 g of canna noodles were 358.48 367.84 kcal. By descriptive test, no significant difference (<0.05) in the sensory evaluation between three canna noodles and the commercial ones were found. By paired-comparison test, however, the commercial noodles were more favorable.