factors affecting cooking quality of pulses By:Sandhiya.B

2. INTRODUCTION
• What are pulses?
• Pulses are the edible seeds of plants in the
legume family. Pulses grow in pods and come
in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.
• Forms of pulses:
• Whole legumes
• Split legumes with or without skin.
• Germinated or fermented pulses.
• Flour of pulses.

4. COOKING OF PULSES
• In India ,about 80%percent of pulses are
consumed in the form of dal or besan.
• And remaining 20% percent as whole seed.
• Cooking of pulses take longer time to cook
than cereals.

5. • The cooking quality of pulses is a function
of the cooking time , that is the time of
boiling during which they attain desirable
softness.

6. • In addition the cooking quality also a
function of an increase in volume after
cooking and improve texture.

8. • Pulse foods are sticky or slimy in
texture and are unattractive.

9. PULSE COOKERY
• The heat tretment during cooking helps in
loosening the intercellular matrix of the
middle lamella suffiecient to allow
seperation of individual cells.

11. • Seperation of cells during cooking may be
related to removal of Mg and Ca from the
bridge position of pectinaceous matrix of
the middle lamella.
• Cooking time influences the Nutritive value
of pulses.

12. EFFECT OF COOKING
Antinutritional factor:
• Uncooked legumes seeds contains
antinutritional factors that can be toxic
if large amounts are consumed.
• Redkidney ,blackgram and soyabean
have higher amounts of polyphenolic
compounds.

13. PROTEIN QUALITY
• Excess heat reduces the quality of the bean
protein .
• Protein quality of pulses is improved more
by moist heat than by dry heat treatment.
• Lysine is decreased in roasted pulses as
compared to bolied and than by pressure
cooked ones .

14. • Heat treatment causes loss of
methionine ,the most important
aminoacid of legume.

15. MINERALS
• Cooking has little effect on
calcium,magnesium and total iron
content of pulses.
• VITAMINS
• Loss of thiamine may occur due to heat
applied.

16. COLOUR
• Sodium metabisulphite is found to be
effective in maintaining colour of
lentils,other seeds acquire a darker colour
during processing.
• Studies conducted by narasimha and
desikachari(1978) showed cooking time is
directly related to the PCMP number

17. • Pcmp=free pectin
+calcium+magnesium/2-phytin.
• Pcmp relating contents is ,
• P=pectin
• C=calcium
• M=magnesium
• P=phytin

18. FACTORS AFFECTING COOKING QUALITY OF
PULSES
• The hardness is of two types,
• Hard shell
• Sclerema
• Hard shell is described as physical condition
in which the seeds fails to absorb water .
• Sclerema takes place in cotyledons and is
induced by various factors,

19. INHERENT CHARATER
• Cooking time is a heritable character that
differs widely among genotypes .
• Cooking time of whole seed is usually the
highest in chickpea followed by pigeon pea
and blackgram and green gram.

21. ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
• Variation in cooking quality of pulses within
and between varities could be due to,
• Location
• soil fertility
• soil moisture

22. STORAGE CONDITIONS
• Cooking quality is influenced by
time,temperatureand relative humidity
during storage.
• Cooking time for same hardness increases
with storage time .
• Moisture content during storage above 10
% may cause deterioration in cooking
quality.

23. SEED MATURITY
• High temperature at the time of maturing
affects the cooking time.
• Cooking time increases with the increase in
seed maturity .
• The very hard mature seeds take long time
to cook.

24. DEHULLING
• This reduces the cooking time by 70percent
and Increases digestibility.
• SOAKING
• Whole grams are soaked in water to
improve the cooking qualities.
• Whole grams like bengal gram cannot be
cooked to desirable consistency without this
pretreatment.

26. PRECOOKING
• The cooking time for precooked lentil seed
is less compared to untreated lentils.
• Precooking is done by cooking ,treating with
enzymes and dehydration in controlled
conditions.

27. SALTS
• Hard –to-cook condition can be eliminated
by soaking seeds in salt solution consisting
of 1 percent NACL and 0.75 percent
NaHco3 Instead of only water.
• Carbonate or Bicarbonate not only act as an
alkali agent and buffer but also act as
protein dissaciating,solubilising,or
tenderising agent.

28. PHYTIN CONTENT
• High available phosphorus in the soil
contributes to high phytin content in the
same and consequently to good cooking.
• Phytin has a softening action on pulse
during cooking.
• The softening of pulses during cooking takes
place through a reaction between
sodium/potassium phytate present in
cotyledons.

29. CALCIUM AND MAGNESIUM
• Large amount of insoluble calcium and
magnesium pectates are formed in the
middle lamella of the cell walls when the
seed is high in calcium and magnesium or
when the cooking water is high in these
elements.
• When legumes are cooked in hard water,
they take long time to get cooked.

30. • Hard water contains chlorides and
sulphates of calcium and magnesium salts .
• They appear to react with pectic substances
and phytates and harden the cellulose and
delay the cooking process.

31. CELLULOSE
• The thickness of the palisade layer and the
contents of lignin and alpha cellulose in seed
coats are probably important factors in the
cooking quality of pulses .
• Hard shell seeds legumes resist water
absorption and thereby delay the cooking of
pulses.
• Sodium bicarbonate softens the cellulose
and hastens cooking.