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Hydration and culinary profile of improved common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L) cultivars
Abstract
Fifteen improved bean cultivars were evaluated for their culinary properties against landrace (control) from different growth altitudes cultivated in Rwanda. Standardised methods were adopted to analyze properties of soaked and unsoaked beans: cooking time, water absorption capacity and percentage splitting of the seed coats, broth pigment and texture of the cooked beans. Cooking time for soaked beans (µ = 55.2 min) was less compared to unsoaked beans (µ = 133.3 min) across all growth altitudes. Water absorption during cooking by soaked bean (µ = 5.4 gm) was only slightly less than unsoaked beans (µ = 6.6 gm). Mean splitting of beans during cooking by soaked beans (µ = 29.8 %) was more than unsoaked beans (µ = 8.6%). Pearson correlation analysis was positive between soaked and unsoaked seed variants for cooking time, water absorption and splitting of seed coat and cotyledon but not significant at 5% level. Majority of the bean cultivars (93.75%) cooked well upon soaking. Yet, evaluation of soaked beans across different growth altitudes was not significant at 5 % level when compared with control for cooking time and water absorption. This concluded that the improved varieties did not influence the culinary properties of soaked beans irrespective of growth altitude. Texture of all soaked and cooked cultivars showed almost similar texture within 50min of cooking, except Gasirida which remained undercooked. Broths of all cultivars, irrespective of soaking, were pigmented (88%) except RWV3006 and CAB2.
Keywords: Bean culinary, bean hydration, water absorption capacity, splitting of seed coat; finger press characteristics, growth altitude