Vol. 11, Special Issue 8 (2022)

Author(s):
Ashwathi KC, V Eyarkai Nambi, V Chandrasekar and R Jagan Mohan

Abstract:
Idli is preferred as a breakfast food by millions of consumers because of its appealing nature, spongy and soft texture, pleasant aroma, and fermented sour taste. This study aims at comparing the textural, color, and sensory characteristics of idli. Idlis were made using various ratios of rice and black gram at various fermentation durations, with hotel samples used as a control. All the idlis were analysed for textural, color, and sensory parameters along with ink test method. Pearson correlation was performed among the obtained results. In which the correlation among different parameters in the textural analysis showed that most of the textural parameters are positively correlated at p<0.05. The highest correlation was shown by gumminess with hardness and chewiness at a correlation coefficient of r=0.87 and r=0.99. Correlation performed for sensory assessment showed that overall acceptability is significantly correlated (p<0.05) to other sensory properties in the order, flavor (r=0.91) > taste (r=0.88) > softness (r=0.78) > color (r=0.63) > appearance (-0.51). Wherein the Pearson correlation test for color parameters showed a negative correlation between L* value and b* value (r=-0.57, p<0.05). The number of pores obtained from the ink test had a significant correlation with many sensory properties. According to the PCA results for the textural parameter, the first principal component has strong positive correlations with cohesiveness, chewiness, and gumminess, whereas the second principal component has positive correlations with hardness and negative correlations with springiness. PCA for sensory attributes shows that the majority of the sensory properties fall on the positive side of the first principal component.