Gelation Characteristics of Illinois Soybean Beverage Base

139 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984.Tofu, being the most important source of protein in the Orient, is gaining popularity throughout the world. The Oriental method of producing soymilk for making tofu resulted in beany flavor, low protein and total solids recoveries, and waste treatment problems. Soybean beverages made from whole soybean (without desludging) have been developed at the University of Illinois. These beverages possess the properties of good palatability and suspension stability.The overall objective of this work was to study the feasibility of preparing soybean curds from Illinois beverage base. The first step was to develop a standard method for making soybean curds. The second was to investigate the effect of base processing conditions on the curd formation and texture. The third was to study the effects of the sequence of heating and cell disruption, and blanching time on the curd characteristics. The last step was to evaluate the effect of soybean fibers on the curd characteristics.An Instron instrument was used to measure the textual properties of the curds, i.e., hardness, cohesiveness and elasticity. The subjective sensory evaluation was performed not only to correlate to the objective Instron measurement, but also to judge the acceptance of the products, especially from the standpoint of graininess. Scanning electron microscopy was applied to examine the three-dimensional structure of curds as affected by the processing conditions.There was no difference in the textural data between the Illinois curd and the Oriental tofu. The total solids and protein recoveries in the Illinois curd were 82.2 and 94.9% which were much higher than 57.2 and 69.4%, respectively, in the Oriental tofu. The best curd from Illinois soybean base was obtained by blanching cotyledons in tap water without bicarbonate, grinding with water to 10% total solids, homogenizing at 82(DEGREES)C with 5000 psi pressure on the first stage, coagulating with 0.5% calcium sulfate at 75(DEGREES)C and pressing as usual. This curd was somewhat grainy so the mouth-feel was not quite as good as that for tofu. However, it compared favorably with tofu in all other respects while showing a large advantage in protein recovery.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD