Injera is an Ethiopian flat bread made from cereals, with tef preferred for the best quality injera. Because sorghum is less expensive in Ethiopia, there is great interest in improving the quality of sorghum injera. Effects of cultivar on injera quality were studied using 12 Ethiopian sorghum cultivars of varying kernel characteristics. White tef with good injera making quality was included as a reference. Injera quality was evaluated using two techniques: descriptive sensory analysis of fresh injera and instrumental texture analysis of injera stored over a storage period of 48 hr using a three‐point bending rig. Principal component analysis (PCA) of sensory data associated fresh injera from sorghum cultivars 3443‐2‐op, 76TI #23, and PGRC/E #69349 of varying endosperm texture, with positive injera texture attributes of softness, rollability, and fluffiness. Across the two seasons, texture analysis showed injera prepared from AW and CR:35:5, both with soft endosperm, required the least force to bend after 48 hr of storage. Bending force was negatively correlated with softness (r = ‐0.63, P < 0.05) and positively with grittiness (r = 0.75, P < 0.01) after 48 hr of storage. Sorghum cultivar has an influence on both injera making and keeping qualities.
Injera is an Ethiopian fermented pancake-like bread made from cereals, with tef being preferred. Decortication and compositing with tef were evaluated as methods to improve the injera-making quality of red tannin-free and tannin-containing sorghums. Both decortication and compositing improved sorghum injera quality. Concerning decortication, mechanical abrasion was found to be more effective than hand pounding because acceptable injera was obtained with lower milling loss. Good quality injera was produced at an extraction rate of 540 g kg −1 for tannin-containing and 830 g kg −1 for tannin-free sorghum. With compositing, good quality injera was produced with a 50:50 (w/w) composite of whole tannin-containing sorghum and tef. Both processes reduced the tannin content of the flours, which appeared to relieve the inhibiting effects of tannins on the fermentation. Decortication also seemed to improve sorghum flour injera-making quality by improving flour pasting as a result of reducing the level of interfering substances such as lipids and proteins. In contrast, the improvement brought about by compositing with tef seemed to be due to inherent differences between tef and sorghum starch granules and an increase in the water solubility index of the flour. Compositing seems to be a more useful method of improving sorghum injera quality than decorticating as it avoids the grain loss associated with decortication.
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) grain was boiled or autoclaved in alkali, washed, drained, and dried into shelf‐stable half‐products (pellets). The pellets were deep‐fat fried to produce a crunchy snack product. Effects of cooking time, drying method (pellet moisture content), and sorghum cultivar on unfried and fried pellets were evaluated. Increasing the alkaline cooking time from 30 to 60 min decreased the yield of the pellets from 96 to 84% (on a dry weight basis). Cooked sorghum dried at room temperature (24°C) for 18 hr, followed by oven‐drying at 50°C for an additional 18 hr, produced pellets with a low moisture content (≤5%), that required a higher frying temperature (≥220°C). However, cooked sorghum dried at room temperature for 18 hr followed by oven‐drying at 50°C for 5 hr produced pellets with 9% moisture and a lighterdensity highly acceptable product when fried at 220°C. Fat content of fried pellets averaged 18%. The optimum method for producing a light, crunchy, fried product was cooking for 60 min, drying to 9% moisture, and frying at 220°C. ATx631*Tx436, the hardest endosperm‐texture sorghum used in the study, had the highest unfried and fried pellet yields. Dorado, an intermediate‐to‐soft endosperm‐texture sorghum, and ATx Arg‐1*Tx2907, a waxy sorghum, had lower yields. The fried pellets produced from Dorado and waxy sorghum (ATxArg‐1*Tx2907) were more expanded than those produced from ATx631*Tx436.
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