Effects of flour free lipids on textural and cooking qualities of Chinese noodles

The relationships between textural and cooking qualities of Chinese noodles and flour lipids were investigated. Removal of free lipids (FL) or excess FL caused significant decreases in hardness and cohesiveness of noodles. The highest hardness and cohesiveness of noodles were obtained at certain FL levels (1.84 and 1.24 g/100 g flour, respectively). Tensile strength and breaking length of noodles both reached the highest values when FL content in the flour was adjusted to about half of the original level. A good correlation was found between cohesiveness and cooking loss of noodles (r = −0.967). Hardness and cohesiveness of cooked noodles increased linearly with the increase of polar lipids (PL) relative proportion of FL (r = 0.939 and 0.900, respectively). Entire replacement of PL with nonpolar lipids in flour led to a significant decrease in springiness of noodles. These results suggest that PL play an important role in obtaining strong noodle texture.