Advantages of sous-vide cooked red cabbage: Structural, nutritional and sensory aspects

•Instrumental firmness of the suitable texture for cooked cabbage was fixed (TF).•Changes in firmness and color of red cabbage with sous-vide treatment were modeled.•Time and temperature pairings for sous-vide (SV) were defined to provide TF.•SV cooked cabbage was preferred to traditionally cooked one with similar TF.•SV samples were tastier, more purple and retained more anthocyanins than TC ones.

The comparison between equivalent cooking treatments should be applied in a systematic way. This study proposes a methodical way to provide cooked samples with similar firmness using two cooking treatments. In addition, the structural, nutritional and sensory properties of red cabbage cooked with sous-vide treatment in comparison with traditional cooking (boiling water) was evaluated. Changes in texture, color and anthocyanin content were measured in samples cooked with traditional cooking (for different times) and sous-vide (modifying time and temperature according to a Response Surface Methodology). Consumers described sensory properties and preferences between samples. Cryo-scanning electron microscopy was used to study the samples microstructure.The firmness of samples, traditionally cooked for 11 min and preferred by consumers, was achieved in samples cooked with sous-vide treatment by optimizing of the cooking conditions (87 °C/50 min or 91 °C/30 min). Sous-vide treatment was preferred to traditional cooking by consumers. Sous-vide samples were more purple, more aromatic and tastier than traditionally cooked ones. The loss of anthocyanins in traditional cooking was twice that in sous-vide samples. Micrographs from different treatments showed different degrees of cell wall damage. Sous-vide treatment could be recommended as a treatment for the catering industry providing better quality products.