The objective of this work was to evaluate effects of barrel temperature (BT) of extruder and moisture levels of wheat and soybean mixture on cooking quality of pre-cooked pastas by extrusion-cooking. The experiment was carried out, using Brabender single screw extruder with a constant feeding rate of 3.6 kg/h, a constant screw-speed of 90 rpm and a laminar shape die of 1 mm. Results showed that the soluble solid losses at an optimum cooking time increased with increasing soybean proportions (10% to 40%). The losses decreased with increasing BT up to a minimum, beyond which they increased. The moisture increase caused decreased losses at lower BT, however, an increase occurred at higher BT, which was affected by soybean proportions. Increasing BT caused a decrease in increased cooked weight and cooked volume up to a minimum, beyond which it increased. A reduction in increased cooked weight and cooked volume at optimum cooking time with the moisture increase and soybean proportion increase was verified.
extruded pasta; mixture of wheat and soybean; cooking losses
