28/09/2021

Starch-rich foods

Contents of the lecture

◼ Microstructure of starch-rich foods

◼ Microstructure-functionality in baked goods
◼ Stickiness in pasta
◼ Phenomena occurring during French fries preparation
◼ Mashed potatoes and phase separation phenomena

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The kitchen as laboratory – relevant chapters

◼ 2 – Sound appeal
◼ 3 – Mediterranean sponge cake
◼ 9 – The perfect cookie dough
◼ 21 – Playing with sound: crispy crusts

Microstructure visualisation

100 m

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Microstructure visualisation

Cookie dough

Microstructure visualisation

Baked cookie

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Microstructure visualisation
Spaghetti

Surface

Interior

Starch granules
degradation

Relevant physical phenomena

◼ Starch gelatinization and retrogradation

◼ Gluten formation

◼ Protein denaturation

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Starch gelatinisation

◼ Starch: polymer of α-D-glucose

– amylose: 20-30%, linear chain
– amylopectin: 70-80%, highly branched, 30-50% in crystalline form (crystallites)
◼ Starch granules: 2-100 m
– 77% starch
– 1% other (lipids, proteins, minerals)
– 22% water
◼ Increasing temperature in excess of water and under stirring:
– below melting point (depends on water content), granules swelling (30-40%
volume increase), amylose leaching
– melting, more amylose leaching
– more swelling, complete leaching
– disruption of the granules

Effect of temperature on the structure of a starch granule

Heating rate 40°C/min,

final temperature 180°C

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Starch retrogradation

◼ Upon cooling of dispersions of gelatinised starch →

⚫ Reorganisation of the polysaccharide chains in microcrystallites

⚫ At concentrations higher than the chain overlap concentration → gel
formation
⚫ The lower the temperature below the melting point, the more extensive
the retrogradation
⚫ At temperatures lower than 0°C, very slow retrogradation
⚫ The lower the water content, the more extensive the retrogradation
⚫ At water contents lower than 20%, impaired mobility of the starch
molecules → no retrogradation

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Bread

◼ Bread goes stale upon storage

Optimum temperature to retain texture as it gets out of the oven?
● 7°C ?
● 0°C ?
● -10°C ?
◼ Glass transition in polymer matrices?
Vitrification only when cooling occurs more rapidly than crystallisation

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Bread

◼ If temperature > -20°C, structural transitions take place

⚫ Co-crystallisation of amylose and amylopectin.
⚫ Co-crystallisation counteracted by lipids, that bind with amylose (lipids being
“bread improvers”)

◼ Firmness of stale bread

⚫ Co-crystallisation
⚫ Rheology of glass state (water content, …)

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Gluten formation
◼ Gliadins and glutenins 80% of wheat proteins (continuous
matrix)
◼ Gliadins (MW: 20000-50000) soluble in ethanol solutions
◼ Glutenins (MW: 50000-millions) soluble in dilute acids and
bases
◼ In water and under shear → network

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Bread crust crispiness

Finer crumb
morphology, more
closed structure, smaller
gas cells with less gas
cells interconnections
and a thicker crust have
a significant positive
effect on water uptake
kinetics and crispness
retention.

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Sponge cakes

◼ Types
⚫ Basic sponge cake with baking powder
⚫ Genoese sponge

◼ Essentials
⚫ Coagulating matrix
⚫ Incorporation of air bubbles
• chemically → baking powder
• physically → beating

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Microstructure of sponge cake

Scanning electron micrographs of

sponge cakes with varying bulk
density:
(a) ρb = 0.69 g/ml
(b) ρb = 0.29 g/ml
(c) ρb = 0.23 g/ml
(d) ρb = 0.18 g/ml.
Scale bar represents 1 mm

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Short dough types from the French cuisine

◼ Sucrée:
⚫ 500 g flour
⚫ 400 g butter
⚫ 200 g sugar
⚫ 4 yolks
⚫ ½ of a vanilla bean
◼ Sablée
⚫ 500 g flour
⚫ 250 g butter (cold dices)
⚫ 140 g icing sugar
⚫ 5 yolks
⚫ 1 egg
⚫ the grated peel of an untreated lemon (just the zest)

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Short dough types from the French cuisine

◼ Breton
⚫ 425 g flour
⚫ 85 g potato starch (better than corn starch)
⚫ 465 g butter in chunks
⚫ 150 g icing sugar
⚫ 2 g of salt
⚫ 1 yolk of a hardboiled egg
◼ Brisée
⚫ 250 g flour
⚫ 125 g cold butter in chunks
⚫ 60 g cold Water
⚫ salt

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Recipe for choux pastry

◼ 50 g butter or margarine
◼ 150 ml water
◼ 100 g plain flour
◼ 3 medium eggs, lightly beaten

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Recipe for puff pastry

◼ 225 g flour
◼ pinch of salt
◼ 30 g lard
◼ 150 ml cold water
◼ 150 g butter

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Structural and functional properties of baked goods

Product Continuous Water Fat Gluten Starch Crispiness Elasticity

phase content content development gelatinisation
(%) (%)

Bread Gluten 30-40 1-3 +++ +++ 0 ++++

(excl. crust)
Sponge Eggs/ 15-30 2-25 + ++ 0 +++
cake gluten
Short Fat 5-10 10-50 Very little Very little +++ 0
dough
Choux Mixed <10 25-30 ++ +++ ++ 0
pastry
Puff Mixed <5 20-30 ++ ++ ++++ 0
pastry

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Microstructure of cooked pasta

Interior Surface

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Reduction of pasta stickiness

◼ Pasta:
⚫ Flour
⚫ Water
⚫ Eggs
⚫ Kneading, cut up, cook 3-6 minutes

◼ Adding salt before or after cooking?

◼ Oil to boiling water?

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Reduction of pasta stickiness

◼ Sticking prevention: proportion

of egg higher (less starch into
solution, or not enough starch
released before egg is cooked)
◼ Durum wheat also contains
(gluten) proteins that can have
the function of forming a
network around the starch
particles

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Reduction of pasta stickiness

◼ Cooking in vinegar: protein
network formation more easily
◼ Oil addition works only after
put onto plate (forms oily non-
sticking layer)
◼ More proteins in water (rich
broth) less amylose in water
◼ Dry pasta, protein network
formed faster upon cooking
(dry at end of preparation)
◼ Elasticity mainly due to
elasticity protein network

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Raw potato

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Cooked potato

Hard cooking Crummy

Separate cells

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French fries – How to get them crispy and not oily?

◼ Starch gelatinises
◼ Crust formation and
shrinkage
◼ Cell shrinks
◼ Crust more porous

J.M. Aguilera et al.

Food Research International 34 (2001)

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French fries
◼ Crust formation versus cooking of starch, a balancing act
⚫ Crust due to drying of starch upon water evaporation (boiling at 1000C)
⚫ Water escapes the fries, not allowing oil to come in

◼ Time matters as well as thickness (meat cooking analogue)

◼ 12 mm thickness, 7 minutes of cooking at 180°C, second round

200°C, get them out when golden brown

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French fries

◼ Most uptake due

to capillary action

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French fries
Frying temperature: 180°C

P.C. Moyano et al.

Journal of Food Engineering 54 (2002) 249–255

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Mashed potatoes
◼ Cooking potatoes
⚫ Starch granules
⚫ Amylose and amylopectin
⚫ Dissolution 55°C for amylose
⚫ Insoluble amylopectin
Heating Cooling

Gelatinisation amylose 70°C

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Mashed potatoes

◼ Precisions:

◼ If you have crummy potatoes and want firm potatoes after cooking,
add some vinegar, or precook them

◼ Do not use new potatoes for mashed potatoes recipe

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Mashed potatoes

Pectin glue between cells

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Mashed potatoes

◼ Cell glue (pectin) largely intact, firmness high (hard cooking)

◼ Pectin not intact, separate cells, less firm (crummy cooking)
◼ Enzyme present that decomposes pectin
⚫ With precooking->enzyme inactive-> pectin intact-> high firmness
⚫ Under acid conditions-> less pectin breakdown (less enzyme activity)->higher
firmness (also lower solubility and openness of pectin layers)

◼ Analogous to cooking beans and lentils (pectin action versus Ca and

acidity)
◼ Best mashed potatoes when separate cells (highest dispersibility)

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Mixtures of proteins and polysaccharides

gelatin-rich phase
poor in dextran

dextran-rich phase
poor in gelatin

Edelman, Tromp, EvdL

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Effect of proteins in polysaccharide solutions

 90% water
 10% polymer

gelatin-rich

dextran-rich

unstable

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Mashed potatoes

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Mashed potatoes

◼ Proteins concentrate the regions of polysaccharide (induce phase

separation) thus making the gelation process only localised. This
causes less sticking because a complete network is not formed.

◼ Sensory effect (creation):

⚫ Flour based sauces with protein yield a more constant shear viscosity
compared to without protein

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