Cooking quality and chemical composition of some early, medium and late maturing cultivars of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Mill.)

Abstract

Twenty pigeon pea (red gram) cultivars belonging to early, medium and late maturity groups grown during two seasons were studied for the cooking quality and chemical composition. Although no clear cut differences in cooking time, water absorption, solids dispersion, texture (extrusion force) and chemical constituents of cultivars of different maturity groups were observed, the cooking quality of early cultivars appeared to be better than those of the medium and late ones. Of the various physicochemical characteristics, water absorption, solids dispersion and texture were highly and significantly correlated with the cooking time. This shows that these characteristics can be conveniently used as objective tests to study the cooking quality o f pigeon pea cultivars