Cooking Process Optimization of Potatoes in “Braised Beef with

Potatoes”

Huihui Li

and Shenghong Zhou

2,*

College of Food Technology, Wuhan Business University, Wuhan 430056, China

Hubei Province Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Center, Wuhan Business University, Wuhan 430056, China

Keywords:

Braised Beef with Potato, Soft but Not Rotton, Cooking Process, Sensory Evaluation.

Abstract:

As the world's fourth largest food crop, potato industry had a broad development prospect, but there were few

studies on “braised beef with potatoes” dishes. In this paper, cooking process parameters of the dishes were

optimized by single factor experiment and L9 (3

) orthogonal experiment, to obtaining potatoes had a “soft

but not rotton” texture. The Sensory evaluation experiment showed that when potatoes were cut into cubes

with a diameter of 2cm, soaked in clean water for 15 minutes, and then cooked with pretreated beef in an

induction cooker with 1000w power for 15 minutes, the product quality was the best. Among the four cooking

parameters, the size of potato piece had the greatest impact, followed by soaking time. These two factors

might directly affect the content and gelatinization degree of potato starch, which could significantly improve

the visual effect and taste of dishes.

1 INTRODUCTION

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an annual

herbaceous plant of the Solanaceae genus Solanum.

Its tuber is an important food and vegetable. At the

beginning of 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture

launched the strategy of potato staple food (Lu,

2015). Potatoes will be more and more widely used

in cooking and food industry. Different from the

crispy taste of potatoes in fried potato shreds, the

potato pieces in potato goulash are generally noodles

taste. It is generally believed that potato starch

granules are oval in shape. The higher the starch

content, the lower the amylose content, the larger the

starch granules, the more water absorbed in the

cooking process, the cooked potato will have a “soft

but not rotton” texture and a “flour” feel, which have

good palatability (Huang, 2017). The texture of food

are often obtained by means of sensory evaluation

and instrumental analysis (Liu, 2016). In the research

on frozen potato strips and potato chips (Kong, 2016),

it is found that sensory evaluation and instrumental

analysis have a good correlation. At present, the

production of goulash with potato is still in the

empirical stage. With the development of the food

industry, it is necessary to make the production

process of goulash with potato scientific and

standardized.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Materials and Instruments

Materials: Fresh potatoes including Holland No.15

(produced in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region),

"V7" yellow potatoes (produced in Heilongjiang

Province) and “Shapoti” potatoes (Produced in Hebei

Province), the above potatoes were purchased from

Hankou North Farmers Market. Horqin Beef; Yunhe

Salt; Wang Zhihe Cooking Wine; Lee Kum Kee

Light Soy Sauce; Huiyi Soy Sauce; Arowana

Soybean Oil; the above ingredients were purchased

from Wal-Mart.

Experiment instruments: WT2118 Midea

uniform-fire induction cooker, Matsunami S3 kitchen

electronic scale, Nitori pan from Japan, Standard

sensory laboratory.

Li, H. and Zhou, S.

Cooking Process Optimization of Potatoes in “Braised Beef with Potatoes”.

DOI: 10.5220/0012018500003633

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine (ICBB 2022), pages 209-214

ISBN: 978-989-758-637-8

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

209

2.2 Experiment Methods and

Measurement Index

2.2.1 the Cooking Process of Braised Beef

with Potatoes

In this experiment, beef was pre-processed into semi-

finished products, and finally potatoes were added for

co-fired. Cut the beef into standard mahjong pieces

and blanch the meat to remove bloody foam. Added

ginger and garlic to the oil pan and sauted until

fragrant. Added the beef and stir-fried for one to two

minutes; then added cooking wine, light soy sauce,

dark soy sauce, and salt; finally, poured in water and

the amount of water needed to cover the beef. After

simmered for 2 hours, the beef was semi-finished

product. In the experiment, half-finished beef

products were taken, potatoes and water were added,

and the amount of water should be more than

potatoes. After co-simmering, the goulash with

potato were completed. The basic cooking process of

semi-finished potato products was as follows:

potatoes were cut into cubes with a diameter of 2 cm,

soaked in clean water for 15 minutes, and the semi-

finished beef is braised on a 1000w induction cooker

for 12 minutes.

In the preliminary experiment, we compared

different potato varieties including V7, Holland

No.15 and Shapoti which matured from October to

November and finally selected V7 potato.

2.2.2 Single Factor Experiment of Cooking

Process of Potatoes in “Goulash with

Potatoes”

The single factor experiment mainly optimized the

cooking technology from four aspects: the size of the

potato pieces, the time of soaking in water, the

firepower of the braising, and the braising time. In the

single-factor experiment, only the process of this

factor was different from the basic process, and other

cooking parameters were the same.

Potato pieces size: potato pieces were divided into

hob pieces and cube shapes. In this experiment, the

potato raw materials were cut into small hob pieces

(1cm*2cm*3cm), large hob pieces (2cm*3cm*4cm),

and cubes with diameters of 2cm, 2.5cm, and 3cm

respectively.

Soaking time: The potatoes were treated with no

soaking, soaking for 15 minutes, 2 hours and 24 hours

respectively.

Braising power: In order to obtain a stable firing

efficiency, an induction cooker is selected as a

cooking tool in this experiment. The maximum

power of a common induction cooker is 2100w,

which is equivalent to “big fire” of a gas stove. In the

experiment, 5 different powers of the induction

cooker “600w, 800w, 1000w, 1200w, 1600w” were

selected for braising.

Braising time: Under the power of 1000W

induction cooker, potatoes and beef semi-finished

products were co-fired for 8 minutes, 10 minutes, 12

minutes, 15 minutes, and 18 minutes. Then compared

the product quality.

2.2.3 The Orthogonal Experiment of

Cooking Process of Potatoes in

“Goulash with Potatoes”

On the basis of the single factor experiment, nine

groups of orthogonal experiments were carried out

with the four factors and the corresponding three

levels as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Orthogonal experiment factors and levels table of “Braised beef with potato”.

A B C D

1 2*2*2 0 1000 12

2 2.5*2.5*2.5 15 1200 15

3 3*3*3 120 1600 18

Note: A Potato pieces size/cm, B Soaking time/min, C Braising power/w, D Braising time/min.

2.2.4 Sensory Evaluation Experiment of

Potatoes in “Goulash with Potatoes”

In the experiment, 10 experienced sensory evaluators

were selected to evaluate samples from single-factor

experimental samples and orthogonal experimental,

according to the sensory evaluation standards (Table

2). All the samples were used three-digit random

number coding.

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Table 2: Sensory evaluation creterion of “Braised potatoes”.

Scale rule score

Texture (45) soft

ut not rotton 31-45

rotten o

not com

letel

cooke

16-30

mushy o

raw an

har

1-15

Taste (20) mellow and delicious 14-20

slightly strong o

lacking 8-13

too stron

lackin

; discordant 1-7

Appearance (15) a complete and uniform shape, appropriate amount of sauce, the consistency

riate

11-15

relatively complete an

consistent, moderate sauce, too thic

too thin 6-10

scattered, different sizes, too little o

toomuchsauce,toothic

too thin 1-5

Flavour (10) a strong aroma of

otatoes 8-10

enerall

fra

rant of

otatoes, no

eculia

smell 4-7

wea

absent fra

rant of

otatoes, with some

eculia

smell 1-3

Colour (10) yellow an

right 8-10

ellowish

rown o

white, sli

htl

4-7

dar

rown o

ale, dull o

tarnishe

1-3

2.2.5 Experimental Data Statistics

Sensory evaluation score of single factor experiment

and orthogonal experiments were calculated based on

the average of ten parallel experiments. In the single

factor experiment, Excel was used to analyze the

mean value and standard deviation of sensory

evaluation indexes while the range analysis was

performed by orthogonal assistant II V3.4. The model

settings do not consider interactions, but examine the

main effects of various factors.

3 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

3.1 Single Factor Experiment of

Cooking Process of Potatoes in

“Braised Beef with Potatoes”

3.1.1 The Effect of Potato Piece Size on

Potatoes Sensory in “Goulash with

Potatoes”

In the experiment, the potatoes were cut into cubes

with different diameters and hob pieces. The hob is a

common knife method in Chinese cooking. Standing

knife was used to cut the rolling food materials

obliquely into basically the same block. It could be

seen from Figure 1 that when the potato was cut into

the hob, the sensory score was lower. This might be

due to the irregular shape of the hob and uneven

heating. In the modern food industry, tuber food was

often cut into cubes. Cubes in the heating process

conducted heat more evenly, which made product’s

quality more stable. In this experiment, the total

sensory score of potatoes cut into a cube with a

diameter of 2.5 cm was significantly better than other

size. Of course, the size of the potato slice was closely

related to the cooking method and the fire power,

which involved with heating transfer and physical

and chemical changes of potatoes’ starch and other

components under the action of heating.

Figure 1: The effect of potato piece size on sensory.

Figure 2: The effect of soaking time on sensory.

Cooking Process Optimization of Potatoes in “Braised Beef with Potatoes”

211

3.1.2 The Effect of Soaking Time on

Potatoes Sensory in “Goulash with

Potatoes”

The phenolic substances in the potatoes were exposed

to the air after peeled. It might caused enzymatic

browning, which affected the color, flavor and

nutrition of the potatoes. In the cooking process,

water soaking was usually used to isolate the air and

prevent enzymatic browning. However, during the

soaking process, the starch and moisture content of

potatoes changed, which directly affects the taste of

potatoes. It was generally believed that in the process

of high temperature cooking, a large number of

hydrophilic groups inside starch granules absorbed

water and expanded. The larger the granules, the

greater the expansion, the higher the bulkiness, and

the better the palatability of the finished product

(Huang, 2017). From Figure 2, it could be seen that

the sensory evaluation score of the potato without

soaking was slightly higher. In our early “stir-fired

crisp potato shreds” experiment , the key procedure

to getting crispy potato shreds might be soaking in

water to wash off the surface starch before stir-frying

(Li, 2017) while in this experiment potatoes could not

be soaked in order to obtain a “soft but not rotton”

texture and a “flour” feel. So it was obviously

founded that the starch attached to the potato surface

during the cutting process and the water content in

potatoes had a great influence on the crispy or soft

texture of the final dish which was deserved further

study.

.1.3 The Effect of Braising Power on

Potatoes Sensory in “Goulash with

Potatoes”

Braising is a cooking method that used water and oil

as the heat-transfer medium. Generally, when

cooking dishes we followed the culinary rule of

“firstly boil the soup on a high fire, then slowly cook

on a medium heat, finally concentrate the juice on a

high fire.” There was no precise definition on fire

power, mainly relying on empirical judgments such

as “hand feel method” and “pot test method”. So

many mistake were happened in practice, which

would decrease the quality of dishes. It was necessary

to make the definition of fire power clearly, and

standarize the cooking technology. Figure 3 showed

that when the fire power was 1600w, the sensory

evaluation score of potatoes was the highest, while

the sensory score was the lowest at 800w. From 800w

to 1600w, with the increase of heating power, the

sensory score showed an obvious upward trend. It

might be due to the potato starch gelatinization was

more complete with the higher heating power. The

dish tasted more rich and delicious. It was generally

believed that the gelatinization temperature of potato

starch was 65-70℃, and amylose content is

positively correlated with the gelatinization

temperature, the degree of difficulty of gelatinization.

Amylopectin content is significantly negatively

correlated with the disintegration value (Li, 2021).

Figure 3: The effect of braising power on sensory.

Figure 4: The effect of braising time on sensory.

3.1.4 The Effect of Braising Time on

Potatoes Sensory in “Goulash with

Potatoes”

When the cooking power of the induction cooker was

1000W, the sensory score of the dish was more and

more higher as the cooking time increased from 8

minutes to 18 minutes. At 18 minutes, “goulash with

potato” had the best sensory evaluation. In the

cooking industry, different materials had different

maturity standards ranged from "breaking raw" to

"burnt". Taken potatoes which had a higher starch

content as an example, we called it "breaking raw"

when part of potato starch was gelatinized. If cook

them a little more time, most part of starch was

gelatinized and potato were loosely structured, then

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flavor substances were easy to enter, the dishes had

richer taste. If overfired, potatoes were sticky on the

surface, and even became a paste. If continued to

cook the potatoes, Caramelization reaction and

Maillard reaction would occurred. Not only

appearance and flavor of the dishes deteriorated, but

also the nutrition was decreasd. In addition, salt

content also has an effect on the gelatinization of

potato starch. With the increase of sodium chloride,

the initial pasting temperature and peak temperature

of potato starch were increased and retrogradarion

phenomenon of starch paste was also increased

(Xiong, 2021).

3.2 Orthogonal Experiment of Cooking

Process of Potatoes in “Goulash

with Potato”

According to the results of the single factor

experiment and taking into account the mutual

influence of various factors, the four factors

including potato block size, soaking time, cooking

power and cooking time were selected in the

orthogonal experiment. The experimental results

were showed in Table 3. When potatoes were cut into

cubes with a diameter of 2cm, soaked in clean water

for 15 minutes, and then cooked with pretreated beef

in an induction cooker with 1000w power for 15

minutes, the product quality was the best. Among

them, the size of potato piece had the greatest impact

on product quality, followed by soaking time. And

the braising power also couldnot be ignored.

Table 3: Orthogonal experiment result of “Braised beef with potato”.

A B C D Sensory score

Exp.1 2*2*2 0 1000 12 81.3

Exp.2 2*2*2 15 1200 15 86.9

Exp.3 2*2*2 120 1600 18 85.1

Exp.4 2.5*2.5*2.5 0 1200 18 68.1

Exp.5 2.5*2.5*2.5 15 1600 12 76.7

Exp.6 2.5*2.5*2.5 120 1000 15 78.6

Exp.7 3*3*3 0 1600 15 72.7

Exp.8 3*3*3 15 1000 18 80.1

Exp.9 3*3*3 120 1200 12 74.4

Mean 1 84.8 74.1 80.0 77.5

Mean 2 74.5 81.2 76.5 79.4

Mean 3 75.8 79.4 78.2 77.8

Range 10.3 7.1 3.5 1.9

During the cooking process of “goulash with

potatoes”, potato starch was gelatinized under the

action of heating, which led to soft texture of

potatoes. The key point of “soft but not rotton”

texture was the degree of gelatinization of potato

starch. There were many factors affecting the degree

of starch gelatinization. In this article, the size of

potato block determined the heat condition of potato

and directly affected its gelatinization degree under

the condition of the heating power was similar.

Soaking process determined how much residual

starch attached to the potato surface during the

cutting process and the water content in potatoes, this

also affected starch gelatinization. Of course,

potatoes varieties, the content of amylose and

amylopectin and the salt added in cooking and

processing have a certain impact on the quality of

dishes, these problems were worth in-depth study.

4 CONCLUSION

In order to obtain "soft but not rotton" braising potato,

sensory evaluation was used in the article. Through

single factor and orthogonal experiments, the

cooking process parameters were optimized in

“braised beef with potato” dishes. When V7 potatoes

were selected and cut into cubes with a diameter of

2cm, soaked in clean water for 15 minutes, and then

braised with pretreated beef in an induction cooker

with 1000w power for 15 minutes, the sensory

evaluation of dishes was the best. Among the four

Cooking Process Optimization of Potatoes in “Braised Beef with Potatoes”

213

cooking parameters, the size of potato piece had the

greatest impact while soaking time were followed.

Through different cooking operations, potatoes could

not only obtaining a "soft but not rotton" texture, but

also a "crispy" taste. The key point was the degree of

starch gelatinization. The followed studies should

focus on establishing relationships between starch

content and microstructure with food texture

properties. Only in this way we can have a deep

understanding of the cooking process and provide

theoretical support for the industrialization of

cooking products.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We acknowledge the financial support from General

Programs of Natural Science Foundation in Science

and Technology Department of Hubei Province

(2019CFB764).

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