Physical properties and cooking quality of legumes cultivated in Venezuela

Texture of cooked grains and the cooking time represent very important quality attributes in legumes for human consumption. In this research, physical properties and cooking quality of four cultivars of Phaseolus vulgaris and two of Dolichos lablab autochthonous of Venezuela were evaluated. The physical and chemical parameters analyzed were humidity, dimensions, shape, weight and volume of 100 grains, density, colour, imbibition capacity, solids lost in soaking water, grains with hard testa, conductivity of soaking water, cooking time, hardness of cooked grains and lignin content. From a morphological point of view, there was little variability among the species studied, while in the cooking quality, significant differences were found among the P. vulgaris varieties, unlike for D. lablab. The P. vulgaris cultivars showed good cooking quality and similar cooking times to those reported worldwide; on the contrary, D. Lablab cultivais showed poor cooking quality for its high percentage of grains with hard shell. Moreover, with the P. vulgaris cultivars high correlations between imbibition capacity-cooking time, hardness-cooking time, and solids loss-soaking water conductivity were found.