Physico-chemical characteristics, cooking quality and sensory attributes of microwave cooked rice varieties

Four varieties of rice were cooked in microwave oven and under pressure and examined for their physical characteristics, cooking quality and sensory attributes. The range of physical characteristics observed for rice varieties were length/width ratio - 2.21 to 4.12, 1000 kernel weight - 16.52 to 17.32 g, bulk density (g/ml) - 0.781 to 0.860, density (g/ml) - 1.327 to 1.427, porosity - 35.15 to 45.28%, gel consistency - 27 to 29mm, amylose content - 20.0 to 23.8g/100g and equilibrium moisture content - 27.1 to 29.1%. The time required and water uptake of rice by microwave method was much higher than pressure cooking method. The elongation ratio was higher in pressure cooked samples (1.80 to 1.94) in comparison with microwave cooked samples (1.49 to 1.67). The cooked rice volume (ml/100g) ranged from 430 to 516 with higher values for pressure cooked samples. The sensory data on cooked rice obtained by ranking test and quantitative descriptive analysis indicated that microwave cooked rice varieties were equally preferred and in some attributes proved to be better than pressure cooked ones.