Rehydration Characteristics of Mushrooms using Different Drying Techniques

Abstract

Mushroom may be baked, fried, boiled, creamed, roasted, pickled and stuffed. In India, it is mainly consumed fresh and a negligible amount is used for processing. They can be processed as canned, dried and frozen mushrooms. The dried mushrooms are packed in hermetically sealed air tight tins for quality retention and stored in a cool dry place. The study’s main objective is to know the effect of different drying methods on the quality of mushrooms and its dehydration, rehydration characteristics. Sun-drying and Cabinet tray drying methods were selected in the study. The rehydration ratio and coefficient of rehydration were calculated and compared for both the drying methods. An expert Committee did an Organoleptic evaluation. The results showed that cabinet tray dried mushrooms were reconstituted better compared to the sundried ones. The values of coefficient of rehydration and the rehydration ratio for cabinet dried mushrooms were found as 0.498 and 1:3.3 which were higher than sundried mushrooms. Cabinet tray dried mushrooms showed it’s superiority in sensory assessment. The study concluded that mushrooms dehydrated by the cabinet tray drying have better rehydration characteristics than sun drying.