Kinetics of Thermal Softening of Six Legumes During Cooking

Puncture force was measured after cooking for lentils, chick peas, broad beans and three cultivars of beans, at 15 cooking times (up to 300 min) and 4 cooking temperatures. The legumes were soaked and then cooked in distilled water (1:10 weight/volume ratio). A 2 mm diameter punch was driven through the samples at 5 mm.s −1 in a Texture Analyser TA.XT2®. A rapid initial softening was followed by a slower softening, both corresponding to a pseudo first‐order mechanism. The effect of temperature followed an Arrhenius’ pattern. Apparent rate constants and activation energies were determined.