Subjective and objective assessments of the degree of cooking of potatoes heated by different methods

Standard potato slices were heated for various periods of time by three different methods: boiling water, steam under pressure, and a microwave oven. After heating, the internal temperature was measured together with textural characteristics to assess the degree of cooking, using both a taste panel and an Instron 1140 machine. It was found that for a given method of heating the taste panel score is related to the instrumental measurements of rupture load and rupture energy. It was also found that the degree of cooking of a potato does not depend solely on the internal temperature reached, but is also dependent on the heating method and particularly on the rate of heating.