Quality improvements of buckwheat noodles by Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch gum: Effects of pre-hydration and addition mode

Buckwheat noodles (WB) are always superior in health effects but inferior in textural quality to wheat noodles (W). Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch gum (AsKg) has been proven to be an improver for the latter. To elaborate on this, the effects of physical state (dry or pre-hydrated) and addition mode (pre-addition or delayed addition) of AsKg on the quality of buckwheat noodles (buckwheat:wheat = 3:7, w/w) were investigated in this work as four procedures, namely, dry/pre-addition (DP), dry/delayed addition (DD), pre-hydrated/pre-addition (HP), and pre-hydrated/delayed addition (HD). The dough mixing property, water distribution, rheological behavior, the structure of the gluten network, and noodle quality were determined. The results indicated that on most occasions, the improvements were in a procedure order of HP > DD > HD > DP, corresponding to the same order in their levels of gluten hydration. These findings are of practical significance for producing high-quality buckwheat noodles.