Abstract—In this study, effect of different cooking techniques on some physical characteristics of falafel is evaluated. Falafel dough was prepared using a standard recipe and fried using microwave (MW), convection (5, 10 and 15 % of sun flower oil added to standard recipe) and traditionally deep frying techniques in sun flower oil at 180°C. Moisture content (db%), oil content (db%), textural properties (firmness; g-force and hardness; g-force), colour (L*, a*, b* and total colour change; ΔE) and cooking time (min) were determined and also one another critical quality parameter, namely volume increase (%), was calculated by image analyses for cooked falafel samples. The shortest frying time was found as 1 min for MW technique and it was increased up to 16.40 min with convective treatment. According to results, moisture content of samples ranged between 15.12±1.80-48.36±3.50% and the lowest result was belonged to falafels which initially containing 15% oil and cooked by convection, while the highest was found in deep fried samples. The lowest oil content (12.87±0.25%) was found in the sample that was cooked in a convective way with the addition of 5% oil. Among the different cooking techniques the lowest firmness (23.16±1.00) and hardness (18.72±2.08) were observed in deep fried samples. With regard to colour properties, any significant difference was not observed between MW and deep frying techniques for all parameters (p<0.05), however other samples differed from these two (p>0.05). And lastly, the lowest volume increase was observed in the MW cooked samples with 36.66±2.81% compared to uncooked falafel dough. 
 

Index Terms—falafel, physical properties, deep frying, microwave

Cite: Mohammed M. Ismail, Sebahattin S. Turgut, Erkan Karacabey, and Erdogan Kucukoner, "Determination of Physical Properties of Falafel (Fried Chickpea Balls) under the Effect of Different Cooking Techniques," International Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 191-194, September 2018. doi: 10.18178/ijfe.4.3.191-194