Determination of Cooking Degree of Boiled and Steam Cooked Poatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) from Physico-Chemical and Sensorial Perspective

Potatoes served in large-scale food service systems are often of poor quality. The current recommendation is to cook the potatoes until the core has reached a temperature of 96°C, but this recommendation is questionable. In this study, three potato varieties have been cooked by using conventional boiling (CB) to temperatures of 94°C and 96°C and steam cooking (SC) to temperatures of 92°C, 94°C and 96°C. The samples were thereafter analyzed by both texture and sensorial analyses. The results were evaluated with Partial Linear Squares Regression (PLSR). The perceived Softness and Cooking Degree from the sensorial analysis agreed with the hardness measured by the texture analyzer. The general impression of the samples showed that an undercooked tuber was preferable to an overcooked tuber, and that a cooking temperature of 96°C mostly resulted in overcooked tubers. The general impression depended on several parameters. Therefore, no optimal cooking temperature could be established.