Characteristics of ready to cook product from dried pempek with freezing treatment before drying

Abstract

Pempek is a popular ready to cook fish cake in Indonesia with a high level of moisture content. At room temperature, pempek can only stored for a few hours. There are several variants of pempek available in the market in the form of dried pempek which can be stored at room temperature for a long time. These dried products need to be rehydrated before cooking. The drying technology of dried pempek will affect the characteristics of the ready-to-cook product after the rehydration process. This study aims to determine the effect of freezing before drying on the characteristics of ready to cook rehydrated dried pempek (curly shape pempek). The experimental treatments tested were freezing treatment and non-freezing treatment. Each treatment was repeated in 3 replications of experiment. Freezing process were carried out in a household freezer for 24 hours and the drying process were carried out in an electric oven at 45°C for 12 hours. The results showed that after rehydration, dried pempek could returned to its original characteristics like before drying. Freezing treatment before drying gave a higher rehydration ratio, better texture and lighter appearance than without freezing treatment.