Cooking Quality of Lentils Produced under Mediterranean Conditions

Abstract

Cooking quality (CQ) is the main quality criterion in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and is affected by several factors. Phosphorus fertilization is a common agricultural practice in alkaline P‐poor soils, but studies examining its impact on CQ of lentils are lacking. Four lentil cultivars (three green and one red‐seeded) were tested over two growing seasons, under rainfed Mediterranean conditions, with P as the only nutrient input. The CQ of seeds was estimated using a texture analyzer, and the puncture energy (PE, inversely related to CQ) was calculated. A suite of seed traits (percentage of seed coat weight, 1000‐seed weight, seed softness and protein concentration of hulled and dehulled seeds, and seed coat anatomy) were measured. Moreover, P, K, Na, Ca, and Mg (their sums and ratios) in seeds (hulled and dehulled) were measured to assess their role in CQ. Phosphorus had no significant effect on CQ, but its impact was evident on the chemical composition of the seed coat. Seed coat anatomy was affected only by cultivars. Significant correlations between PE and seed traits for the growth season × cultivar interaction were obtained only for the green‐seeded lentils. In contrast with previous findings, P concentration in hulled seeds was negatively associated with CQ in green lentils; the opposite was evident for Ca. On the other hand, the protein concentration of dehulled seeds was negatively correlated with PE (positively with CQ), indicating that it was the cotyledonary factor influencing CQ by contributing to water absorption.

Identification of Macrosperma and Microsperma Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) Genotypes with Superior Nutritional, Industrial, and Productive Traits to Get Transgressive Segregants

“…Cooking time is defined as the number of minutes required for 80% of lentil seeds to be pierced . According to Theologidou et al (2018) , and Abdel-Aal et al (2019) who applied the same measurement method used in our work, the optimal CT for lentils was 25 min. In our study, for cooking time, the values ranged from 25 to 75 min; the mean cooking time was 53.21 min, results similar to those obtained by Akdeniz et al (2019) (40.5 and 46.0).…”

“…To determine the reference firmness value of cooked lentil, measurements were made on four canned lentil trademarks (Arcor, Compro, Inalpa, and Campagnola) and an average value was established. 16,17 Nutritional Seed Quality. Nutritional quality was quantified by analyzing the following parameters:…”

“…After 25 min of cooking, three seeds were sampled at 5 min intervals, and their firmness was measured using a durometer. To determine the reference firmness value of cooked lentil, measurements were made on four canned lentil trademarks (Arcor, Compro, Inalpa, and Campagnola) and an average value was established. , …”

Modeling the Effects of Seed Maturity on Cooking Time of ‘Dimitra’ Lentils

“…is a very important crop for human nutrition due to its rich composition of proteins, carbohydrates (dietary fiber), minerals, and vitamins, including a wide range of bioactive phytochemicals [1,2]. Lentils are usually consumed in a cooked form [3]; therefore, seed softness, among other sensory quality traits, has been recognized as the most important commercial trait [4][5][6]. Cooking quality or cooking doneness is predominantly defined as the boiling or cooking time (CT) required to render the seeds adequately soft for consumption.…”

“…This in turn causes the variability of CT in lentil varieties [9,10]. Apart from genotypic factors, the preharvest soil-climatic or cultural (such as location and growth season), in addition to the postharvest factors (such as storage) also affect CT [6,[11][12][13]. Further, Theologidou et al [6] reported significant correlations between the Foods 2023, 12, 42 2 of 17 energy required to soften lentil seeds and the seed traits in a green-seeded lentil cultivar, possibly indicating a differentiation between mature and immature seeds in respect to CT. Lentil seeds are usually composed of a varying number of seed categories based on their harvest maturity, as determined by seed color; lentil seeds range from brown to green, considered to correspond to mature to immature seeds, respectively.…”