Quality Characteristics of Yellow Alkaline Noodles Enriched with Hull-less Barley Flour¹

Roller milled flours from eight genotypes of hull-less barley (HB) with normal, waxy, zero amylose waxy (ZAW), and high amylose (HA) starch were incorporated at 20 and 40% (w/w) with a 60% extraction Canada Prairie Spring White (CPSW, cv. AC Vista) wheat flour to evaluate their suitability as a blend for yellow alkaline noodles (YAN). The barley flour supplemented noodles were prepared using conventional equipment. Noodles containing 40% HB flour required less work input than the corresponding 20% blend noodles due to a higher water absorption at the elevated level of HB flour addition, which probably caused them to soften. The addition of any HB flour at either level to the CPSW flour resulted in significantly decreased brightness (L*) and yellowness (b*), elevated redness (a*), concomitant with a significantly greater number of specks per unit area of noodle sheet compared with the control flour. The addition of 40% HB flour to YAN decreased cook time and cooking losses. Noodle firmness, as determined by maximum cutting stress (MCS), was significantly increased by the addition of 40% HB flour. Noodle chewiness, as determined by the texture profile analysis (TPA), was affected by the type of starch in the barley samples; the addition of waxy and ZAW HB flour decreased chewiness, whereas normal and HA HB flour increased chewiness of composite noodles.