Processing of White Pepper Through the Combination of Soaking and Boiling Time Towards the Quality

The quality of white pepper depends on the processing process, and it can be done traditionally or semi-mechanically. The present work was to find out the characteristic and off-flavor compound of white pepper through a combination of soaking and boiling time. The research method was divided into several stages: threshing to separate berries and stalks, soaking in a container, boiling, decorticating, washing, and drying in an oven at 60 degrees C. The experiment was designed as a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with two factors and three replications. The first factor was the length of soaking time (A), A1 4 days, and A2 6 days. The second factor was boiling time (B), Bo: No boiling, B1: 5 minutes, B2: 10 minutes, B3: 15 minutes, and B4: 20 minutes. The results showed that the yield of white pepper from various treatments ranged from 23.82 to 32.96%. The quality of white pepper showed that 4 days of soaking time met the Indonesian Standard quality (SNI) requirement in quality 2. However, 6 days of soaking time required quality 1. Total Plate Count (TPC) levels tend to decrease slightly with the length of boiling time. The best treatment was given from 5 minutes of boiling and 6 days of soaking time. The off-flavor substances found within 4 days of soaking were propanoic, butanoic, hexanoic acids, 4-methylindole, and p-cresol (4-methylphenol). However, within 6 days of soaking, only found butanoic acid, hexanoic acid, and p-cresol.