Modeling the Spaghetti Hydration Kinetics During Cooking and Overcooking

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A mathematical model to predict the hydration kinetics of spaghetti during cooking and overcooking is presented. The phenomena involved during the hydration process, such as starch crystalline domains melting kinetics, water diffusion, macromolecular matrix relaxation kinetics, and “residual deformation” release kinetics, were separately described. To validate the developed model, water sorption tests on commercially available spaghetti strands were run at 100 °C. In particular, the weight, diameter, and length of spaghetti strands were monitored over a period of 200 min. The fitting and predictive ability of the model was successfully tested, corroborating the validity of the approach used to derive the model.