The effect of different cooking methods on the instrumental quality of potatoes (cv. Agata)

Potatoes were cooked in a combination-steam oven by two traditional cooking treatments, forced convection (FC) and steaming (S) and four combined treatments (FC/S, FC–FC/S, S–FC, FC–FC/S–FC). Weight loss, shear force, crust hardness, texture profile analysis (TPA), colour (L*, a*, b*), surface and center cook values were evaluated. S, FC/S and FC–FC/S treatments were faster (~17 min) than the others (45, 36 and 41 min for FC, S–FC and FC–FC/S–FC), showing significantly lower cook values both at the center (1.7–3.0 min for S, FC/S, FC–FC/S and 3.7–5.2 min for FC, S– FC, FC–FC/S–FC) and at the surface (4.4-7.3 min for S, FC/S, FC–FC/S and 15.3– 18.4 min for FC, S–FC, FC–FC/S–FC). Potatoes cooked with FC and FC–FC/S–FC were characterized by the formation of a dry crust significantly harder than in the other products. FC/S and FC–FC/S cooking treatments resulted in a very hard and pale product. S–FC treatment showed a limited weight loss accompanied by a soft texture and surface browning that make it the recommended treatment for home and food service cooking of potato (cv. Agata).