Effects of Different Moisture Content on the Mechanical Properties of Compound Sheeting Dough Sheet and the Quality of Cooked Noodles

By adding different amounts of water (30%, 34%, 38%) to make dough and noodles, the tensile properties of dough and noodles, the microstructure of the dough sheets and the cooking quality of the noodles were analyzed under different sheeting times (2, 4, 6, 10, 20, 40 passes). The results showed that: with the increase of sheeting times, the rupture stress and rupture elongation of the noodle dough first increased and then decreased, and reach the maximum value (6.06, 4.78, 2.81 kPa) at the fourth pass of sheeting; the tensile force and tensile distance of noodles also increased first and then decreased, and the maximum value appeared when sheeting 4 times (17.31, 15.49, 12.98 g); the most continuous and complete microstructure of gluten network was found in the four sheeted passes; the water absorption (155.28%, 147.46% and 121.21%) and cooking loss (8.16%, 6.88% and 5.61%) of the noodles were the lowest after six sheeting passes. With the increase of moisture content, the rupture stress decreased and therupture elongation increased. The tensile force of noodles was significantly decreased from 17.31 g to 12.98 g (P<0.05). Noodle breaking distance was significantly increased (65.45~99.48 mm) (P<0.05). Comprehensive analysis, the data showed that the strength indicators (rupture stress andrupture elongation) of the compound sheeting dough sheet can be used to predict the tensile quality characteristics of the noodles;under the condition of 34% water addition, the noodles made by 4 times sheeting had the best tensile properties, and the noodles made by 6 times sheeting had the best cooking quality.