Abstract
The experiments were carried out to elucidate the varietal variation of retrogradation in aged cooked rice and its association with some physicochemical properties of milled rice. The fifteen rice materials were selected from forty-three low-amylose japonica and Tongil-type rice cultivars based on palatability and retrogradation of cooked rice stratified by preliminary sensory evaluation of warm and cooled cooked rice. One japonica glutinous rice variety was included for comparison of retrogradation of cooked rice. The $\alpha$-amylase-iodine method was adopted for checking the varietal difference in retrogradation of cooked rice. The desirable checking time for evaluating the varietal difference in deterioration of aged cooked rice was four hours after storing in room temperature and two hours after preserving in refrigerator based on the largest coefficients of variations in degree of retrogradation of cooked rice. The rice cultivars revealing the relatively slow retrogradation in aged cooked rice were Ilpumbyeo, Chucheongbyeo, Sasanishiki, Jinbubyeo and Koshihikari. A Tongil-type rice, Taebaegbyeo, and a japonica cultivar, Seomjinbyeo, showed the relatively fast deterioration of cooked rice. The retrogadation index represented by the percentage of retrogradation difference between warm and cooled cooked rice to original estimates of warm cooked rice was significantly affected by the degree of retrogradation of cooled cooked rice. Generally, the better rice cultivars in eating quality of cooked rice showed less retrogradation and much sponginess in cooled cooked rice. Also, the rice varieties exhibiting less retrogradation in cooled cooked rice revealed higher hot viscosity and lower cool viscosity of rice flour in amylogram. The sponginess of cooled cooked rice was closely associated with magnesium content and volume expansion of cooked rice. The hardness-changed ratio of cooked rice by cooling was negatively correlated with solids amount extracted during boiling and volume expansion of cooked rice. The major physicochemical properties of rice grain closely related to the palatability of cooked rice may be directly or indirectly associated with the retrogradation characteristics of cooked nce. The varietal difference in retrogradation of cooked rice can be effectively classified by scatter diagram on the plane of upper two principal components based on some retrogradation properties of cooked rice. The deteriorated structural change in cooled cooked rice by observing through the scanning electron microscope was more conspicuous in the fastly retrograded cooked rice than in the slower one.