Abstract

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This research is concentrated about the effects of prickling, blanching, storage temperature and time focusing on establishment of equilibrium, drained weight and firmness of small sour-sweet cucumber that are used on rye bread and as an ingredient to dinner foods. Drained weight of pickled cucumber increased sig-nificantly with storage time up to 114 days whereas drained weight of non-pickled cucumber decreased up to storage for 187 days. Soluble solids and acidity were significantly higher for pickled cucumber in comparison to non-pickled cucumber. Soluble solids and acidity was non-significantly different for pickled and non-pickled cucumber and brine components. Drained weight increased significantly with days of storage up to 10 min by blanching at 72°C and 12 min at 85°C. Drained weight was significantly higher by blanching at 85°C in com-parison to blanching at 72°C. The increase in drained weight after blanching at 85°C was 30 g in comparison to 12 g after blanching at 72°C. Cucumber firmness increased on average 7 kg during blanching at 72°C min, whereas the firmness decreased 27 kg during blanching at 85°C. Drained weight increased significantly with storage time, while firmness decreased significantly with storage time. Storage of pickled cucumber at 12 and 20°C did not result in significances in texture and cucumber weight. Blanching of pickled cucumber for 0, 3, 6, 10 and 15 min and storage at 12 and 20°C showed that drained weight increased significantly with blanching time and that firmness decreased with increases in the storage temperature.

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