Production of tortilla chips from Sorghum and maize

Abstract

White maize ( Zea mays L.), a tan plant color white sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor Moench) and various blends of these were processed into tortilla chips in a pilot plant. The optimum conditions for production of maize and sorghum tortilla chips were: (1) lime-cooking at boiling temperature for 60 and 20 min with 1 and 0·5 % lime, respectively;, (2) quenching to drop the temperature of the cooking liquor to 68 °C; (3) steeping the grains for 8–12 h and 4–6 h, respectively. The resulting nixtamals (lime-cooked and steeped grains) were stone-ground into a coarse dough (masa). The masa was sheeted, cut into triangles and baked for 39 sec at 280 °C into tortilla pieces, which were fried for 1 min at 190 °C to produce tortilla chips. Under these conditions, maize nixtamal had more dry matter losses than sorghum nixtamal. Both grain masas had similar machinability and contained comparable amounts of moisture. The amount of insoluble dietary fiber increased with increasing sorghum levels. All chips had similar oil uptake during frying. Panelists found that sorghum chips had a bland taste which was significantly different from the characteristic taste of lime-cooked maize. Tortilla chips containing 50 % maize had a slightly lower ( P