Traditional Food Preparation Research Articles

Electrophoretic and immunochemical characteristics of wheat protein fractions and their relationship to chapati-making quality

The major portion of wheat produced in India is used in the preparation of traditional foods, such as chapati and its variants. The quality of chapati is mainly influenced by the quality of wheat used. The present study was aimed at predicting the suitability of wheat for chapati-making by assessing the biochemical and immunochemical characteristics of 10 major commercially released Indian wheat cultivars. Wheat proteins and their fractions, such as soluble proteins (albumin and globulin), gliadin and glutenin, of different wheat cultivars, were isolated and quantified. The albumin and globulin ranged from 0.9 to 2.0%, gliadin 4.0–6.4%, soluble glutenin 0.9–1.1%, insoluble glutenin 2.5–4.6%. The variety DWR 240 had the maximum content of gliadin. The variety NIAW 612 had the maximum percent of glutenin. Wheat varieties having higher amounts of gliadin protein resulted in poor quality chapati (r=−0.68; P<0.05). Albumin and globulin did not have any role in governing chapati-making quality. The proteins subjected to sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that varieties having good chapati-making quality exhibited distinct electrophoretic patterns. For the first time, a dot-blot tecimique was developed, using anti-gliadin antibodies, to differentiate wheat varieties with respect to chapati-making quality. The results indicated that either SDS-PAGE or dot-blot techniques could be conveniently used for identification of wheat varieties suitable for chapati making.

Preliminary microbiological investigation of the preparation of two traditional Maori foods (Kina and Tiroi).

Little information exists regarding the microbiology of two traditional Maori food preparation processes which may involve fermentations. Preliminary microbiological and chemical analyses were carried out on these two foods in order to identify the fermentations involved (if any). Testing was carried out on freshly-prepared foods and on those that had been processed and stored. Kina (sea urchins, Evechinus chloroticus) are harvested and then stored either under fresh water or buried underground. The most frequently-occurring process appeared to be an alkaline fermentation. Large numbers of Clostridium perfringens were detected in one set of samples prepared outside of the traditional season, but this was the only pathogen detected. In Kina stored in buried plastic bottles during the traditionally-accepted time of the year, bacterial numbers decreased. Tiroi is prepared from mussels and Puha (sow thistle, Sonchos asper) that have been cooked to some degree, combined and stored. Of three methods used to prepare and store Tiroi, the results for one indicated the possible involvement of a lactic acid fermentation, but the other two methods were effectively only cooking and bottling processes. In the case of Kina, the use of an alkaline fermentation to prepare a seafood for consumption is unusual. One method of Tiroi production is a lactic acid fermentation. If these foods are produced as described and are not either eaten immediately or cooked before consumption, then growth, and intoxication by, Clostridium botulinum might occur.

Dietary Intake and Body Mass Index of Adults in 2 Ojibwe Communities

Objective To describe and compare dietary intake and prevalence of overweight in a sample of adults in 2 Ojibwe communities in Mille Lacs, Minn, and Lac Courte Oreilles, Wis. Design Cross-sectional survey based on interviews that included a 24-hour recall, food frequency questionnaire, and a sociocultural questionnaire. Subjects/setting One hundred four adult Band (tribe) members were selected randomly from current housing lists; pregnant and lactating women were excluded. Statistical analyses performed Nonparametric Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to determine differences in absolute nutrient intakes where normality could not be assumed. Two-tailed t tests were conducted to test for differences between nutrient densities. A significance level of α=.05 was used; procedurewise adjustments were made using the Bonferroni method when adjusting for multiple comparisons. Results The importance of the traditional food system was evident: at least 50% of respondents engaged in hunting and fishing practices. Prevalence of overweight was 47%. Mean nutrient intakes were below the Recommended Dietary Allowance for women for vitamin A, folate, calcium, iron, and zinc and for men for vitamin A and calcium, despite energy intakes that met the Recommended Dietary Allowance. Nutrient densities were lower than those in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for women for carbohydrate, vitamin C, folate, calcium, and dietary fiber and for men for folate and dietary fiber. Fat contributed 37% (for men) and 40% (for women) of energy intake. Applications/conclusions Areas of focus for culturaUy relevant education programs (eg, promotion of traditional foods that provide nutrients of low intake status and low-fat traditional food preparation methods) and research needs are suggested to reduce risks for nutrition-related chronic disease among Native Americans. J Am Diet Assoc. 1999;99:710–716.

Videohistory: Focusing on the American Past

The technological revolution of the twentieth century has provided historians with new sources of documentation for their research. With the advent of video technology, the researcher has access to new types of visual information about people, places, objects, and interactions. Just as the development of audio recording technology in the 1940s stimulated the field of oral history, the ease and low cost of video technology in the 1970s offered new opportunities for the historian interested in using visual documentation. Self-conscious and structured historical documentation with video -often called videohistoryprovides an essential component of research for historians interested in material culture, the use of objects, and the relationships of people to one another and to their environments. Many historians have also found videohistory an excellent way to capture the history of people and communities who do not leave extensive written documentation. Visual information, then, supplements and complements documentary evidence, audiotaped oral histories, and artifacts. The historian who uses the video medium to study a person's environment (and ways of interacting with that environment) and material culture encounters a density of information rarely found in other forms of historical documentation. The words, background, objects, and movements each tell a separate story; when analyzed together, the subtle relationships between them provide an information total greater than the sum of the parts. Individual scholars and projects nationwide have created a wide range of videohistory materials that are now available for research use. Videohistory collections contain visual portraits of scientists, politicians, doctors, teachers, and artists. A video camera captured veterans discussing their Vietnam experience and a group of women scientists from Los Alamos recalling the first atomic bomb test. Videohistorians have recorded processes of traditional food preparation by southwestern native Americans, dairy farming by Minnesotans, and clockmaking by New Englanders to document rapidly changing life-styles. Videohistorians have preserved glimpses of life in the city and rural towns, in the laboratory and the slate quarry, on the farm and in the factory. Videohistory collections mirror the diversity of

Formal Education and Aboriginal Children

All children, black or white, learn a lot more outside the classroom than inside it. All normal children, by the time they go to school for the first time, have already learnt to speak their mother tongue, have learnt who they are and where they fit into their family or community, and have learnt a vast range of behaviours which are appropriate (and inappropriate) for members of their culture. They have learnt all these through the informal process of socialization which affects all members of every culture throughout their lives. In traditional Aboriginal society, for example, hunting and food preparation skills, the traditional law, patterns of land ownership and important stories from the past, were all learnt informally in the daily life of the family. Only some sacred knowledge would be transmitted formally in a ceremonial context.

Collection and evaluation of Pearl Millet (Pennisetum americanum) Germplasm from Ghana

An expedition to Ghana was undertaken during August 1981 to collect mainly the early-maturing pearl millet, Pennisetum americanum. The collection team travelled extensively in most of the pearl millet-growing areas of the eastern and northern provinces of Ghana. The mission was planned to coincide with harvesting so that early-maturing landraces could be obtained from farmers’ fields. Seed samples of late-maturing pearl millet were also obtained from local markets. Early-maturing pearl millet is traditionally intercropped with groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) or late-maturing pearl millet. Pearl millet grain is used in several traditional food preparations: thick porridge called tô, a thin, fermented porridge calledkoko, and a deep-fried pancake calledmarsa. Landrace populations grown by the farmers were mixtures of several types. The material collected varied considerably for shapes, sizes and colors of spikes and grains. Of the 284 samples collected, 227 were grown in a uniform nursery at Patancheru: they flowered in 39–140 days, grew 120–315 cm tall, spikes were short (6–53 cm) and conical, grains were large, globular and gray with starchy endosperm. The samples belong to race globosum and serve as a good source of genes for earliness and large-grain size.

Food Consumption Patterns and the ASEAN Food Dilemma

Patterns of food consumption in the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are basically uniform. Most of the diets of the ASEAN populations are based on rice. Additional food ingredients used in this large region may differ, depending on local preferences, food availability, and may also be influenced by cultural or historical inheritance. Thus, in some localities, the staple may depart from the usual rice. Maize, dried cassava roots (known as gaplek in parts of Indonesia), sweet potatoes, breadfruit, and sago may be preferred and do in fact replace rice. But, generally, rice is still the preferred food and regarded as superior to alternatives or substitutes. The so-called traditional or local food preparation is basically Chinese or Indian in origin. In many areas, they are adapted to Malay and other indigenous tastes and in some limited areas they may be supplemented by European or American styles. ASEAN is therefore a melting-pot of many ethnic cuisines and eating habits. In ASEAN countries, food recipes and food items seem endless because of the infinite number of possible combinations.