Preparation of chickpea curd by heat-induced gelation

The effect of compressing time, pH, and protein concentration on the texture of chickpea curds prepared by heat-induced gelation was assessed. The possible gelation mechanism was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), surface hydrophobicity, and viscometric analysis. Texture analysis showed that chickpea curd could be produced by steam cooking the protein fraction. DSC results indicated a decrease in the denaturation enthalpies (DeltaH) for both legumin and vacilin as pH decreased from 6.5 to 6.0. Analysis of the surface hydrophobicity as a function of pH showed a sharp transition at pH 6.0. The viscosity of the protein fraction sharply increased at pH 5.2 producing an extremely hard curd. A mechanism for curd formation is proposed.