The effects of chicken incorporation towards the characteristics of pumpkin (Cucurbita Maxima) nugget

Abstract

The effects of different level of minced chicken meat incorporation (0 %, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%) on the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of pumpkin nuggets were studied. Two types of pumpkin nuggets were evaluated i.e. pumpkin nuggets with rind (WP) and pumpkin nugget without rind (NP). It was found that the moisture content, crude fibre content, oil uptake and fat content after frying decreased as the incorporation level of minced chicken increased (p<0.05), both for NP and WP nuggets. This study indicated that the oil uptake during frying was the main contributor of fat content in all nugget samples. It was found that diameter shrinkage, fat content before frying and firmness of both WP and NP nuggets increased with increasing level of minced chicken incorporation. Significant differences (p<0.05) were found in L, a, b values for different percentage of chicken meat in NP and WP. These differences were shown by the significant different in the colour scores. Lightness increased as percentage of chicken meat increase between (41.5 - 48.9). The incorporation of minced chicken meat increased the acceptance of pumpkin nuggets in terms of colour, aroma, oiliness, texture, taste, and overall acceptance (p<0.05). NP and WP nuggets incorporated with 50% minced chicken were the most preferable pumpkin nugget samples.