Abstract:In order to obtain instant cowpea products, the dried cowpea was used as raw material for soaking and pickling seasoning, the effects of salt, acetic acid, sugar contents and their interactions on total acidity, hardness, L* value and rehydration ratio were explored, and the sensory evaluation of cowpea after soaking and picking was also investigated, using three-factor response surface design. The factors and their interactions between the various factors were analyzed, quadratic regression models were established, multi-objective optimization was performed by entropy weight method, which were verified by applying three optimization methods. The results showed that the established regression model of total acidity, hardness, and sensory evaluation was very significant (p<0.01), the regression model of L* value was significant (p<0.05) and the regression model of rehydration ratio was not significant, suggesting that the model could be used to analyze and predict the pickling processing of dried cowpea parameters. The optimum parameters were 4% of salt content, 1.4% of acetic acid content, and 11.8% of sugar content. With these parameters, the hardness, L* value, rehydration ratio and sensory score were 0.44, 217.03 g, 42.31, 2.94, 85.29, respectively, which were close to the theoretical prediction. The parameters of pickling processing of dried cowpea were optimized by response surface design combined with entropy weight method, which were accurate and reliable, providing a theoretical basis for future study.
