Improving the understanding of heat transfer when boiling solid foods

Abstract: Determination of the fluid-to-particle heat transfer coefficient hfp is a fundamental problem in food engineering. Solutions to this problem help food technologists and cooks prepare foods with desired characteristics more efficiently in time and energy use. This study aims to determine the hfp-value in simmering and boiling solid foods. Furthermore, it investigates how the culinary terms simmering and boiling corresponds to the pool boiling study in heat transfer literature; and whether they have different impacts on cooking. Feyissa et al. suggested the method conducted in this study by using potatoes as measuring devices. The study observes the progression of gelatinization over time within potato samples during simmering and boiling to estimate the hfp-values of these cooking practices. It is followed by comparing the experimental travel distances of gelatinization with theoretical values calculated by unsteady-state heat transfer analysis using the Sum of Squared Residuals statistical test. The results show hfp-value of boiling is higher than simmering in the cooking of potato samples. However, this difference does not influence the cooking times significantly due to the limitation in the low thermal conductivity of samples. These results suggest that the method could estimate the hfp-value of simmering with high certainty. In contrast, another approach is needed to evaluate the hfp-value of boiling with higher precision. Besides, it recommends cooking solid foods by simmering over boiling because of its efficiency in energy use.