Traditional Food of India
2.4.Papad
Papad, a ready-to-prepare traditional snack product (Figure 2.4.1), is consumed as a food adjunct in several South Asian countries. The other names for papad are papar, papadum, pappadam, happala, appadam, etc. It is used as an appetiser and consumed along with a dip such as chutney. The product is deep-fat fried, microwaved or baked on flame, and consumed during meals and as an accompaniment to hot tea/coffee. It is a thin circular ready-to-prepare (RTP) product that is made by flattening/rolling legume flour-based dough, mainly from black gram (Phaseolus mungo) or urad dhal flour. It is either baked/toasted or deep-fried to obtain a crispy snack. In the earlier days, papads were traditionally prepared in houses; the process has now reached industrial production scale where the output may be a few tons per day.
Raw materials
The major raw materials for papad making are black gram (urad) flour, salt, cereal flour like sorghum, ragi, rice and wheat, lentil flour and sodium bicarbonate. The optional ingredients are spice powder mixes like flakes of black pepper and chilli, crushed cumin, chilli and garlic powder, and asafoetida
Method of preparation
Good quality papad can be prepared using black gram flour, water, common salt and sodium bicarbonate in the ratio of 100: 45: 8:1. The addition of salt affects dough characteristics, product attributes like crispness and expansion, and consumer acceptability of the ready-to-eat fried/baked products. Salt and bicarbonate are dissolved in water, and then mixed with black gram flour to obtain a hard dough. The dough is allowed to rest for about 1 hour in a covered condition to avoid moisture loss. Dough balls are prepared, flattened/rolled into thin circular discs followed by slow drying. The ready-to-prepare papad sheets are fried in oil, baked/toasted in an oven/stove, or microwaved to obtain a ready-to-eat (RTE) crispy snack. An antifungal agent like calcium propionate at the permitted level is used in the dough formulation to avoid microbial growth during storage. The desirable features of RTE papad, obtained by baking/frying, are uniform size, shape, thickness, good expansion and crispness.
Special varieties of papad
Attractive soft crisp texture and unique taste are the worth mentioning features of black gram papad. The long shelf-life of ready-to-prepare papad discs is also advantageous. Special papads prepared from rice (Figure 2.4.1), ragi (finger millet) and tapioca (sabudana) (Figure 2.4.1) can offer a unique delicacy to papad varieties in terms of appearance, expansion, taste and texture.
The cereal-based papad doughs do not have adequate binding ability and thus the addition of hot water during dough preparation or marginal heating of the wet flour allows partial gelatinisation of starch resulting in improved cohesiveness of dough to be suitable for flattening/rolling into papad discs.
Special papads can also be prepared using tapioca (sago) globules/flour. Sago (sabudana) papad is a delicacy. The non-fried sago papad has an attractive appearance (Figure 2.4.1) and possesses a higher thickness (3-5 mm). The fried sago papad or the tapioca-cereal papads can expand much more than conventional papads though marginally costlier.
Aam (mango) papad (Figure 2.4.1) is traditional Indian dried fruit leather. It is different from the conventional pulse-based papad, and is prepared by drying of mango pulp that is often mixed with sugar. The product has a marginally sour and sweet taste and is available in the ready-to-eat form. It is particularly liked by children; the other names of aam papad are amsotto, amawat, etc. Though not common, shrimp-based papads are also available.
Technical data
- No special packaging or storage condition is needed for non-fried ready-to-prepare (RTP) papad discs. However, it is desirable to store them under low-humidity conditions to avoid moisture absorption by product, and protect from microbial infestations and insect attacks. The shelf-life of RTP papads is between 4 and 12 months while RTE baked/fried papads need good packaging, and the shelf-life is 2 to 3 months.
- Specifications of raw materials for papad preparation and product are available.
- Papads exhibit a wide variation in size (75-150 mm in diameter), shape (circular, elliptical and triangular), thickness (1-5 mm), and salt and spice contents. The proximate composition (wet basis) of dried papad disks from black gram is moisture 12-14%, protein 14-18%, fat less than 2%, and ash contents between 9 and 10%.
- Papads can also be prepared by substituting up to about 20% rice, maize, potato, tapioca and green gram flour to develop different varieties of papads possessing attractive taste and textural attributes.
- The presence of an arabinogalactan type of mucilaginous polysaccharide in black gram has been reported to improve the cohesive nature of the dough system. The molecular weight of arabinogalactan is about 144,000 and it affects the properties of the finished product. Arabinogalactan consists of arabinose and galactose monosaccharides, and can help in developing specialty food snacks.
Machinery/gadgets
Locally-made mixing units for handling powder and dough, and dough ball-making machines are available. The rolling of dough balls into thin papad sheets is preferred over flattening by compression method in terms of adequate expansion characteristics during frying. Dryers operating at a low temperature for slow drying (to avoid shrinkage of papad sheets) are available at reasonable costs. An appropriate packaging machine is also needed.
Requirements
- Papad samples, stored over a few months, can show mold infection. The problem is expected to be solved by an appropriate drying method to reduce the moisture content. The use of permitted antifungal agents is useful.
- The salt content of papad needs to be significantly reduced using appropriate technological interventions.
- On several occasions, the papad sheets do not expand as per consumer expectations. The problem needs to be solved by R&D efforts.
- The shelf-life of papad sheets (without frying or baking) should be increased to 1 year or more which can benefit both the processors and consumers.
- Some processing steps like mixing, dough preparation, and flattening to make circular discs have been mechanised. However, there is a need to develop continuous processing lines for the large-scale manufacture of papads.
- During frying, curling may occur causing difficulty in packaging. It also increases the extent of breakage during packaging and transportation. These problems may be decreased/prevented by suitable R&D initiatives where dough rheology is important.
- The role of arabinogalactan in different traditional Indian foods including papad may be studied in detail.
- Fried papads may have an oil content of 25% or higher. Pragmatic R&D intervention is needed to decrease the oil content without compromising the sensory acceptance of the product. The use of hydrocolloids in papad dough formulation is an option to reduce the oil content of the fried product.
Further reading
Bhattacharya, S. (2022). Snack foods: Processing and Technology. Academic Press (Elsevier), London, UK.
Bhattacharya, S. and Narasimha, H.V. (1997). Puncture and stress relaxation behaviour of blackgram (Phaseolus mungo) flour based papad dough. Journal of Food Process Engineering 20, 301-316.
Bhattacharya, S. and Narasimha, H.V. (1999). Characterization of papad from different blends of cereals with black gram. Journal of Food Quality 22, 157-166.
Bhattacharya, S., Bhattacharya, S. and Narasimha, H.V. (1999). Uniaxial compressibility of blackgram dough blended with cereal flours. Journal of Texture Studies 30, 659-675.
Math, R., Velu, V., Nagender, A. and Rao, D.G. (2004). Effect of frying conditions on moisture, fat, and density of papad. Journal of Food Engineering 64, 429–434.
Susheelamma, N. S., and Rao, M. V. L. (1978). Isolation and characterization of arabino-galactan from black gram (Phaseolus mungo). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 26, 1434–1437.
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