Effects of methylcellulose, xanthan gum and carboxymethylcellulose on thermal properties of batter systems formulated with different flour combinations

The functionalities of hydrocolloid–flour mixtures in terms of the thermal properties of their resulting batter systems were investigated, and the effects of different thermal processes such as cooking–freezing–thawing (CFT) and freezing–cooking (FC) on thermal properties of the various batter systems were determined in this study. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to determine thermal property parameters including gelatinization temperature (TG), total enthalpies of gelatinization (ΔHG), glass transition temperature (Tg), melting peak temperature (Tm), and total melting enthalpies (ΔHm). The different thermal processes did not significantly affect either TG or ΔHG of batter systems, but they influenced the glass transition behavior and the ΔHm of batter systems. The thermal processes also showed different effects on the batter systems containing different hydrocolloids such as methylcellulose (MC), carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), and xanthan gum (XG). The hydrocolloids shifted TG upwards, depressed Tg, and increased Tm of batters. The effect of these hydrocolloids on glass transition temperature was more pronounced in raw samples (FC process) than in cooked samples and increased with increasing levels of CMC and MC used in the formulations. Batters with MC showed increased ΔHm for all the thermal processes. CMC only showed significant effect on ΔHm for cooked samples (CFT process). MC and CMC showed more pronounced effects on Tg for raw uncooked rice- and corn flour-based batters than on raw uncooked wheat flour-based batters. However, this special effect was not obvious in the batters containing 0.2% XG.