Effect of locally available spices on the organoleptic and storage periods of Heterotis niloticus

Investigation were carried out on the effect of some locally available species in the enhancement of the organoleptic quality and the storage periods of smoked Heterotis niloticus using Pprosopis africana as common smoke sources. Samples of fresh H. niloticus were bought, cut into chunks while extract juice from pepper, ginger rhizomes, garlic, onion bulb were used as sources of spices. Samples of fish were divided randomly into five (5) batches dipped into spice extract juices for 10 minutes drained and smoked with common firewood. Treatment without spice extract juice served as control. Each batch of fish was smoked for 7 hours on a drum-made smoking kiln products were individually packaged in polythene bag stored at room temperature and used for sensory evaluation and microbial analysis. Results of the sensory evaluation indicated that there was significant difference (P<0.005) for taste, appearance, colour and overall acceptance for the treatments. Ginger juice extract had the best overall acceptance. Similarly there was significant difference (P>0.05) in the microbial analysis. The garlic juice extract had the longest storage period with minimum total plate and mould count after 8 weeks

Standardisation of recipe for the preparation of lobster analogues

Lobster analogues were prepared with lobster base flavour (paste),h lobster cook water (whole lobster omogenate:water, 1:1 and 1:0.5) and lobster meat mince. In another experiment, different combinations of ginger-garlic paste and lobster base flavour, i.e., 1:3, 1:4, 1:6, 3:3, 3:4, 3:6, 5:3, 5:4 and 5:6 were added to the lobster analogue paste. It was observed that lobster analogues prepared with lobster base flavour (paste) are suitable organoleptically. The combination of ginger garlic paste and lobster base flavour in the ratio of 3:4 was found to be suitable organoleptically. Lobster analogues coloured with annatto seed colour at 1:2 (annatto seed:water) concentration had high values for the colour attribute as compared to orange-red synthetic colour, beetroot colour, caramel colour and paprika colour. It was observed that come-up-time to achieve a temperature of850°C was 28 minutes with a processing period of 11 minutes.