Effects of soaking conditions and blending speed on pine nut (Pinus dalatensis L.) milk

Abstract

Although pine nut (Pinus spp.) is commonly used in Western cuisine due to its potential nutrition values; it is underused in Vietnam despite the fact that Vietnam is a considerable source of pine put (Pinus dalatensis L). The idea of using pine nut as a new ingredient for plant-based milk was investigated in this study. Pre-treatment of soaking and a standard blending method for the extraction of pine nut milk have been examined. Temperature of soaking water varied from room temperature to 80oC in order to observe the water absorption behaviour of pine nut which was successfully described by Peleg model. The maximum water holding of pine nut was theoretically predicted as 57.21 ± 2.70 %. On the other hand, three different blending speeds were studied to identify the maximum extraction effectiveness which results in particle size range of 0.3 nm to 1.5 nm. The temperature difference caused the unequal solid content transferred after extraction (especially for total soluble solid). A higher blending intensity improved stability and solid content. The approximate composition of pine nut milk was also reported (5.58% of fat and 1.37% of protein), which indicated that pine nut milk has high energy from fat and protein. This report provides insights for the production of pine nut milk with consistent and comparable characteristics. It is recommended to develop further strategies to improve the sensory quality of pine nut milk as a beverage. Keywords: Pinus dalatensis L., temperature, blending speed, kinetics, particle size distribution, sensory evaluation.