Technology of hurda production by microwave oven.

Normally Seetani/hurda is prepared by roasting tender panicle in trench using fire. Commercial exploitation of these varieties is hindered due to more time consumption, poor appearance of grains and cumbersome and unhygienic method in traditional roasting. Therefore, a study was undertaken to test the acceptability of roasting methods for hurda preparation. Two landrace varieties with sweet grains viz., Sakkari Mukkari Jola and Raosaheb were tested along with popular roti making variety M35-1 by subjecting to different roasting methods for hurda preparation. The roasting methods included were traditional roasting in trench, micro-oven and micro-wave. The varieties were tested for baking in micro-oven at 150 degree centigrade for three time ranges (15 min, 20 min and 25 min) and in micro-wave at 2 min, 2.5 min and 3.0 min. Standardization revealed the best time ranges for micro-oven and micro-wave were 20 min and 2.5 min respectively. Among the different methods, roasting in microwave consumes less time, enhanced threshability, yielding clean and soft grains and increases keeping quality compared to other two methods and hence suitable for commercial exploitation.