Assessing the texture profile and optimizing the temperature and soaking time for the rehydration of hot air-dried Auricularia auricula-judae mushrooms

Rehydrating dried jelly ear mushrooms allows them to take on the original shape, and texture, but no thorough study has been done to date to determine the ideal rehydration parameters. The study aimed to optimize the rehydration conditions of the hot-air-dried jelly ear mushroom, to achieve the most similar stock to the fresh mushroom. To achieve this, the mushrooms dried to a constant weight at 40 °C were soaked in water that had been heated to 20–100 °C for 10–70 min. The mushrooms were weighed and examined the texture profile to determine the rehydration %, hardness, gumminess, chewiness, springiness, and cohesiveness at each tested temperature and soaking time. The fresh mushroom used as a control had a moisture content of 95.39 m/m%, hardness of 847.40, springiness of 0.70, gumminess of 562.04, chewiness of 423.98 N/m2, and cohesiveness of 0.66 J/m3. These results were compared to the rehydrated mushroom samples texture profile test results, and it was found that the dried mushrooms recovered nearly the same texture as the fresh mushrooms with a 20-minute soak at 40 °C. As consumers prefer rehydrated products to be similar to fresh products in terms of texture and enjoyment value, it is crucial to determine the ideal rehydration parameters. However, each drying method and temperature has a different effect on the texture and water absorption capacity of the mushrooms, so the mentioned results are only achieved with the described parameters.