Food & Nutrition

Arab Journal of Food & Nutrition
24. A Study Towards the Improvement of Jameed Quality and Solubility (1996)
Jihad “Mohammad Rafeq” Quasem\ University of Jordan
Supervisor: Dr. Mohammad Ali Humeid
Jameed is a fermented dried dairy product in the form of stone hard balls or other
shapes produced by straining the heated buttermilk on cloth mesh bags, salting the
formed paste by kneading, shaping and drying in the sun. This product is reconstituted
after disintegration to be used in the preparation of Mansaf, the national dish in Jordan,
which is basically lamb meat cooked in Jameed sauce (Sharab, Mareece) and served
on cooked rice. The reconstitution of Jameed is a tedious work since the product is
difficult to break and to disperse, and the dispersion often lacks stability. This study
aimed mainly at improving the solubility of Jameed and the colloidal stability of its
dispersion. For this purpose a wettability and a syneresis test of dispersion were
developed for the measurement of Jameed solubility. A natural convection solar dryer
was designed for drying Jameed balls formed from the strained buttermilk (Jameed
paste). The dryer proved to be suitable and protected Jameed from discoloration,
cracks and contamination. Three directions were investigated to improve the
dispersability of Jameed, treating buttermilk with different pasteurization
temperatures, the use of additives and applying different dehydration methods.
Treating buttermilk at 55°C for 3 min had the best result regarding Jameed paste
yield and solubility, along with the enhancement of Jameed paste texture compared
with the other heat treatments.
The addition of Gum arabic (0.5%), starch (1%) and carrageenan (0.15%), to the
Jameed paste resulted in improvement of solar dried Jameed with significant result for
carrageenan treatment as evaluated by wettability and syneresis test. Whipping of the
paste to which carrageenan was used, added an additional improvement to the
solubility of Jameed and stability of its dispersion.
The addition of baking powder (2%) to the Jameed paste to produce a porous
dried product gave an inferior Jameed as indicated by the solubility tests and compared
to control.
Microwave drying was the worst regarding the effect on solubility of the product,
whereas freeze-drying was the best; the other drying methods could be ordered as
follows: microwave drying, rotating plate dryer, oven drying, vacuum oven drying,
solar drying and freeze-drying. The sensory evaluation of the sauce prepared from the
best two treatments produced from sheep milk using hedonic scale test had higher
mean scores than control market sample which was Karaki Jameed considered as the
best quality in Jordan, without any significant difference between them.
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Volume 34 11, No. 25, 2011