Different times of dropping the plunger of the Mattson cooker were used to characterize cooking of common bean grains. The objective of this study was to standardize bean grains cooking methodology. A completely randomized design was used with three replications and 23 dry bean cultivars, evaluated for cooking during the year 2005. The drop time of each peg was considered (Peg1, Peg2,..., Peg25) - or cooking time of each bean grain - and drop mean time of the first pegs, i = 1, 2,...,25 peg (Pmean1, Pmean2,..., Pmean25). The results obtained permit to say that experimental precision was modified with criteria change for characterization common bean of cooking time. The use of peg drop mean time of Mattson cooker made possible a better discrimination between cultivars. The utilization of drop mean time of the thirteen first pegs of the 25 pegs conferred greater experimental precision, and is proposed as a criterion to characterize cooking of common bean grains.
Phaseolus vulgaris; Mattson cooker; number of pegs; experimental precision
