Effects of soaking conditions on the texture of dried sea cucumber

Dried sea cucumber must first be soaked in water, then heated and finally left at 20°C for 24 h, this procedure being repeated several times in preparation for cooking. In the case of dried sea cucumber soaked in distilled water, it gradually increased in weight. After full-scale soaking twice, its weight increased to 7.6-fold the original weight, which softened it thoroughly. The water content after this soaking process was 94.5%, which is almost the same as that of raw sea cucumber. During the soaking process, not only was water absorbed, but components of the ingredients of sea cucumber were eluted into the soaking water. Among these components, ash was eluted fastest, next was glycosaminoglycan and last was collagen. In addition to distilled water, rice-washing water, a coarse-tea-infused solution and a potassium carbonate solution were used as the soaking solutions. Sea cucumber absorbed water and swelled in the potassium carbonate solution faster than in the other three solutions. Textural measurements and a sensory evaluation clarified that the softest sea cucumber resulted from the rice-washing water, and the hardest sea cucumber from the coarse tea.