Dynamic changes in aroma compounds and precursor substances during rice cooking

Cooking is a key process in forming cooked rice flavor, and more data on aroma compounds should be needed during rice cooking. This paper tracked dynamic changes in aroma compounds, sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids during cooking. After soaking, the content of glucose, fructose, oleic acid, and linoleic acid increased. In the hydrothermal cooking stage, glucose, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and alanine increased significantly (p < 0.05), while fructose, oleic acid, and linoleic acid first increased and then decreased. In raw rice and soaked rice, alkanes and alkenes were the main volatile compounds, and the content of hydrocarbon compounds decreased in the hydrothermal cooking stage, and many aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, and furan compounds were generated. A total of 28 aroma compounds were sniffed by GC-O-MS, and 13 aroma compounds with OAV >1 were screened out. These results showed that raw rice and soaked rice had similar aroma characteristics and aroma precursor substances that mainly accumulated in the SO10 or ST10 stage, and hydrothermal cooking was the key process of rice aroma formation.