Effects of Different Fermentation Methods on the Quality and Flavor of Pickled Cowpeas

To enhance the quality of pickled cowpeas, the natural wet fermentation and pure-bred wet fermentation were used to ferment cowpeas in this research, and the fresh cowpea from Liuzhou, Guangxi as raw materials. To explore the effects of natural wet fermentation and wet fermentation with an inoculum of 0.04 g/kg of Lactobacillus plantarum on the quality of pickled cowpeas, the pH, total acid, amino acid nitrogen, reducing sugar, total sugar and nitrite content were determined during the curing process of different methods, and the texture analysis of fermented cowpeas was detected. The sensory score and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to assess the flavor components of pickled cowpeas. The results indicated that the pH, total acid, amino acid nitrogen and nitrite content of pure-bred wet pickled cowpeas were lower than those of natural wet fermentation during the fermentation process. The consumption rate of reducing sugar and total sugar was higher than that of natural wet fermentation.