Abstract:Frozen cooked noodles (FCNs), as a convenient food, can be frozen and stored for a long time. In this paper, FCNs using low gluten wheat flour were investigated as a possible replacement and strengthening of gluten by curdlan. A systematic analysis of the structure, chewiness, and moisture variations of the FCNs was carried out by means of pressed slice observation, texture determination, and NMR, respectively. The results showed that the cooking caused a decrease in the stability of the internal structure of FCNs and a decrease in firmness and tackiness. Compared to the control (0.0%), the addition of 0.5% curdlan resulted in a homogeneous and compact internal structure of FCNs, and significantly increased the firmness (63.75-75.87 g) and viscosity (1.22-1.41 g·sec) of FCNs after cooking (7 min). In addition, the addition of 0.5% curdlan reduced the time for water to reach the center of the noodles from 5 min to 3 min and the free water content from 91.957% to 91.220%. The addition of 0.5% curdlan significantly inhibited the destruction of the internal homogeneity of FCNs using low gluten wheat flour during the cooking process, and reduced the decrease of the firmness and toughness of FCNs during the cooking process, which is of positive significance for the application and promotion of curdlan.