Usage of improved soybeans varieties and tapioca in tempe processing

Tempe is one of the nutritious and cheap traditional foods in Indonesia. Tempe is made of soybean, however, soybean improved variety is seldom use as a raw material. The objective of the research was to findout the tempe quality made of two soybean improved varieties (Burangrang and Bromo) and several concentrations of tapioca flour in the tempe processing. The research was conducted at Fisiologi Hasil Laboratory, RILET in 1999/2000 using randomized complete block design with two factors factorial. Factor 1 were a. imported soybean, b. Burangrang and, c. Bromo and factor 2 were tapioca concentration i.e. 0, 0.5 and 1 percent. The adding of tapioca flour was just after soybean boiling process before Rhizophus inoculated. Physical characteristics, chemical composition of seed and tempe and also sensory characteristic were evaluated. Result showed, three soybean varieties have the same 100-bean weigths i.e. 15.99, 16.24 and 15.82 g for imported, Burangrang and Bromo varieties respectively. Bromo seed was the hardest (7.20 kg), imported and Burangrang were less hard i.e. 6.22 and 6.23 kg respectively. Protein content of imported and Bromo were 35 and 32.1 percent, and the highest protein content (36.6 percent) belonging to Burangrang. The adding of tapioca could reduce moisture content of tempe produced. Adding 1 percent tapioca produced tempe with 55.2, 55.4 and 56.1 percent, tempe made of imported, Burangrang and Bromo that produced without tapioca contained 63.3, 64.5 and 62.7 percent moisture respectively. The highest protein content (27.1 percent) were reached by tempe made of Burangrang with 1 percent tapioca, and the lowest protein content was reached by imported soybean (22.1 percent). Tempe made of Burangrang produced highest rendemen (152.5 percent), then followed by Bromo (148.4 percent), and the lowest rendemen (138.4 percent) was tempe made of Bromo variety. Tapioca increased tempe texture from 4.88 m/g/sec (0 percent tapioca) to 3.92 m/g/sec by adding 1 percent tapioca. There were no different sensory characteristic caused by different soybean varieties and tapioca. Tempe made of burangrang dan bromo varieties with 1 percent tapioca had good quality and preferable by consumers. Those tempe contained maximum moisture 65 percent, ash 1.5 percent, and protein minimum 20 percent