KOREASCHOLAR

Frying is the most popular cooking style used in food service institutions in Korea because fried dishes are well accepted by students. However, trans fat contents reduction have recently been required in many foods for health reasons Therefore, alternatives to frying such as oven baking or roasting are being used in many institutions. Steam convection ovens provide dry heat as well as steam so that they can be used to make a wide variety of Korean dishes. In this study, a menu acceptance test was conducted over 2 weeks. Pork, chicken, fish and potato dishes cooked by conventional cooking methods were served for 4 successive days, after which the same dishes were prepared using the oven. Overall, 322 junior high school students evaluated the traditionally cooked foods, while 316 evaluated the oven cooked foods. Comparison of the foods prepared using both methods only revealed a significant difference in the acceptability of foods on the fish menu (p<0.05). Specifically, the acceptance of fried fish was higher than that of the oven baked fish. Additionally, overall acceptance of the menu by males was higher than the acceptance by girls. Furthermore, students who had the preference for special ingredients showed a higher menu acceptance for the menu cooked with those ingredients. On average, approximately 25% of the meal was not consumed and left as plate waste. The portion of the fried fish not consumed was smaller than that of the oven cooked fish, but the portion not consumed did not vary based on cooking method for any other foods evaluated. Overall, it is expected that the oven cooking method will be a good substitute for frying or other cooking method for traditional Korean dishes.

• 안희준 | Ahn, Hee-Jun
• 김희섭 | Kim, Hee-Sup