Curing Process Modification of Shallot Through Cutting Leaves

Abstract

Shallot (Allium cepa L. Var. ascalonicum Backer) is one of horticulture crop that serves as a spice in daily cuisine for almost all Indonesian people. One of postharvest handling of shallot after harvesting is the curing process to extend the freshness of shallot bulbs. Curing process needs a lot of energy to dry the leaves. Even though the curing process only to dry the bulbs. For this reason, we can cut the leaves through a curing process to save the energy. This study aimed to obtain the right cutting leaves to save energy needed in the curing process. T he shallot bulbs are harvested in the morning. Then the shallot leaves are cut to the length of each leaf 1-10; 11-20; 21-30 cm and without cutting (as a control). The results showed that the cutting technique of shallot leaves with a leaf length of 1-10 cm to 11-20 cm from the initial leaf length could shorter until 4 days curing processing time with a weight loss of 16.22%, water content of 80.83%, the brightness value of 45.60, and the texture of 1589.00 grams/mm2.