Characteristics of Fish Ball Tofu as Affected by Different Species and its Flesh Concentration

Fishball tofu (FBT) is a diversification product of meatball tofu which was specially produced in Semarang Central Java Indonesia. Meatball tofu is usually made from beef. FBT is produced from fish flesh. Caharacteristics of FBT from different species with different concentration of flesh was investigated. The experimental design in this study was a factorial completely randomized design with different species (giant gourami and catfish) at varying flesh concentrations (30%, 40% and 50%). Fish species and flesh concentration had significant effect on protein and fat content of FBT (P<0.05). No difference of gel strength was observed for FBT from giant gourami and catfish at flesh concentration of 50% and 30%, respectively (P>0.05). The highest protein content (11.42%) was achieved for FBT from catfish at 50% flesh concentration and the lowest protein content (8.08%) was observed for FBT from giant gourami at 30%. FBT from giant gourami at 50% flesh concentration had the highest fat content, meanwhile FBT from catfish at 30 and 40% showed the lowest fat content. Fish species and flesh concentrations did not have significant impact on moisture and ash contents of all FBT samples (P>0.05). The moisture and ash contents of all FBT were of 69.25-71.15% and 0.59-0.86%, respectively. Different species and flesh concentration had a significant effect on the hardness, deformation and gel strength (P<0.05). The highest hardness was achieved for FBT from giant gourami at 50% flesh concentration (P<0.05). The highest deformation was attained for FBT from catfish at 30% flesh concentration and the lowest deformation was found in FBT from giant gourami with 50% flesh concentration (P<0.05). The deformation values of FBT from catfish were greater (11.4-23.73 mm) than those from giant gourami (10.33-13.9 mm). Overall, FBT from catfish are preferred than those from giant gourami.