Pempek Fishcake from Channa micropeltes with Pumpkin Puree: Quality Assessment

Pempek is an authentic traditional dish of Indonesian cuisine. As a popular food, it needs to be both tasty and nutritious. Mashed pumpkin can add some health-beneficial properties to the traditional pempek and reduce its carbohydrate content. This research featured pempek made of farmed toman fish (Channa micropeltes), which is an affordable raw material. The research objective was to evaluate the consumer acceptance of the experimental pempek based on its sensory assessment and a folding test. This research also revealed the proximate composition, β-carotene, and amino acids in the pempek samples. The research procedure included the following stages: making pumpkin puree; making pempek by substituting tapioca flour with pumpkin puree (control: 0%, Formulation 1: 10%, Formulation 2: 20%); sensory assessment and folding test; proximate analysis; β-carotene analysis; and amino acid analysis. A greater proportion of pumpkin puree improved the appearance, color, aroma, flavor, and texture values of the experimental sample. Based on the folding test, the elasticity of pempek decreased as the pumpkin share increased. Pumpkin puree improved the quality of pempek in terms of its protein, moisture, ash, carbohydrate, β-carotene, and amino acid composition. Formulation 2 with 20% of tapioca flour substituted with pumpkin puree showed the best results for protein (7.91%) and amino acids (10.27%), as well as the lowest carbohydrate content (26.76%). Mashed pumpkin proved to be an excellent substitute of tapioca flour in the traditional Indonesian pempek fishcake as it improved both its sensory profile and nutritional value.