## 2 Materials and Methods
### Physico-Chemical Properties  
#### 2.4.1 Instrumental Color Parameters  
Color characteristics of _Kurut_ samples were measured by chroma meter (Konica Minolta CR 410, Sensing Inc., Osaka, Japan). The measured color parameters were \(L^{\star}\), \(a^{\star}\) and \(b^{\star}\), indicating the degree of lightness/darkness (\(L=100/L=0\)), redness (\(+a\))/greenness (\(-a\)) and yellowness (\(+b\))/blueness (\(-b\)) [37]. The instrument is initially calibrated by a standard white plate, and homogeneously mixed samples were put in quartz container of the device. The measurements were performed in replicate and mean values were calculated for all color parameters. By using CIE color parameters (\(L^{\star}\), \(a^{\star}\) and \(b^{\star}\)), some color indices as total color difference (\(\Delta E\)), Chroma (C*), Browning Index (_BI_), Hue Angle (_H*_), Whiteness Index (_WI_) and Yellowness Index (_Y1_) were calculated by Equations (1)-(6), respectively [38]. In Equation (1), strained yogurt was considered as a reference in calculation of \(\Delta E\) with \(L_{0}\)*, \(a_{0}\)* and \(b_{0}\)* values (Table 1).  
\[\Delta E=\sqrt{\Delta a^{\star 2}+\Delta b^{\star 2}+\Delta L^{\star 2}} \tag{1}\]  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Temperature**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Drying Technique**} \\ \hline _Kurut_ Sample * & 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C & 45 \({}^{\circ}\)C & **Vacuum-Oven Drying (VOD)** & **Oven Drying (OD)** \\ \hline KV35 & + & \(-\) & + & \(-\) \\ KV45 & \(-\) & + & + & \(-\) \\ K35 & + & \(-\) & \(-\) & + \\ K45 & \(-\) & \(+\) & \(-\) & + \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
* KV35—_Kurut_ sample VOD applied at 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C; KV45—_Kurut_ sample VOD applied at 45 \({}^{\circ}\)C; K35—_Kurut_ sample OD applied at 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C; K45—_Kurut_ sample OD applied at 45 \({}^{\circ}\)C.  
\end{table}
Table 2: Experimental design of the study.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline \hline
**Parameter** & **K35** & **K45** & **KV35** & **KV45** \\ \hline Dry matter (\%) & 86.22 \(\pm\) 0.59 & 84.79 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 94.43 \(\pm\) 0.21 & 94.62 \(\pm\) 0.11 \\ Fat in dry matter (\%) & 27.61 \(\pm\) 0.23 & 27.57 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 25.70 \(\pm\) 0.22 & 25.87 \(\pm\) 0.17 \\ Salt in dry matter (\%) & 4.12 \(\pm\) 0.20 & 4.13 \(\pm\) 0.16 & 4.01 \(\pm\) 0.24 & 4.07 \(\pm\) 0.03 \\ Ash in dry matter (\%) & 5.82 \(\pm\) 0.07 & 5.90 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 5.77 \(\pm\) 0.00 & 5.86 \(\pm\) 0.05 \\ Lactic acid (\%) & 7.03 \(\pm\) 0.25 & 7.04 \(\pm\) 0.16 & 6.26 \(\pm\) 0.12 & 6.92 \(\pm\) 0.06 \\ pH & 4.16 \(\pm\) 0.06 & 4.18 \(\pm\) 0.05 & 4.35 \(\pm\) 0.00 & 4.35 \(\pm\) 0.01 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Values are the means \(\pm\) SE (n = 2) of parameters in the 1 st day with no significant difference (homogeneous groups), (\(p>\) 0.05). K35—_Kurut_ sample OD applied at 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C; K45—_Kurut_ sample OD applied at 45 \({}^{\circ}\)C; KV35—_Kurut_ sample VOD applied at 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C; KV45—_Kurut_ sample VOD applied at 45 \({}^{\circ}\)C.  
\end{table}
Table 3: Proximate composition of VOD- and OD-applied _Kurut_ samples *.  
\[C^{*}=\sqrt{a*^{2}+b*^{2}} \tag{2}\]  
\[BI=100\times\left(\frac{X-0.31}{0.17}\right)\] (3a) and where \[X=\frac{(a^{*}+1.75L^{*})}{(5.645L^{*}+a^{*}-3.012b^{*})} \tag{3b}\]  
\[h^{*}\ =\tan^{-1}\left(\frac{b^{*}}{a^{*}}\right) \tag{4}\]  
\[WI=100-\sqrt{(100-L^{*})^{2}+\Delta a^{*2}+\Delta b^{*2}} \tag{5}\]  
\[YI=\frac{142.86b^{*}}{L^{*}} \tag{6}\]