Keeping the taste consistent in hummus after initial cooking

I make hummus a lot and love the taste. My recipe is pretty refined now - it could probably go commercial.

There's one problem though: the taste degrades substantially after a night or so, and I'd like to see what I can do to tackle this. Especially the chick pea flavour "flips" to more darker tones, and the effect of the salt appears to be negated, requiring reseasoning (which feels really weird to me, no other dips that I make do this kind of thing). I've tried both dried and canned chick peas and I'm using the fresh salt from a mill to season.

Suggestions greatly appreciated.

flavor hummus

Best Answer

Fresh-made hummus, without any preservatives added, will usually start to spoil after a couple of hours. This is actually perfectly normal behaviour, as the warm protein and fat rich environment is perfect for some microscopic friends to breed in.

This is actually why restaurant hummus is always so much better than supermarket hummus, which needs to be preserved to last.

The best thing you can do is to refrigerate the hummus immediately, to slow down the activity of the bacteria. It may also help to add a bit more lemon juice to make the environment more acid.

Note that the maximum this will get you is 24-36 hours more. Don't expect it to last longer than that without serious preservatives.