Water holding capacity (WHC) was measured according to the method established by Nopianti et al. (2012) with minor modification. Fish ball was cut into dimension of 2 cm × 1 cm × 1 cm, and the weight was measured. The sample was placed between two pieces of filter paper, which were previously weighed. The sliced sample was pressed using standard weight (5 kg) for 2 min. The paper was removed and weight again. WHC was calcu- lated using the following equation: