Stress relaxation characteristics of moth bean (raw and roasted) flour doughs having different moisture contents were determined at two different strain levels (0.05 and 0.50). The decaying relaxation curves for raw flour showed an initial stress between 2 and 22 kPa when the moisture content varied from 28% to 34% at a strain of 0.05. Roasted flour doughs exhibited initial stresses between 0.06 and 2 kPa at moisture contents between 40% and 46%. Dough formation was not possible below 40% moisture content for roasted samples. An increase in moisture content markedly decreased initial and residual stresses. It is desirable that dough should possess a low value of residual stress when used for developing flattened/sheeted products. Models containing two or three parameters were found suitable for large-strain stress relaxation characteristics while low-strain data can be modelled by a 4-element Maxwell model with residual stress. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.