Instrumental texture properties of Spanish Turrón, Italian Torrone and French Nougat

The characteristic texture of turrón, torrone and nougat was examined. They are typical European confections prepared from almonds, honey, sugars and/or chocolate. Three different instrumental tests: puncture, cutting, and Texture Profile Analysis (TPA), were used in this study and samples prepared from three countries (Spain, Italy, and France), and by six manufacturing companies (two companies per each country). All three tests succeed in finding that Spanish Jijona turrón was softer than chocolate torrone, with nougat presenting intermediate values of hardness. The TPA test proved that nougat was intended to be chewable, which implied high values of cohesiveness, springiness, chewiness, and adhesiveness, while on the contrary turrón and torrone were conceived as been breakable and non-adhesive products. These differences in texture attributes were rather due to differences in the manufacturing conditions (e.g. heating time and/or temperature) than to composition factors (e.g. almond content). Results proved that manufacturing conditions (time, temperature) were more important than percentages of ingredients in determining the texture of turrón, torrone and nougat.