Aroma volatiles of 'a la Piedra' Turrón

'A la piedra' turrón is a typical Spanish confection prepared from toasted almonds, sugar, lemon peel and cinnamon; it is the simplest version of turrón. To date, no information has been available on aroma profiles of any type of turrón. The aroma profiles of 'a la piedra' turrón from two different manufacturing companies were studied. A total of 66 compounds were detected, including terpenes (21), terpenoids (16), aldehydes (8), pyrazines (5), furans (3), pyrroles (2), aromatic hydrocarbons (7) and others (4). The predominant volatile compounds were those originated from the lemon peel ([almost equal to]30%), the most characteristic and important ingredient of this food from a flavour point of view. However, descriptive sensory analysis proved that other attributes, such as toasted, nutty, cinnamon, sweet and aftertaste, were also of importance. The low levels of pyrazines (the chemical group most characteristic of toasted nuts) were probably related to a deficient and not optimized toasting process. Thus, further studies are needed to optimize the roasting conditions of almonds. Finally, this study proved that the flavour of this type of turrón was dominated by the lemon peel and cinnamon notes, and that low-toasted almonds were used in its manufacture. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.