Evaluation of Durum wheat cultivars grown in Saudi Arabia and their flour performance for Spaghetti-making quality

Five durum wheal cultivars. CHAMI. YOVAROS, SEBU0 4. KOREFLA, and K.F.U.I were subjected to detailed physical, chemical, mixing, cooking and sensory tests to evaluate their flour performances for spaghetti-making quality. Test weights for all cultivars have met the specification for European Union (EU) durum wheat. Only CHAMI and SEBUO 4 were characterized by larger kernel size while YOVAROS and K.F.U.l were about 30% less in yellow color intensity than other cultivars. in spite of all cultivars being generally of higher protein contents, they varied in their mixing characteristics. Wheat ash contents ranged from 1.39 to 2.21%, and falling numbers were from 63 to 872 sec. Spaghetti samples prepared from all cultivars, except, K.F.U.l were characterized by lower cooking losses, and an extremely high cooking loss (17%) was observed for spaghetti prepared from K.F.U.l. In addition, cooked spaghetti samples from all cultivars except YOVAROS and K.F.U. 1 had an intense desirable yellow color. Sensory panel evaluation of cooked spaghetti revealed that spaghetti from CHAMI and SEBUO 4 had excellent overall sensory properties as indicated by good firmness and almost absent stickiness and bulkincss. To the contrary, spaghetti from YOVAROS and K.F.U.l had poor sensory attributes as indicated by insufficient firmness and high or very high stickiness and bulkiness. Only spaghetti prepared from KOREFLA was rated fair as indicated by sufficient firmness and high stickiness and rare bulkiness