Studies on sensory attributes of chhana based sweet “Khurma”

Buffalo milk as such is not suitable for chhana and Khurma making due to high calcium and casein contents, which results in production of hard chhana, rendering it unfit for making Khurma. Different temperature of coagulation such as 85 and 80oC were investigated for getting good quality chhana suitable for preparation of Khurma. Among all, 85oC was found suitable as Khurma produced was hard, succulent and less spongy and got sensory scores as 8.6, 9.0 and 8.88 on 9-point Hedonic scale for flavour, body and texture and colour and appearance, respectively. Amongst different cooking time of chhana cube such as 30 minutes and 45 minutes were studied for getting good quality of Khurma preparation. Among all, 45 minutes found suitable as Khurma produced was semi hard, slight spongy, pleasant flavour and brown colour and got sensory score as 8.14, 8.34 and 8.27 on 9-point Hedonic scale for flavour, body and texture and colour and appearance, respectively. Effect of different milk ratio (buffalo milk: cow milk), such as, 80:20 and 85:15 of mixed milk on quality of chhana and Khurma were studied. Khurma sample prepared from mixed milk with 85:15 ratio was found suitable as Khurma produced was hard, slightly spongy and coarse and got maximum sensory scores as 7.89, 8.04 and 8.07 on 9-point Hedonic scale for flavour, body and texture and colour and appearance, respectively, and also retain the cube shape of Khurma during cooking. Concentration of sugar syrup i.e. 70%, Khurma samples cooked in 70 percent sugar syrup were preferred most because of their light brown colour, cube shape, pleasant flavour and free from any surface crakes. A minimum cooking time of 45 min was recommended for manufacturing good quality Khurma as samples obtained on cooking for 30 min secured minimum scores for each sensory attribute except for flavour.