A comparison of methods for assessing dough and gluten strength of durum wheat and their relationship to pasta cooking quality

The best rheological test to differentiate dough and gluten strength and predict cooking quality of different durum wheat cultivars is not recognised yet. Sixteen durum wheat cultivars were grown at three locations in North Dakota using a randomised complete block design to compare different methods for measuring dough/gluten strength and to relate their results to pasta cooking quality. Different rheological tests were used to distinguish the weak, medium strong, strong and very strong gluten cultivars. Alveograph, gluten index and glutograph were the only tests that could differentiate between medium strong and strong gluten samples. Alveograph was the best method to predict gluten strength where few samples are available for assessment. In comparison with alveograph, the gluten index was faster and required less semolina and gave similar results as the alveograph. All tests had significant correlation with cooked spaghetti firmness and negative correlation with cooked weight.