Briefly, four cylinders of 1.5 cmheight and 2 cmdiameter were prepared
from every sample. A double compression cycle test was performed
up to 50% compression of the original portion height with an aluminium cylinder probe of 2 cm diameter. A time of 5 s was allowed to elapse between the two compression cycles. Force–time deformation curves were obtained with a 25 kg load cell applied at a cross-head speed of 2 mm/s. The following parameters were quantified (Bourne,
1978): hardness (N) maximum force required to compress the sample,springiness (m), ability of the sample to recover its original form after deforming forcewas removed, adhesiveness (N × s), area under the abscissa after the first compression, and cohesiveness, extent towhich the
sample could be deformed prior to rupture.