Talk:Praline (nut confection)

Untitled
A recent edit removed the phrase "and of a pastry ingredient made from them". This refers to ground-up praline, also known as praliné, mentioned further down. It seems useful to mention this in the opening paragraph. Comments? --Macrakis 23:05, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Pronunciation
An anon changed the pronunciation from "PRAH-LEEN" to "PLAY-LEEN". I can vouch the former is that of the U.S. Gulf Coast, but I've occasionlly heard the latter said by some tourists visiting New Orleans, so it may be geographic. Does anyone have some good info on how it prounounced where? -- Infrogmation 22:18, 12 July 2006 (UTC)


 * PRAY-LEAN is a strong competing pronounciation here in Southern England. I'd guess its the most prevalent form in British English, but don't have any data. I've put in two varients. Francis Davey 14:10, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I have removed "(pronounced PRAH-LEAN, PRAH-LIN-AY or PRAY-LEEN)" from the article. Having three alternative suggested pronunciations in the first sentence of the article without explanation of when, where, and by who the pronunciations are used seems of little use to readers. If we can get info along the lines of what pronunciation is used where and put that in its own paragraph or section of the article, that might be of more use. -- Infrogmation 18:00, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * PRAY-LEAN is most common in RP, the others are variants I have heard amongst British English speakers without strong dialects. PRAH-LEAN is pretty rare here. Francis Davey 18:45, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

The pronunciation varies based on the region of the world or country you live in. New Orleans residents will almost always use a varient of the pronunciation that sounds like PRAW-LEEN. On the contrary, nearly every Texan I've met pronounces it PRAY-LEAN.
 * My stodgy old Merriam-Webster (7th ed., 1971) has both PRAH-leen and PRAY-leen as pronunciations, so the bit about one being correct and the other becoming accepted is rather dated, no? The online 11th ed. entry lists three pronuns.--65.216.141.50 14:51, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

It's obviously PRAH if you take every pronunciation from across the globe into account. But most importantly the LEEN or LEAN part that's being advocated as being a correct pronunciation is heavily "twanged" I would say the pronunciation that will make people sound the least ridiculous is PRAH-LYNN. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.101.79.142 (talk) 19:47, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

I think the pronunciation is based on how you want to say it, as contrary to the statement above, I find that PRAY-lean sounds better. although by the word's spelling, the correct way to say it would be PRAR-lien. Athalax, Destoyer of Worlds 11:33, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Removed text
This text was copied direcgtly from the referenced website (and it is of very poor quality). The French and Belgians do not have the same definition of the word “praline”. In France, it is a roasted almond or hazelnut wrapped in drop and icing sugar. In Belgium, the definition of the “praline” describes a chocolate sweet, generally filled. Jean Neuhaus invented it. The house of Neuhaus was founded in 1857, and originally made pharmaceutical sweets, but evolved over the years into a pastry shop famous throughout the city. In 1912, Jean Neuhaus Jr. invented the first cold-filled chocolate sweet, which he named a “praline”. Three years later, he invented a new type of cardboard package, the familiar tuck-in end chocolate box. The company constantly developed new recipes for its pralines. CapnPrep 15:04, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

First Paragraph

 * They should never be referred to as "Dulce de Leche over Nuts."

Where did this come from? Is someone trying to be funny? It doesn't get any hits at all on google excluding the same article. And anyways, caramel and dulce de leche are not the same thing, so what is the point of the comment? --Vlmastra 00:44, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Pictures
Is it reallyt necessary to have 3 different pictures of the exact same pralines? —Preceding unsigned comment added by OGOL (talk • contribs) 15:23, 11 December 2007 (UTC) It does seem a little excessive. Perhaps we should also have apicture of "Pralines on the floor" and "Pralines on the back of a donkey" 81.76.40.196 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 13:42, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Pralines in America - creamy, not brittle!
I edited this section to reflect the true consistency of pralines in America. They are creamy like fudge, not brittle like peanut brittle. I have never seen a brittle praline -- that would be considered burnt. Before making this change, I checked each reference listed by the author(s). Three of those sites clearly described the praline as creamy; the other had no reference at all to the consistency.Lkt215 (talk) 00:23, 19 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Well that's not an arrogant assumption at all (the true consistency)... Pralines come in many different varieties in North American.  They are similar to cookies, meaning you can make them soft or hard depending on how you like them.  Many candy stores sell pralines as nuts (usually pecans) covered in carmelized sugar, so again these would not be anything like fudge.  I have had ones that were soft, but my point is there are a lot of varieties.   Lime in the Coconut   14:53, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

I'm not seeing any references cited where you describe U.S. pralines as creamy. Whatever your sources might say, I beg to differ with this adjective. I've never had creamy pralines in my life, living in the U.S. In fact, I have never really liked them here because they are almost always grainy. You're right, they are not a brittle -- they are not cooked to the stage where the sugar would become brittle when cooled, hence the graininess.

As far as New Orleans goes, I've gotten pralines at the Cafe du Monde -- which I think we can agree is quintessentially New Orleans -- and they were, as expected, grainy. Yes, they do add cream, which changes the texture a tiny bit and the opacity, but I've never had any U.S. praline that could be remotely described as creamy in texture. I think the issue may be that your references think adding cream makes things "creamy," which in content is true. However, creamy texturally speaking is a whole other thing. That's where the fudge comparison is probably tripping you up. In general, comparing something to fudge is a bad idea -- traditional fudge is somewhat creamy but the sugar is still grainy, while it is much more common in the U.S. to have truly creamy fudge made with cream cheese or sweetened condensed milk, or even marshmallow fluff, with melted chocolate added, more like a thick ganache than traditional fudge.

So, maybe just state that in the U.S./New Orleans they add cream and let it go at that? Forget trying to liken them to anything else, since as the previous commenter said, there are many different praline recipes, just as there are many different textures and consistencies of fudge. Bad comparison all round. Zlama (talk) 02:27, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

In Texas there are two common forms of pecan pralines, previously termed "New Orleans" (the chewy kind) -- where a white sugar/corn syrup mixture is heated to 250° F -- and "Mexican" -- made with brown sugar and heated only to 210°, which makes them sugary and crumbly. Both recipes call for butter and cream, with some recipes substituting evaporated milk, buttermilk, or even cream cheese. Recipes for both kinds circulate now as "Texas" pralines.

I have no idea to what degree "Mexican" style pralines have penetrated the American Southwest beyond Texas, but they are a staple of Tex-Mex cuisine and therefore should be mentioned as well under "American." --Janko (talk) 05:41, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Dubious
They are usually almonds and sometimes hazelnuts? In the UK at least, this seems backwards, I can think of several popular confections (sweets) with hazelnut praline and none with almonds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.235.216 (talk) 09:39, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

I have seen praliné made from pecans, macadamia , almonds , hazelnuts , brazilnuts. pistache fillings are basically praliné made from pistachio's with added syrup or cream depending. Writer needs a larger world view before imposing his limits as dogma. 83.101.79.142 (talk) 13:40, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

I tried to expand the opening sentence to reflect the article contents. The problem is that 'praline' is used rather loosely and has been used as a label for a variety of rather different candies, but I am reasonably sure that it must have nuts to be so called. Jerry guru (talk) 22:44, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

All the "nougat chocolates" I see in Austria and Germany usually have a hazelnut on the wrapping and more importantly on the ingredients list, so the nougat ones are rather made with hazelnuts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.92.82.249 (talk) 19:39, 11 February 2012 (UTC)


 * confusing as it may seem, germans use the term nougat when they mean praliné (gianduja) -> http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nougat 83.101.79.89 (talk) 05:04, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Links to other languages
At least in Dutch the word 'praline' generally means a small chocolate typically made in Belgium (although the Dutch themselves mainly use the French word 'bonbon', which in French means a sweet/candy in general). Since the English article is mainly about the nut/sugar syrup blend, it is not only misleading to have direct links to other languages in which 'praline' means something different, but the prominent photograph of 'Belgian pralines' surely has no business here. As the article actually makes clear, they're usually called 'Belgian chocolates' in English, precisely because of the other meaning of 'praline'. I've no idea how to correct this (and it may well apply to other languages), but simply linking articles with the same name, regardless of language, is misleading. In my view this is one of Wikipedia's worst failings. I've put a similar comment on the Dutch-language site.188.203.49.105 (talk) 17:32, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Split
Re splitting this article into separate articles for the sugar-and-nut confection and the filled chocolates:


 * Split Praline is simply the Belgian-French name for filled chocolates, which need an article. After all, WP, is not a dictionary -- just because two things have the same name does not mean they should be covered together. --Macrakis (talk) 18:43, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Split per WP:NOTDICTIONARY two things having the same name does not mean they should be covered in one article Spudlace (talk) 19:38, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
 * It is clear that the section on Belgian pralines should be split out; however, I am not sure about the title.
 * Filled chocolates would be a very broad title, and certainly far broader than the soft-centre chocolates discussed here. Chocolate fondant however is also a desert, and Belgian chocolates is very close :to Belgian chocolate, which we have. There is Praline (chocolates), but that might be far from the common name in English. Any thoughts? Felix QW (talk) 10:46, 3 July :2022 (UTC)
 * I don't see any problem with a split between Praline (American cuisine) and Praline (Belgian chocolate). I am sceptical that what we refer to as "French pralines" really exist as a thing in their own right. —Brigade Piron (talk) 14:26, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

Pardon my French?
Even IF praline is French for Clitoris, does this need to be HERE? The subject is the sweet, not body parts. ThomasHarrisGrantsPass (talk) 19:23, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I would have deleted the section if I did not find a reasonable source for the statement. I do not find the single cited use use in literature all that informative and would support deleting the section. If it were a major literary theme, I might have argued otherwise. BiologicalMe (talk) 21:19, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

Ice cream flavor
will someone please add this article to the category for ice cream flavors? thanks! 50.215.218.33 (talk) 02:45, 14 October 2023 (UTC)