As hard butters useful for cocoa butter substitutes, there have been known tempering type hard butters mainly composed of triglycerides having one unsaturated bond in one molecule (hereinafter referred to as U1) such as 2-oleo-1,3-dipalmitin (hereinafter referred to as POP), 2-oleo-1-palmito-3-stearin (hereinafter referred to as POSt), 2-oleo-1,3-distearin (hereinafter referred to as StOSt) and the like. Tempering type hard butters are very useful for the production of chocolate having mellow cocoa flavor wherein a large amount of cocoa butter is used, because such hard butters have good miscibility with cocoa butter and can be mixed with cocoa butter in any mixing ratio. Such tempering type hard butters can be prepared from natural fats containing a large amount of the above U1 component, or by appropriately compounding fractionated fats obtained from natural fats, ester-interchanged fats containing a large amount of U1 component obtained by an enzymatic ester interchange reaction and their fractionated fats. And, there have been made effort to imitate the triglyceride composition and properties of cocoa butter as close as possible. Accordingly, properties of tempering type hard butters are very similar to those of cocoa butter and the hard butters are hard at a low temperature and have good melting properties such that the butters are molten at about the body temperature, sharply. Thus, cocoa butter and tempering type hard butters have very good properties.
Nevertheless, from the practical viewpoint, they still have problems such as those in blooming resistance, tempering properties, migration of fats and oils when they are used as coating, and oil-off and cracking phenomena. In order to improve or solve these problems, various attempts have been done.
By the way, when chocolate made from a large amount of cocoa butter or a tempering type hard butter is coated on soft centers such as sponge cakes, mouth feel at a low temperature is deteriorated. Further, when it is used in the production of solid chocolate, mouth feel at the beginning of mastication is very hard. This hardness increases with time and it is not suitable for an aged person or a person having bad teeth.
Recently, it has been requested to improve or solve the above problems of cocoa butter and tempering type hard butters by taking into consideration of improvement of mouth feel at a low temperature as well as at the beginning of mastication. In view of this request, the present applicant (the assignee of the present application) has already proposed methods for preventing cracking, or improving tempering properties by admixing a liquid fat having a melting point of not higher than 25.degree. C. with cocoa butter, a mixture of cocoa butter and a cocoa butter substitute, or a hard butter being rich in a 2-unsaturated-1,3-disaturated triglyceride component (Japanese Patent Kokai Nos. 59-135841, 60-27341 and 61-254143). Usually, cocoa butter or a hard butter in good quality has a high solid fat index (SFI) such as that at 5 to 25.degree. C. of not lower than 70% and, therefore, it is very hard at a low temperature. When a liquid fat is admixed with cocoa butter or the hard butter, SFI at a low temperature is decreased and thereby it is possible to soften a product at a low temperature. However, SFI at a high temperature is also decreased and thereby heat resistance of the product is impaired. Accordingly, in the above present applicant's proposal, a small amount of a fat having a high melting point is added to improve heat resistance and this is effective to a certain degree.
The present inventors have further studied and have found that a hard butter composition having a specific glyceride composition and SFI has much improved properties than those of the compositions disclosed in the above present applicant's proposal.