GB2090515A

GB2090515A - Rehydratable dried food products

Info

Publication number: GB2090515A
Application number: GB8139134A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Unilever PLC
Current assignee: Unilever PLC
Priority date: 1981-01-02
Filing date: 1981-12-31
Publication date: 1982-07-14
Also published as: GB2090515B

Abstract

A dried food filling comprises dried meat, vegetable and/or fruit pieces, together with a dry particulate cold water thickening agent. In use the mixture is rehydrated by addition of water and then formed into pies or other filled food products, and optionally cooked.

Description

SPECIFICATION Food product This invention concerns food products which are intended for use as fillings for pies or pastries, rolls, tarts, dumplings and the like. More particularly, the food products of the invention are dehydrated, storage-stable mixtures of meat, vegetables or fruit and other ingredients which can be rehydrated and used as such fillings. As the main use for the filling is in meat pies, the invention is described below with particular reference to this use.

The traditional method of making pies and other filled food products is to cook fresh ingredients, especially fresh meat and vegetables or fresh fruit and other ingredients, and then to enclose the cooked mixture in pastry or the like for further cooking. This process is labour intensive and not suitable for the production of pies in appreciable quantities intended for immediate consumption, because of the storage problems either of the fresh ingredients or the cooked pies.

It would clearly be desirable to be able to form pies and the like from storage-stable ingredients using a quick technique, so that such products can be formed readily according to demand, so as to decrease labour costs and minimise waste due to surplus production. The present invention provides a food product which is based on dehydrated meat, vegetable and/or fruit and which can be redehydrated to form a consumer-acceptable product, simulating pies or other filled food products made from fresh ingredients.

According to the present invention a redehydratable dried food filling comprises dried meat pieces, dried vegetable pieces and/or dried fruit pieces and a dry particulate cold water thickening agent. These products can be used simply by admixture of cold water to hydrate the food pieces in a sauce, gravy or syrup formed by the cold water thickening agent in the water, after which the rehydrated food filling is used in pies or other filled food products. The term 'filling' is used in this connection to indicate this intended utility of the products before they are actually used in the filled food products.

The products of the invention can be savoury or desert food fillings. In the savoury products, it is preferred to have both meat and vegetable pieces with the amount of the dried meat pieces being from about 25% to about 80% by weight of the dried food filling and the amount of vegetable pieces being from about 5% to about 70% and the amount of the cold water thickening agent being from about 1% to about 20%, preferably about 5% to about 15%, by weight of the dried food filling. Other ingredients such as salt or other flavouring agents, dispersants, preservatives and hot water thickening agents may also be present, normally in amounts of about 10% each and at a combined amount of about 5% to about 60% of the dried food filling.

In the case of dried desert fillings for pies and the like, the proportion of dried fruit pieces is generally from about 40% to about 95% of the dried food filling, with from 1% to about 20%, preferably about 5% to 15% by weight of a cold water thickening agent. The balance may include sugar, flavouring agents, colourants, dispersants, hot water thickening agents and other normal fruit pie ingredients, generally in a combined amount of from about 5% to about 50% by weight of the product. The individual amounts of such optional ingredients are generally low, up to about 10% in the dried food filling, except for sugar which can be higher, up to about 25% by weight.

The dried food pieces should be of a form which can be substantially rehydrated reasonably quickly, say within about 10 minutes, and of suitable size both to facilitate such rehydration and to provide suitable properties in the final product, for example with a maximum dimension of from about 0.1 to about 1.25 cm (about 0.05 to 0.5 inches) for meat pieces.

In the case of vegetable or fruit pieces, it is common for them to be sliced before dehydration, and so to have a thickness of about 0.1 to about 0.5 cm with a maximum dimension of up to about 3 cm. But if the vegetable or fruit pieces are diced or cubed rather than sliced the maximum dimension is generally within the range of about 0.1 to about 1.25 cm, like the meat pieces.

The term 'meat' is used herein to include products based on animal meat, for example beef, mutton, pork, poultry meat, horse meat or whale meat, or so called meat substitutes, sometimes called textured vegetable protein, which are made from such protein sources as soya bean with flavouring added. Alternatively, the meat can be fish meat or shell-fish meat, so as to form what are commonly called fish pies or pasties, or a mixture of any such meats or meat substitutes.

Preferably the dried meat pieces are reformed animal meat pieces, especially reformed beef pieces which can be made by extruding and then dicing a minced beef mixture, which is cooked to set the protein and preserve the shape of the pieces. Drying the meat pieces is accomplished in a known manner, for example by freeze-drying or air-drying.

The vegetable and fruit pieces should also be dehydrated and of suitable size and of suitable properties to facilitate rehydration. Any vegetable of the type commonly used in savoury products may be used, usually including potato, optionally with carrot, tomato, peas, beans, swede, parsnip, turnip, marrow, mushroom, red or green peppers or onion etc. The preferred dried vegetable pieces are made from potato and onion, both of which are cheap and readily available.

As fruit pieces there may be mentioned by way of example apricot, apple, plum, peach, raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, red current, pear, banana and pineapple. Some bland-tasting vegetable pieces such as marrow may also be included in fruit-based food fillings.

The other essential ingredient is a cold water thickening agent, which is a starch or chemically modified starch or a gum or mixture thereof, which is present in finely divided form and which on the addition of cold water to the food filling provides a thickening effect. This gives an appreciable increase in viscosity compared with water alone, within five minutes of mixing. The presence of such a cold water thickening agent has a marked effect on the user properties of the fillings, in that it enables the products on rehydration to be handled and formed into pies or the like, without being too fluid and running out. In addition it also holds the water of rehydration in closer contact with the meat, vegetable or fruit pieces, so that rehydration continues effectively instead of the water draining off the food pieces.The preferred cold water thickening agent is a chemically modified starch, for example hydroxy propyl di-starch phosphate or acetylated distarch phosphate, or a mixture of such a modified starch with a gum such as guar or xanthan gum.

A particular advantage of the food fillings of the invention is that they can readily have added to them dietary supplements, such as vitamins and essential trace elements. This makes them more valuable for use in developing countries, especially when there is a shortage of local fresh meat and vegetables which would normally provide essential vitamins and trace elements.

Normally, the dried food fillings include flavouring agents, but the user can of course supply his own flavourings to the products they make, according to taste. The user can also if desired use some local fresh ingredients with the dried food fillings, for example by using a meat-based filling with local vegatables.

A particularly desirable additive in the dried food fillings is a hot water thickening agent such as a native starch, preferably in an amount of about 0.5% to about 5% by weight, which serves to bind the food pieces together during cooking, so that the filled products have a decreased tendency to disintegrate during eating.

The invention is illustrated by the following examples by which parts and percentages are by weight.

Example 1 A dehydrated meat pie filling is made by mixing the following ingredients: Reformed beef (3/16 inch (0.45 cm) mince) 63.3 Diced dried potato 13.6 Cold water thickening startch 7.9 Dried chopped onion 7.3 Wheat flour 3.8 Salt 2.5 Mixed spice 1.6 The cold water thickening agent used was hydroxy propyl distarch phosphate.

This product was formed into pies by adding cold water and mixing to thicken the meat filling which was spooned into pastry cases, which were capped and then cooked in the usual way.

The cooked meat pies were found to have a texture and taste closely resembling that of traditional fresh meat pies.

Example 2 A dehydrated fish pasty filling was made by mixing the ingredients: Dried smoked fish flakes 35.00 Cold water thickening starch 1 7.8 Wheat flour 3.8 Dried potato cubes 7.6 Dried chopped onion 7.6 Potato powder 12.7 Milk powder 5.1 Salt 3.8 Flavouring agents and herbs 6.5 The cold water thickening agent used was a pregelatinised modified potato starch.

This product was then used as a pastry filling by admixing 100 gms of the mixture with about 340 gms cold water and then spooning it onto pastry which was folded and then cooked in the usual way. The product was found to have good taste and texture.

Example 3 A dried fruit pie filling was made by admixing the ingredients: f Dried halved apricots 71.6 Cold water thickening agent 14.3 (as in Example 1) Sugar 6.0 Maltodextrin 7.2 Citric acid 0.2 Flavour and colouring agents 0.7 100 gms of this product was admixed with 200 mls of cold water and then formed into a fruit tart by spooning into a pastry case and covering with extra pastry, and was then cooked.

The tart has an acceptable taste and texture.

Claims

1. A rehydratable dried food filling comprising dried meat pieces, dried vegetable pieces and/or dried fruit pieces and a dry particulate cold water thickening agent.

2. A dried food filling according to claim 1 which comprises dried meat pieces and dried vegetable pieces.

3. A dried food filling according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the dried meat pieces have a maximum dimension in the range of about 0.1 to about 1.25 cms.

4. A dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims which comprises from about 25% to about 80% by weight of dried meat pieces.

5. A dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims which comprises dried sliced vegetable or fruit pieces which have a thickness of about 0.1 to about 0.5 cm and a maximum dimension of about 3 cms.

6. A dried food filling according to any of claims 1 to 4 comprising dried diced vegetable or fruit pieces which have a maximum dimension of about 0.1 to about 1.25 cms.

7. A dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims which comprises from about 5% to about 70% by weight of dried vegetable pieces.

8. A dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims which comprises about 40% to about 95% by weight of dried fruit pieces.

9. A dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims which comprises from about 1% to about 20% by weight of the cold water thickening agent.

10. A dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims wherein the amount of the cold water thickening agent is from about 5% to about 15% by weight of the product.

11. A dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims wherein the cold water thickening agent is a chemically modified starch.

12. A dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims which comprises about 0.5% to about 5% by weight of a hot water thickening agent.

1 3. A dried food filling according to claim 1 2 wherein the hot water thickening agent is a native starch.

14. A dried food filling according to claim 1 substantially as herein described with reference to Example 1.

1 5. A dried food filling according to claim 1 substantially as herein described with reference to Example 2 or Example 3.

16. A filled food product comprising a rehydrated food filling prepared by adding water to a dried food filling according to any of the preceding claims.