GB2516898A

GB2516898A - Food product

Info

Publication number: GB2516898A
Application number: GB1314000.9A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Thomas James George Pyman; Christine Dee
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2013-08-05
Filing date: 2013-08-05
Publication date: 2015-02-11
Also published as: GB201314000D0

Abstract

A food product comprises a core 12 of pÃ¢tÃ©, a surround 14 of sausage meat and a crisp and/or crunchy coating 16. The food product is a variation on a Scotch egg (which comprises a core of egg, a surround of sausage meat and a crisp and/or crunchy coating), in which the egg is replaced by pÃ¢tÃ©. The pÃ¢tÃ© may be any of meat, fish, cheese, cream cheese, non-dairy cream cheese. The sausage meat may be a vegetarian product. The food product may be frozen or chilled and have a novelty shape. In a method of making a food product comprising a core of pÃ¢tÃ© with a surround of sausage meat, the pÃ¢tÃ© is made substantially solid by lowering its temperature sufficiently and/or is frozen, and this is then surrounded by sausage meat. The product is fried in a deep fat fryer to brown it and then baked in an oven.

Description

TITLE

Food Product

THE INVENTION

The present inventors were looking for a completely new eating experience in the meat/charcuterie field. They had many food starting points and looked to invent variations on each. Among the many starting points, they considered pâté and they also considered a scotch egg. After many trials and experiments, they reached the same conclusion from two different directions and so considered combining these two in particular. (Scotch eggs have been around for many years. These have a hard-boiled egg as a core with a surround of sausage meat which in turn has a coating of breadcrumbs to give a crisp and crunchy coating. They are usually held in the hand to eat.) Starting from a scotch egg, they looked for something that could be eaten in similar circumstances to a scotch egg. After extensive trials and experiments, they hit on the idea of replacing the egg by pâté, giving the product a luxury texture in the mouth as well as the possibility of a delicate flavour, or indeed any one or more of a wide range of flavours, not found with hard-boiled eggs, nor with chopped egg (a proposal of tiich they had become aware). Again, starting from pâté, they were looking for a new way of presenting pâté that would not be simply spreadable. After extensive trials and experiments, they hit on the idea of encasing the pâté in something more solid, so as to make a food product that could possibly be held in the hand, in fact making a casing for the pâté that would constitute a substantial (preferably proteinaceous) part of a total food product, not just a thin casing to hold it together, and eventually thought to make the surround and coating like those of a scotch egg.

One aspect of the invention provides a food product comprising a core of pâté, a surround of sausage meat and a coating of cereal base. The term "sausage meat" as used in the present description and claims refers not only to traditional sausage meat but also includes any product which may be filled into a skin to make a sausage, many of which are known in the art of cooking. For example, it may be vegetarian. This is further discussed below.

Another aspect of the invention provides a food product comprising a core of pâté, a surround of sausage meat surrounding the core, and a crisp and/or crunchy coating. Preferably, the coating comprises a cereal product, e.g. flour, e.g. a batter, or preferably a crumbled bread-like product, e.g. breadcrumbs or matzo meal.

Another aspect of the invention provides a food product which is a variation on a scotch egg (which comprises a core of egg, a surround of sausage meat and a crisp andfor crunchy coating), in which the egg is replaced by pâté. Preferably, the coating comprises bread crumbs. Preferably, the coating is crisp and crunchy.

Preferably, the pâté is chosen from the group comprising: a meat pâté (which term includes game and poultry, preferably liver); a fish pâté (which term includes seafood); a cheese pâté; a cream cheese pâté; a non-dairy cream cheese pâté (e.g. made from soya milk); (or other materials as indicated below;) preferably only one of them but possibly a combination of more than one.

Preferably, the pâté is substantially clear of stringy material, e.g. it has been strained.

Possibly, the sausage meat is a vegetarian product, e.g. made from a soya product or mycoprotein.

Alternatively, the product is frozen or chilled, and may be partially or wholly cooked. For example, the product may be sold (e.g. frozen or chilled, e.g. for the purchaser to complete the cooking) with the coating ready to be made crisp and crunchy by baking, frying or other high temperature processing (substantially above the boiling point of water) of the product.

Possibly, the product has a novelty shape, as discussed below.

Preferably, the coating comprises fat or oil to cause the coating to seal around the said core and surround, or other constituents suitable for the same sealing purpose, and/or suitable for the purpose of preventing the coating from becoming soggy and unable to become crisp and crunchy (without IS losing its flavour, if any) if the product is stored not fully cooked, e.g. frozen or chilled.

In the art of cooking, the preparation and constitution of pâté are generally known. The pâté is traditbnally a meat product, preferably being mainly liver. It is a finely-ground paste, e.g. of meat or fish, as discussed further below. We prefer, for a superior quality, to strain the product to remove any stringy constituents. As usually prepared, the pâté is a self-supporting paste at room temperature, say 150 C to 20° C; but it is readily spreadable and, in some embodinents that we make, may not be able to keep its shape under handling, being then more like a thick cream. The precise consistency depends upon the chef. A suitable pâté is a mixture of cooked ground meat (preferably liver) and other ingredients minced, food processed or electric hand-blended into a spreadable paste. For the purposes of embodiments of the present invention, a similar and suitable pâté can be prepared (alternatively or in addition) from other meat products (including game and poultry) or fish (including seafood) or cheese (including cream cheese) or a non-dairy/vegetarian source (including soya products or mycoprotein or suitable vegetable/s, e.g. eggplant), for example a so-called non-dairy cream cheese pâté made from soya milk. So, for example, we have tried as an alternative to meat the use of ground fish to make a fish pâté, or again we have tried a vinaigrette savoury gel.

Vegetarian alternative pâtés may be prepared from tofu, cheese, other proteins (e.g. faux meat mycoprotein, e.g. that known under the trade name Quorn), or pulses.

In the art of cooking, the preparation and constitution of sausage meat are generally known. This is traditbnally comminuted to be much coarser than a paste, often prepared by chopping, mincing or a similar food process, so as to require substantially more (a substantial amount of) chewing than, say, a pâté which substantially dissolves in the mouth without chewing. Forcemeats for use as sausage meat are usually produced from raw meat, except in the case of a gratin forcemeat. Meats commonly used in the production of forcemeats include pork, fish (pike, trout, or salmon), seafood, game meats (venison, boar, or rabbit), poultry, game birds, veal, and pork livers. Pork fatback is often used for the fat portion of a forcemeat as it has a somewhat neutral flavour. However, the use of a vegetarian sausage meat allowed us to try out the possibility of providing a low-fat embodhient.

Also, in the art of cooking, it is known to provide an outer coating that is crisp and crunchy, e.g. for fried fish or for a scotch egg, which may serve additionally for sealing the product inside the coating, e.g. to preserve its quality, contain any juices in it and retain its flavour. This is usually applied after an egg wash on the surround. For the purpose of making vegetarian embodiments, we used an outer coating of grated or puréed vegetables, e.g. pulses or chickpeas (as used to make falafel) with herbs and spbes and coated onto the surround in the same manner.

The use of a pâté for the core provkies a taste which is deeper than that of the egg of a scotch egg, whkh gives the whole product a richer and deeper taste. Again, as compared with plain pâté, the embodinents of the inventive food product provide a body and crunchiness that together are completely new.

Just as scotch eggs can be made from a small size, in which the egg is a quail's egg, to a large size in which the egg is a large chicken's egg, so can embodiments of the present inventbn be made in corresponding sizes, ranging from substantially 30 g to substantially 500 g but preferably from substantially 50 g to substantially 250 g. However, miniature embodiments were tried and very much liked by the panels of testers, with substantially 2 g for the pâté, 6 g for the sausage meat and 1 g for the coating, e.g. breadcrumbs; so that the range of embodiments can go down to substantially 9g.

Another aspect of the inventbn provides a method of making a food product comprising a core of pâté with a surround of sausage meat, in which the pâté is made substantially solid by lowering its temperature sufficiently, e.g. chilled, and/or is frozen, and this is then surrounded by sausage meat.

The product is then coated, preferably as discussed below.

The product is then heat-processed, which term is used in preference to cooked" since the whole product may be only partially cooked so as to leave it to e.g. the purchaser to complete the cooking, or only the surround is cooked, so that the pâté core is not cooked at this stage, because possibly the pâté is to have been pre-cooked by some different process to retain its flavour). One such method of said heat-processing is deep frying. In another, the product is fried in a deep fat fryer to brown it and then baked in an oven.

DESCRIPTION OF MORE PARTICULAR EXAMPLES WITH REFERENCE TO THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the preferred form of embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a longitudinal cross-section of a long cylindrical product from which the Figure 3 embodinent is produced; Figure 3 is a plan view of a sliced form embodiment of the invention, sliced along the lines 3-3 of Figure 2; and Figure 4 is a perspective view of a group of alternative shapes of embodthents of the invention.

Referring to the drawings, like references denote corresponding items.

The Figure 1 embodiment is a food product 10 which has a core 12 of pâté with a surround 14 of sausage meat and a crisp, crunchy coating 16 made from breadcrumbs.

In the manufacture of the Figure 3 product 10, first the pâté is formed as a long cylindrical core 12, which in turn is surrounded by sausage meat 14 and an outer coating 16. Once this has been prepared and cooked, being then in the form shown in Figure 2, it is sliced across the cylinder, along the lines 2-2 to produce circular slices, or along the lines 3-3 to produce oval slices as shown in Figure 3. These slices may be from 1 to 5 cm thick, preferably 2.5 to 5 cm thick when they can be picked up in the fingers by handling only the coating 16. Preferably, the slices are frozen or chilled IS until it is time for them to be served.

Figure 4 shows novelty variations on the basic oval (egg) three-dimensional shape, e.g. a spherical shape 18, a rectangular block 20, a square shape 22, a half moon shape 24, a cylindrical shape 26, a star 28, a heart 28. Any shape other than egg-shape (or sliced from that) is called herein a novelty shape; this includes slices made from other than an egg shape, particularly thick slices, i.e. having a thickness to maximum width ratio of 1 to 4 or greater.

EXAM P LES

Ingredients: all gluten-free and free-range; Method, for making oval shapes: (1) pork sausage meat 1 kg is mixed with onbn 40g. as chopped onion (2) the pork sausage meat is weighed out into 36 g portions, put onto a tray and chilled to substantially 0 to 4°C (the sausage meat for the surround to the pâté can range from substantially 10 g to substantially 95 g per portion) (3) the pâté has been pre-prepared into very cold pieces (which can range from substantially -18° C to substantially ÷5° C) and is divided into core portions (which can range from substantially 2 g to substantially 62 g) (4) we then put the pâté into the centre of the pork mince and mould it into rounds with our hands, and then cool it to below 1-5° C (5) the round balls of what we call "scotch pâté" thus formed are then rolled in gluten-free flour, then coated with whisked egg or pasteurised whole egg and then coated with a dusting of gluten-free breadcrumbs and gluten-free porridge oats (6) they are then cooled again to below --5° C (7) the balls are then ready to be cooked, which we do by two methods: (A) the ball is put into a deep fat fryer within a range of from 1000 C to 200° C and fried for a period ranging from 6 to 15 minutes (we prefer substantially 160°C for substantially 7 minutes) (B) the balls are cooked in a deep fat fryer to brown the outer coating of breadcrumbs and porridge oats, with the same temperature ranges as in (A) but for less time e.g. 2 to 4 minutes in the fryer; they are then drained and put into a gas oven within a range of from 100° C to 200°C, gas mark 4 to 8 for a period ranging from 6 to 15 minutes (we prefer substantially 160° C for substantially 8 minutes) IN BOTH METHODS, they must be cooked and probed to have reached throughout a temperature within the range of 72° C to 89° C (this is for hygiene and killing bacteria) (8) they are then put into the blast freezer for cooling, which must be completed within 90 minutes for chilled products or within 240 minutes for frozen products, these being the standards set by the UK Food Standards Agency and the Environmental Health Authority.

As an alternative, but using similar steps to the methods just described, there was pre-prepared and used a cylinder of pâté substantially 3 cm in diameter and 30cm long; and this was surrounded with sausage meat to a thickness of 1.5 cm and coated as above; and otherwise cooked and cooled as above; and the product was cut into slices (A) 1.5cm thtk and laid out on a plate to be cut and eaten with a fork and again (B) 4cm thick and placed in a bowl to be picked up with the fingers to be eaten, in both cases once the products had been allowed to reach room temperature.

Each of the embodiments and combinations described above was made up in a batch of 50 and tried out by 12 people. In every single case, there was a unanimous verdict that the product was far superior to a scotch egg, and much more interesting and satisfying than simply pâté.

Many variations of the invention and embodiments herein described will be apparent to people skilled in the art. For example, features of the different embodiments disclosed herein may be omitted, selected, combined or exchanged in order to form further embodiments. Again, where a preference or particularisation is stated, there is implicit the possibility of its negative, i.e. a case ii Much that preference or particularisation is absent. The invention is considered to extend to any new and inventive embodiments formed by said variations, further embodiments and cases.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A food product comprising a core of pâté, a surround of sausage meat surrounding the core, and a crisp and/or crunchy coating.
2. A food product which is a variation on a scotch egg (which comprises a core of egg, a surround of sausage meat and a crisp and/or crunchy coating), in which the egg is replaced by pâté.
3. A product as claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which the pâté is a meat pâté.
4. A product as claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which the pâté is a fish pâté.
5. A product as claimed in claim 1 or2, in which the pâté is a cheese pâté.
6. A product as claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which the pâté is a cream cheese pâté.
7. A product as claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which the pâté is a non-dairy cream cheese pâté.
8. A product as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the pâté is substantially clear of stringy material.
9. A product as claimed in any preceding claim, in whkh the sausage meat is a vegetarian product.
10. A product as claimed in any preceding claim, which is frozen or chilled.

IS
11. A product as claimed in any preceding claim, which has a novelty shape (i.e. other than egg shape or sliced from that).
12. A food product substantially according to any embodiment of the invention hereinbefore described.
13. A food product substantially according to any embodiment hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
14. A method of making a food product comprising a core of pâté with a surround of sausage meat, in which the pâté is made substantially solid by lowering its temperature sufficiently and/or is frozen, and this is then surrounded by sausage meat.
15. A method as clained in claim 14, in which the food product is as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10.
16. A method as claimed in claim 14 or 15, in which the product is fried in a deep fat fryer to brown it and then baked in an oven.
17. A method of makiig a food product substantially according to any method embodiment hereinbefore described.