GB270046A - An improved continuous method of cooking cheese and a machine for use therein - Google Patents

Abstract

270,046. Doering, C., and Doering, H. R. March 8, 1926. Cheese, after being finely divided, is cooked by direct introduction of steam therein and simultaneously stirred, excess moisture is withdrawn, and the mass is then passed in a continuous stream into a vessel fitted with an agitator. Fed to a hopper 16. the cheese is pressed forward and broken up by a pair of parallel worms 18 in a chamber 15, and it then passes on through holes 27<1> and perforated plates 23, 24, 27 to a cooking and stirring worm and chamber 29, 28 leading to a heated .blender chamber 43 and finally to an agitatorfitted hopper 48. One of each of the sets of plates 23, 24 is rotatably adjustable for regulating the size of the openings through which the cheese is to pass, and the plates 27 are slidable longitudinally for the same purpose. A paddle 25 causes the cheese threads to discharge through the spider frame 26 into the cooking chamber. The thread portion of the worm 29 is heated by superheated steam introduced by a pipe 32 and passages 34, 36, 35, 31, and steam, preferably superheated, is passed directly into the chamber through spaced valve connections 39 and openings 40. A chemical mixer 41 communicates with the cooker by a conduit 41b, and vegetable oils or butter fats and colouring matter or vegetable juices from a vessel 58 are added to the cheese mass through a funnel-shaped inlet 59. A flue 57 provided with an exhaust fan and preferably also with a dampex withdraws the steam from the cooking chamber. To facilitate the removal of any solid foreign matter the discharge end of the chamber 15 may be enlarged as at 60 to form a pocket normally closed by a. slidably removable perforated plate 61. The treated cheese may be aerated, as by oxygen or carbonic acid gas introduced into the hopper 48 by a connection 62. The chamber 43 is fitted with a steam or hot-water jacket 49. The apparatus may be driven by a motor as at 21.