JP2008136368A - Method for producing processed nuts - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide nuts having crunchy and crispy palate feeling while leaving flavor originated from nuts, and to provide a nut product. <P>SOLUTION: The nuts which have crunchy and crispy palate feeling while leaving flavor originated from nuts more than conventional nuts can be obtained by bringing raw beans to a moist condition by boiling, processing the nuts at constant pressure (1,400-2,500 hPa) and temperature (110-280°C) for 4-6 min, and soaking the nuts in sugar solution followed by frying. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a method for processing and producing nuts such as almonds that are used as a snack or the like in combination with chocolate or cookies.

Conventionally, nuts have been widely used for food as snacks or sake snacks.
These nuts are usually produced by roasting and drying raw nuts that are raw materials.
However, simply roasted nuts have a hard texture because the dense tissue structure unique to nuts is maintained as it is, but recently, due to the diversification of taste, those with soft texture are preferred Tend.
In addition, when nuts are used in combination with other foods and confectionery, depending on the partner to be combined, the nuts are hard and give a foreign body feeling, so a nut with a soft texture is often required. Various methods have been developed.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 52-154452) discloses a method for processing nuts in which an aqueous solution of metaphosphate and / or polymerized metaphosphoric acid is boiled or immersed in a hot liquid, then immersed in a sugar solution and then fried. Is disclosed. Although the method of Patent Document 1 can cause the sugar solution to uniformly adhere to the nuts, the hard mouth feel of the nuts remains and the texture is poor.
Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 52-114038) discloses a method for frying nuts characterized by holding the nuts in a sugar solution under certain conditions, attaching the sugar solution around the nuts, and frying them. is doing. In the method of Patent Document 2, since the sugar solution is directly immersed in the raw nut, the sugar solution is difficult to be immersed to the center of the nut, and after that, the hard taste of the nut remains even if fried, and the texture is inferior.
Patent Document 3 (JP-A-4-31376) discloses a method for processing nuts that are boiled with raw nuts, subjected to freezing and thawing treatment, and then pickled with syrup and then fried under normal pressure or reduced pressure. . Although the method of Patent Document 3 contributes to the improvement of the flavor and texture of nuts, a cooling step called freezing is performed after the heating step called boil. It takes more than an hour and requires large equipment for freezing. Furthermore, the flavor peculiar to nuts is easily removed in the thawing process from cooling, and the flavor is inferior.
Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-242822) discloses a nut treatment method in which a nut is wetted, and then the surface is covered with a powdery thickener, steamed to form a film, and then roasted to expand the internal structure. Disclosure. The method of Patent Document 4 increases the airtightness inside nuts with a viscous film by a thickener, and the roasting causes the inside of the nut to be porous by breaking the film with air or water vapor inside the nuts. The purpose is to make the mouthfeel light. However, in the method of Patent Document 4, although the texture is slightly lighter than in the case where the film is not covered with a thickening agent film, the internal hard texture remains. Moreover, the film of the thickening agent on the surface is somewhat sticky and the original flavor of the nut becomes weak, resulting in poor flavor and texture.
JP 52-154452 A JP-A-52-114038 JP-A-4-31376 JP-A-8-242822

The present invention is intended to solve the above-described problems, and an object thereof is to provide nuts and nut products that have a crunchy and crispy texture while retaining the original flavor of the nuts.

As a result of intensive research to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have treated the nuts with a certain pressure after the green beans have been moistened with boil or the like, or at the same time with the moistened state, It was found that nuts having a crispy and crunchy texture while retaining the original flavor of nuts were obtained by dipping in sugar solution and fried, and the present invention was completed based on this.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides, for example, the following means:
Item 1. A method for processing and producing nuts, comprising subjecting raw nuts to pressure heat treatment, followed by immersion in a sugar solution and frying.
Item 2. Raw nuts are heated under pressure under the conditions of an absolute pressure of 1400-2500 hPa, a product temperature of 110-128 ° C., and a treatment time of 4-6 minutes (temperature reached 3-4 minutes, holding 1-2 minutes). The method for processing and producing nuts according to claim 1.
Item 3. The method for processing and producing nuts according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the nuts are one selected from almonds, peanuts, and macadamia nuts.
Item 4. A raw material for nut confectionery, which is prepared by subjecting raw nuts to heat treatment under pressure, followed by immersion in a sugar solution and fried.

After the green beans are moistened by boiling, the nuts are treated at a constant pressure (1400-2500 hPa) and temperature (110-128 ° C.) for 4-6 minutes, and then immersed in a sugar solution and fried. Nuts having a crispy and crunchy texture can be obtained while retaining the original flavor of nuts.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.
(1. Nuts)
Almonds, peanuts and macadamia nuts are suitable as nuts used in the present invention. In addition, various nuts used for food as nuts such as pistachios, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pine nuts, pecans, and the like can be considered. The tissue becomes soft as when boiling soybeans. Even when an almond, peanut, or macadamia nut is used as a nut, even if pressure heat treatment is performed under certain conditions, the tissue does not become soft, and the flavor and texture remain.
Moreover, although it is preferable to use raw beans from the point that the effect of a subsequent process is acquired easily, nuts may be used after roasting nuts beforehand depending on the case. The roasting conditions vary depending on the type of nut, but the roasting conditions for each nut according to a conventional method may be used. For example, almonds are preferably heated in a commercially available roaster at 100 to 160 ° C. for 10 to 15 minutes.
(2. Wet and pressure heating process)
In the present invention, it is necessary to put raw beans or beans roasted by a conventional method into a wet state. The wet method is not limited as long as the nut can be moistened, but the weight of the nut after wetting is 1.3 times or more of the weight before wetting in order to obtain the effect of the present invention. It is necessary. As the wetting method, immersion in water, saline, alcohol water or the like is preferable from the viewpoint of simplicity. The weight of the aqueous solution when immersed is 1.3 times or more of the weight of the nut. If the weight of the aqueous solution to be immersed is less than 1.3 times the weight of the nut, the hard texture of the nut remains in the center, and the desired texture cannot be obtained.
After wetting the nuts, the nuts with the desired flavor and texture can be obtained by heating under pressure.However, it takes time to wet the nuts to the center of the nuts. It is preferable to pressurize and heat the nuts simultaneously. The heating and pressurization may be any of a cooking pressure cooker, a pressure heating sterilizer, and a saturated steam pressure cooker, but a saturated steam pressure cooker is preferred because there is no boiling during heating and the nuts are difficult to touch. . As an example of the saturated steam pressure kettle, for example, there is a steam meister of Miura Protech Co., Ltd.
The processing conditions of the pressure cooker are: cooking pressure cooker and pressure heat sterilizer, pressure in the kettle 1400 to 2000 hPa, product temperature 110 to 120 ° C., treatment time 3 to 7 minutes, preferably pressure in the kettle 1530 to 1860 hPa The product temperature is 112 to 118 ° C., and the processing time is 4 to 6 minutes. When the pressure in the kettle exceeds 2000 hPa, the product temperature is 120 ° C., and the treatment time exceeds 7 minutes, the nut flavor becomes slightly weak and the original flavor cannot be maintained. Further, when the pressure in the kettle is 1400 hPa, the product temperature is 110 ° C., and the treatment time is less than 3 minutes, the hard texture of the nut remains, and the crunchy and crunchy texture of the present invention is not provided.
In the case of a saturated steam pressure cooker, the pressure in the kettle is 1400 to 2500 hPa, the product temperature is 110 to 128 ° C., the treatment time is 3 to 7 minutes, preferably the pressure in the kettle is 1530 to 1860 hPa, the product temperature is 112 to 118 ° C., and the treatment time is 4 ~ 6 minutes. If the pressure in the kettle is 2500 hPa, the product temperature is 128 ° C., and the treatment time exceeds 7 minutes, the nut flavor becomes slightly weak and the original flavor cannot be maintained. Further, when the pressure in the kettle is 1400 hPa, the product temperature is 110 ° C., and the treatment time is less than 3 minutes, the hard texture of the nut remains, and the crunchy and crunchy texture of the present invention is not provided. Moreover, the processing time in this invention means the total time of the time until nuts reach | attain target product temperature and the time hold | maintained at the product temperature after reaching | attaining.
(3. Sugar-dipping process)
As the kind of sugar used in the sugar-dipping process of the present invention, various monosaccharides, polysaccharides, sugar alcohols and the like can be used alone or in combination of two or more. Sucrose, trehalose, honey, maple sugar, and sorbitol are particularly preferable from the viewpoint of leaving the flavor and texture of nuts.
The treatment conditions are, for example, Brix 60 to 80%, temperature 90 to 110 ° C., and immersion time about 5 to 15 minutes.
(4. Fly process)
As the oil used for frying in the present invention, usual frying fats such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, cottonseed oil and palm oil can be used alone or in combination of two or more.
It is preferable to carry out the treatment under normal pressure or under reduced pressure at 120 to 180 ° C. for 4 to 12 minutes. However, the degree of pressure reduction, temperature, and treatment time are appropriately determined depending on the object.
(5. Other materials)
The nut obtained by the production method of the present invention may contain other seasoning ingredients as necessary as long as the nut flavor is not adversely affected. Examples of other materials include salt, a fragrance, a colorant, and a sour agent. These materials are well known in the art.

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, although this invention is demonstrated in detail using an Example, this invention is not limited to these Examples.
In the examples, “parts” means “parts by weight”.

Example 1: Examination of processing conditions 100 parts of almond green beans (water content 4.7%) together with 150 parts of water and an absolute pressure in the kettle of 1300 to 2000 hPa in a pressure cooker (OAMVPCS-08FTEL-CNC manufactured by Kajiwara Co., Ltd.) And the product temperature of 112 to 120 ° C. for 4 to 6 minutes (3 to 4 minutes to reach the target product temperature, 1 to 2 minutes held at the target product temperature). Then, it was immersed in a sugar solution of 105 ° C. and Brix 70% for 10 minutes (soaked in syrup), and the almonds soaked in syrup were fried in rapeseed oil heated to 165 ° C. for 8 minutes to prepare each sample (Table 1).
The almond processed product produced in each condition was subjected to a sensory evaluation of flavor and texture (crisp feeling, crispy feeling) (Table 2).
For the degree of flavor, the sensory evaluation was performed with respect to the degree of having a unique fragrance of nuts based on nuts that had been subjected to normal roasting treatment.
Evaluation was judged as ◎ = sufficient flavor remained, ◯ = flavor remained, △ = weak but slightly remaining, x = little flavor.
In the present invention, the crisp feeling is an expression representing the initial sensation when a nut is bitten with teeth, and the higher the crispness, the more the purpose of the present invention is achieved.
Evaluation was judged as ◎ = very crisp, ◯ = crisp, △ = slightly crisp, x = little crisp.
In the present invention, the crispness is an expression representing the light texture when chewing nuts, and the higher the crispness, the more the object of the present invention is achieved.
Evaluation was judged as ◎ = very crisp, ◯ = crisp, △ = weak crisp, × = little crisp.
A comprehensive evaluation was made on the flavor and texture (crisp and crisp) of each processed sample.
A: Flavor and texture are both very good, B: Flavor and texture are both good, B: Flavor is good, but the texture is hard or soft, and B: Texture is good, but the taste is weak.

Sensory evaluation results of nut raw material confectionery 100 parts of almond raw beans (moisture ratio 4.7%) together with 150 parts of water, in a pressure cooker (OAMVPCS-08FTEL-CNC manufactured by Kajiwara Co., Ltd.) Absolute pressure in the kettle 1800 hPa, product temperature 117 The treatment was performed for 5 minutes under the condition of ° C. (3 minutes to reach the target product temperature, 2 minutes held at the target product temperature). Then, it was immersed in a sugar solution of 105 ° C. and Brix 70 for 10 minutes (soaked in syrup), and the almonds soaked in syrup were fried in rapeseed oil heated to 165 ° C. for 8 minutes to produce processed almonds.
One processed almond (1.4 g) prepared and 5.0 g of milk chocolate prepared by a conventional method were filled in a mold to prepare a chocolate product sample containing almonds.
On the other hand, according to the method of the Example of Patent Document 3, 100 parts of almond green beans (moisture ratio 4.7%) were immersed in hot water at 95 ° C. for 6 minutes to cut off the water on the surface, and then the freezer at −20 ° C. For 100 minutes and then left at room temperature for 1 hour and thawed. Defrosted almonds are soaked in sugar solution at 95 ° C and Brix 70% for 6 minutes, then fried in rapeseed oil heated to 170 ° C for 8 minutes, cooled to 40 ° C, immersed in sesame oil, centrifuged, and processed almonds Was made.
One processed almond (1.4 g) prepared and 5.0 g of milk chocolate prepared by a conventional method were filled into a mold to prepare a chocolate product sample containing almonds.
Evaluation of the product was performed by five sensory evaluation panelists for each of the flavor (almond fragrance), texture (almond crispness, crispy), and compatibility between almond and chocolate.
Evaluation was judged as 5 = very good, 4 = good, 3 = normal, 2 = slightly inferior, 1 = largely inferior (Table 3).

  The sample produced by the method of Example 2 was produced in Comparative Example 1 for each item of flavor (almond fragrance), texture (almond crispy, crispy), and compatibility between almond and chocolate. The evaluation was better than the sample.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION By this invention, the nut processed goods which have a crunchy texture and the light texture which was crispy are provided, leaving the original aromatic flavor of a nut. The processed nut products provided in the present invention have a good compatibility with chocolate, biscuits and the like as confectionery materials, and can be applied to various foods.

Claims (4)

A method for processing and producing nuts, comprising subjecting raw nuts to pressure heat treatment, followed by immersion in a sugar solution and frying. Raw nuts are heated under pressure under the conditions of an absolute pressure of 1400-2500 hPa in the kettle, a product temperature of 110-128 ° C., and a processing time of 4-6 minutes (temperature reached 3-4 minutes, holding 1-2 minutes). The method for processing and producing nuts according to claim 1. The method for processing and producing nuts according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the nuts are one selected from almonds, peanuts, and macadamia nuts. A raw material for nut confectionery, which is prepared by heating raw nuts under pressure and heat treatment, then immersing them in sugar solution and frying them.