JP2008178312A - Noodle manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a noodle manufacturing method which can provide noodles which unravel easily when eating, with good texture and preservability without adding any additives. <P>SOLUTION: Cooked noodles are brought in contact with aqua gas that contains fine water droplets and hot and humid moisture steam to be heat-treated and hermetically packaged under a germ-free condition. Preferably the cooked noodles are acid-treated to adjust the pH between 3.0 and 5.5 prior to be brought in contact with the aqua gas. Aqua gas of 90-180 degrees centigrade is used and the duration of heat-treating the noodles by the aqua gas is set to be between 10 and 60 minutes. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for producing noodles that can provide noodles that have good loosening and good texture and shelf life during eating.

  “Cooked noodles packed in a container” eaten by reheating cooking with a microwave oven or the like has a good texture similar to that at the time of manufacture and the texture of the noodles is easy to loosen It is requested. In order to improve the looseness and texture of cooked noodles, various methods, for example, addition of various additives as a noodle quality improving agent have been proposed. For example, Patent Document 1 proposes adding polyoxyethylene sorbitan fatty acid ester as a noodle quality improver to noodles. However, it is desired that additives should not be added to foods as much as possible due to the recent interest in health and food safety.

JP 2004-215543 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing noodles in which noodles can be obtained without adding additives, and the noodles can be easily unraveled during eating and have good texture and storage stability.

  As a result of various studies, the present inventors have found that the above object can be achieved by heat-treating noodles, preferably acid-treated noodles, with a specific gas.

  The present invention has been made on the basis of the above knowledge, and cooked noodles are brought into contact with aqua gas containing fine water droplets and moist heat steam, heated, and sealed and packaged under aseptic conditions. A method is provided.

  According to the production method of the present invention, it is possible to provide noodles having good unraveling of eating noodles and good texture and storage without adding additives.

  The noodles targeted by the present invention are noodles circulated at room temperature or refrigerated processed to be eaten by reheating cooking such as heating in a microwave oven or fried food. The type of noodles is not particularly limited and includes, for example, spaghetti, macaroni, udon, soba, Chinese noodles, etc. The present invention is particularly preferred when applied to spaghetti.

In order to carry out the method for producing noodles of the present invention, preferably, the cooked noodles are first subjected to an acid treatment before being brought into contact with aqua gas.
The cooked noodles used in the present invention are cooked so that they can be eaten by ordinary cooking such as boiling, and are the same as the cooked noodles used in the production of conventional container-stuffed noodles.
The acid treatment of cooked noodles is carried out so that the pH of the noodles is 3.0 to 5.5, preferably 4.1 to 4.7. The acid treatment method is not particularly limited, and conventionally used acid treatment methods for noodles such as a method of immersing noodles in an acid solution, a method of spraying or applying an acid solution to noodles, etc. are applied. be able to.

  The acid used for the acid treatment is preferably an organic acid, and an acid that can be used in foods such as acetic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, malic acid, and gluconic acid can be appropriately selected and used. Acid treatment conditions such as acid concentration and treatment time of the acid solution can be appropriately set according to the type and pH of the acid used, the pH of the noodles before acid treatment, the set value of the pH of the noodles after acid treatment, etc. .

Next, the cooked noodles that have been acid-treated are subjected to a heat treatment by bringing them into contact with aqua gas containing fine water droplets and wet steam.
This aqua gas can be generated by, for example, a heating device described in paragraphs [0019] to [0022] of JP-A-2004-358236. This heating apparatus includes at least a semi-sealed heating chamber that heats the material to be heated from outside air, heating means that heats the heating chamber to a predetermined temperature exceeding 100 ° C., and heat heated to 100 ° C. or higher. Water vapor generating means for continuously injecting water and / or water vapor into the heating chamber to generate fine water droplets and wet heat water vapor and transport them in a predetermined direction is included as a constituent element. In this heating apparatus, hot water and / or water vapor heated to 100 ° C. or higher are continuously injected into the heating chamber to generate fine water droplets and wet heat water vapor. Then, by filling the inside of the heating chamber with fine water droplets and water vapor in a normal pressure state, the composition has a humidity of 95% or more and an oxygen concentration of 1.0% or less, and is maintained in a temperature range of 90 to 180 ° C. The air in the heating chamber is replaced with a gas component. The heating device is characterized in that the material to be heated in the heating chamber is subjected to a continuous amplitude heating with a temperature difference of at least 10 ° C. in the temperature range by the fine water droplets and wet heat steam, and the heat treatment is performed. Device. This heating device is commercially available from Taiyo Mfg. Co., Ltd. under the trade name “Acuactor Heating Medium Control Type General-Purpose Heating Device”.

The heat treatment with aqua gas in the present invention can be performed using the above-described commercially available heating apparatus. In order to heat-treat noodles using the heating device, cooked noodles, preferably the acid-cooked cooked noodles described above, is placed in the heating chamber of the heating device, and heated with water vapor generating means and Water vapor may be continuously sprayed into the heating chamber to generate aqua gas containing fine water droplets and wet heat steam, and the aqua gas and noodles may be brought into contact with each other.
As said aqua gas, 90-180 degreeC aqua gas is preferable and 95-150 degreeC aqua gas is more preferable. If the temperature of the aqua gas is too high, kogation is likely to occur, and if the temperature of the aqua gas is too low, the storage stability is reduced.

  Further, the amount of heated hot water and / or water vapor sprayed into the heating chamber is preferably 2 to 4 liters / hour, more preferably 2.5 to 500 liters when the volume of the heating chamber is 150 to 200 liters, for example. 3.5 liters / hour. If the amount of aqua gas generated is too small, kogation is likely to occur. If the amount of aqua gas generated is too large, the moisture in the aqua gas will increase too much and the texture will tend to decrease.

  The heat treatment time with aqua gas is preferably 10 to 60 minutes, more preferably 10 to 30 minutes. When the heat treatment time is too short, the storage stability is lowered, and when the heat treatment time is too long, the surface is excessively dried or kogation is likely to occur.

  Noodles that have been heat-treated with aqua gas are sealed and packaged under aseptic conditions by conventional methods to produce products. The noodles according to the present invention produced in this way have good unraveling of the noodles at the time of eating and good storage, and not only the texture is not lowered by heat treatment, but also the texture is improved. ing.

  EXAMPLES Hereinafter, although an Example and a comparative example are given and this invention is demonstrated further more concretely, this invention is not limited at all by the following Examples.

[Examples 1-7]
The spaghetti was boiled with a yield of 220%. Boiled spaghetti was boiled for 1 minute in a mixed aqueous solution containing 0.8% by mass of fermented lactic acid, 0.8% by mass of gluconic acid, 0.5% by mass of sodium chloride and 0.5% by mass of sugar, and then acid-treated. Spaghetti with a pH of 4.2 was obtained. Next, the spaghetti was subjected to a heat treatment with aqua gas under the conditions shown in Table 1 below using a heating device (trade name “Akuakkka Heating Medium Control Type General-Purpose Heating Device”) manufactured by Taiyo Manufacturing Co., Ltd. A range-compatible spaghetti was obtained.

[Comparative Examples 1-6]
The spaghetti with pH 4.2 obtained in Example 1 was subjected to heat treatment with saturated water vapor under the conditions shown in Table 2 below instead of the heat treatment with aqua gas, thereby obtaining microwave-compatible spaghetti.

The microwave-compatible spaghetti obtained in Examples 1 to 7 and Comparative Examples 1 to 6 was stored at room temperature for 7 days, then cooked using a microwave oven, and the microbial control effect was evaluated according to the evaluation criteria shown below. The evaluation results are shown in Table 3.
In addition, for those that can eat spaghetti after cooking these microwave ovens, 10 panelists eat, the noodle loosening and the texture (hardness and elasticity) at that time according to the evaluation criteria shown below I let you. The evaluation results (average score of 10 panelists) are shown in Table 3.

(Evaluation criteria for microbial control effect)
○: The presence of mold is not seen at all.
X: The presence of mold is confirmed.

(Evaluation criteria for noodle loosening)
5 points: Disentangled very well.
4 points: Disentangled well.
3 points: Disentangled.
2 points: Slightly difficult to unravel.
1 point: Not unraveled.

(Evaluation criteria for texture (hardness))
5 points: Hardness is close to boiled noodles and excellent.
4 points: Hardness is good.
3 points: The hardness unique to noodles is felt.
2 points: Inferior to noodle-specific hardness.
1 point: Extremely inferior in hardness unique to noodles.

(Evaluation criteria for texture (elasticity))
5 points: Its elasticity is close to that of freshly boiled noodles and is excellent.
4 points: Good elasticity.
3 points: The elasticity unique to noodles is felt.
2 points: Inferior in elasticity unique to noodles.
1 point: Extremely inferior in elasticity unique to noodles.

Claims (3)

  A method for producing noodles, comprising heating cooked noodles in contact with an aqua gas containing fine water droplets and wet heat steam, and sealing and packaging under aseptic conditions.   The method for producing noodles according to claim 1, wherein the cooked noodles are acid-treated to adjust the pH to 3.0 to 5.5 before being brought into contact with aqua gas.   The method for producing noodles according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an aqua gas of 90 to 180 ° C is used as the aqua gas, and the heat treatment time of the noodles with the aqua gas is 10 to 60 minutes.