JP5100499B2 - Freeze vacuum drying curry - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for producing an instant dry curry by a freeze vacuum drying method, and an instant dry curry that has good viscosity as a curry after reconstitution with hot water but has good solubility and no undissolved residue.

  Originally, food is spoiled by the action of microorganisms when left unprocessed. Various methods such as freezing, refrigeration, heat sterilization, drying, salt storage, and alcohol pickling have been developed as techniques for protecting and preserving food from the activity of microorganisms. Among these food preservation methods, one of the methods with the oldest history is a drying method, and methods such as a natural drying method, a hot air drying method, and a freeze vacuum drying method are known. Further, among these drying methods, a freeze vacuum drying method is known as a technique that is used industrially and preserves the flavor and color of foods in good condition for a long period of time. The freeze vacuum drying method is a technique in which a food is frozen at about −20 ° C. or less and then dried by a sublimation phenomenon of moisture in a vacuum. This technology prevents the growth of microorganisms by drying the food, and the micropores formed by the sublimation phenomenon have been used for many foods because it has revolutionarily improved the resilience upon reconstitution with hot water. Yes. Specifically, as a topping agent for instant cup noodles and ingredients for sprinkling, other examples include a block-shaped instant soup base and an instant bowl base.

However, although there is a freeze vacuum drying method used for drying such various foods, there are foods for which the freeze vacuum drying method cannot be used. One is food such as jam that does not freeze in a freezing environment of about -20 ° C. In the freeze vacuum drying method, frozen food is placed under vacuum to sublimate moisture and dry. Therefore, foods that do not freeze or do not produce ice crystals even under freezing are not suitable for the freeze vacuum drying method. In addition, foods that are not suitable for the freeze-drying method include high-viscosity bean paste with a viscosity of starch and foods such as curry. When starch is cooked, it becomes alpha and takes up water molecules, swells and causes an increase in the viscosity of the liquid. However, in such foods having a viscosity with starch, water molecules taken into the starch in the process of freeze-drying are sublimated, causing aggregation of the network structure that forms the starch. This is the so-called starch aging phenomenon. The freeze-dried and vacuum-dried food in which the starch has aged and the tissue has agglomerated is in a state in which a portion having no micropores is formed. Dried foods without micropores cannot be restored simply by pouring hot water, and reheating such as boiling is necessary. This will greatly impair the convenience of instant foods, and so far, the use of freeze-drying methods for instant foods has meant that instant cup noodles, sprinkling ingredients and instant soup have nothing to do with thickness or viscosity. It has been limited to foods with low viscosity, such as raw and instant coffee.

As a method for solving such problems, it has been attempted to produce a dry food having a porous structure. For example, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 52-99258, a method for producing bubbles by producing them in the food during the production of the food, and as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-98727, the bubbles are dispersed in the food. The method of freezing while depressurizing, and then vacuum-drying, Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-49182 discloses a method of producing a porous structure by freezing and thawing and dehydrating in a pressurized state with a high-pressure gas such as nitrogen gas. It is disclosed. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-138957 discloses a method for producing a porous structure using a fibrous material obtained by dissolving cellulose and polysaccharides, or cellulose and protein in an alkaline solution and then coagulating them in an acid bath. . In addition, as a method for preparing a freeze-dried food with good hot water return, JP-A-2006-87355 uses a viscous agent (mainly starch) and a binder (mainly gelatin), and does not become lumpy and is viscous to juice food. Is disclosed. In addition, in JP-A-7-147743, a viscous agent (mainly pregelatinized starch) for imparting viscosity is added after cooling of the cooked food, and then it is freeze-dried and aged in a state where the viscous agent is pregelatinized. First, a method for imparting good viscosity after reconstitution with hot water is shown. Furthermore, in JP-A-6-253803, a method using processed starch having anti-freezing aging resistance, and in JP-A-2001-8614, a starch paste and a cell-disrupting enzyme are allowed to act on a vegetable paste to quickly dissolve and freeze-dry. It shows how to get food.

 However, if the idea of dispersing bubbles in foods disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 52-99258 and 9-98727 is used for a high-viscosity sauce or curry, the viscosity becomes too high during the production process. The refillability is significantly deteriorated. The method disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 57-49182 is a method in which a solid water-containing food is frozen under pressure, and once thawed, then dehydrated and dried, and cannot be used for sauce or curry. The method disclosed in JP-A-2-138957 is a method in which a hydrous edible fibrous material is obtained using an alkaline solution and an acid solution, and after being mixed with food, freeze-drying is performed. In sprinkles or curry, it cannot be mixed because it is recognized as a foreign object. In addition, JP-A-2006-87355, JP-A-7-147943, and JP-A-6-253803 disclose not only starch which is usually treated, but also pregelatinized starch, modified crosslinked starch having anti-freezing aging resistance, and a binder. Although a method for obtaining a rapidly soluble freeze-dried food by adding the above is disclosed, none of the methods could obtain a sufficient effect. In addition, in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-8614, a thick soup can be produced by using a high-concentration vegetable paste. The production of was impossible.

In addition, a method of obtaining a relatively high-viscosity sauce or curry by making a low-viscosity sauce or curry larger than the amount of food and restoring it with a small amount of hot water after freeze-drying. The freeze-dried food obtained by this method has a relatively porous structure because of the low viscosity of the food prior to freezing, so that there is little aggregation during drying. Therefore, when the hot water is reconstituted, the hot water is easily spread over the aged starch, and the viscosity can be easily restored. However, this production method is not suitable as a production method for mass production of uniform foods because not only the production efficiency is poor but also the viscosity is low, so that the settling of ingredients and the separation of fats and oils easily occur.

JP 52-99258 A JP-A-9-98727 Japanese Patent Publication No.57-49182 JP-A-2-138957 JP 2006-87355 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-147943 JP-A-6-253803 JP 2001-8614

The present invention solves such problems, and a method for producing a freeze-vacuum dry curry in which the hot water return is greatly improved but the taste is not impaired, and the freeze-vacuum dry curry produced by this method It was made for the purpose of providing.

As a result of intensive studies to solve the above problems, the present inventors have remarkably improved manufacturing problems and hot water reversion after freeze-vacuum drying by imparting curry viscosity with vegetable paste. The present invention was completed based on this finding. That is, vegetables originally have a hydrated fibrous network structure, but by selecting a vegetable paste that has left this structure in part, viscosity can be imparted to the curry by the vegetable paste. . Since the curry imparted with such a vegetable paste has a stable viscosity, the ingredients such as ingredients do not settle. Furthermore, since the fibrous structure that is originally contained in vegetables and is in a hydrated state constitutes a stronger structure than the pregelatinized structure of starch, the moisture is completely sublimated even in freeze-drying. There is nothing and it is retained to some extent. As a result, the fibrous structure does not agglomerate, and a porous structure having fine pores can be obtained even after freeze-drying. In addition, since the water | moisture content which remained in the fibrous structure without sublimating exists as binding water, the storage property after freeze-drying does not have any problem at all.

In one embodiment, the curry having a viscosity before freezing of 900 mPa · s or more is freeze-dried. If the viscosity is low, ingredients such as ingredients are likely to settle in mass production industrially, stirring at a low speed so as not to destroy the ingredients is necessary, or quick freezing after filling is necessary. In many cases, there are many restrictions on manufacturing, which are factors that hinder efficient production. Curry is a food whose thickness contributes greatly to its deliciousness.

In one embodiment, the vegetable paste is concentrated under reduced pressure. In the present invention, it is important that the fibrous structure originally possessed by the vegetable remains in the vegetable paste, and the vegetable paste concentrated under reduced pressure is suitable.

In one embodiment, the vegetable fiber has a dietary fiber content of 5% or more.
When it is necessary to suppress the blending amount of the vegetable paste when making the deliciousness of the curry, it is suitable to use the vegetable paste concentrated until the fiber amount becomes high.

In one embodiment, it is characterized by not containing flour. Wheat flour is an important raw material for imparting a body feeling of curry, but the wheat starch contained in the flour may be aged by freeze-drying, resulting in poor hot water reversion. In such a case, it is suitable for producing the freeze-dried curry curry according to the present invention that a combination of a plurality of vegetable pastes is used to produce a body feeling without adding flour.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail. It should be understood that the terms used herein are used in the meaning normally used in the art unless otherwise specified.

The vegetable paste as used in the present invention may be any paste containing vegetables containing dietary fiber, and as vegetables used, asparagus, kidney beans, green soybeans, green peas, okra, pumpkin, cabbage, garlic, beef bowl Examples include komatsuna, perilla, spring chrysanthemum, ginger, young corn, celery, radish, bamboo shoot, onion, tomato, eggplant, leek, carrot, leek, Chinese cabbage, bell pepper, broccoli, spinach and the like. Various methods can be applied to the process of pasting vegetables, but a method that leaves more of the fiber inherent to vegetables should be used, and the pasting process is a physical process rather than an enzymatic degradation process. Is suitable. As a method for producing a paste by physical treatment, it is preferable to make a vegetable paste by scouring and heating and stirring after making it fine with a cutting machine such as a chopper. Further, it is most preferable to concentrate the vegetable paste by a vacuum concentration method. Unlike the normal concentration of vegetable paste, the reduced pressure concentration method is performed under reduced pressure, and therefore can be concentrated in a short time without significantly damaging vegetable fibers, and is most suitable for the present invention. Yes. The degree of decompression can be appropriately changed depending on the kind of vegetables used in the production, but it is desirable to adjust the temperature of the evaporated product of the vegetable paste to about 40 ° C to 90 ° C. Further, by concentrating the vegetable paste, a good viscosity can be imparted to the curry with a small addition amount. From this, it is most preferable that the vegetable paste has a dietary fiber content of 5% or more from the viewpoint of producing a delicious curry while maintaining a stable viscosity and realizing efficient production during the production process.

Freeze-vacuum drying in the present invention can be performed by a method known in the art. As a specific example, the target object can be frozen at about −20 ° C. and vacuum reduced in pressure to sublimate moisture in the target object to obtain a dried food product.

The curry to be subjected to freeze-drying is characterized by being given a viscosity with a vegetable paste. Specifically, after raising the temperature of edible fats and oils to 100 ° C. or higher, wheat flour, curry powder, spices and the like are added, and curry roux is produced while heating and stirring. After this, powder raw materials such as sugar, salt and umami seasonings are added to lower the product temperature, and liquid seasonings such as meat extract, seafood extract, vegetable extract and water are added to bring the product temperature to 100 ° C or lower. Lower. An example is a production method in which a vegetable paste is added and stirred to impart viscosity. The curry produced in this manner may be mixed with potatoes, vegetables such as carrots, onions, livestock such as beef, pork and chicken, and seafood such as shrimp, squid and scallops. However, before these ingredients are mixed with curry, it is necessary to deactivate the enzyme by heat treatment such as boiling. When ingredients with enzyme activity remaining are mixed with curry, the fiber of vegetable paste may be decomposed to reduce the viscosity.

Traditionally, industrially manufactured curry is filled in containers and packaging materials of any shape and is widely distributed after processing such as freezing, boil sterilization, and retort sterilization. After being stored in the tank, a process is carried out in which it is sent to a filling machine and continuously filled by a specified weight. In particular, in mass production, ingredients such as ingredients and edible oils and fats do not settle and separate during storage in a storage tank, so the curry needs to have a viscosity. When the viscosity is low, it is possible to stir the storage tank and stir at high speed to uniformly disperse the ingredients, but the ingredients may be damaged by the stirring blades. Moreover, when a viscosity is low, it will become easy to isolate | separate edible fats and oils. When edible fats and oils are separated, it is difficult to return to a uniform mixed state by normal stirring. As a method for efficiently solving such restrictions on the manufacturing process, a technique for imparting viscosity to curry using starch has been used, but in the case of using freeze vacuum drying, the starch is aged. As a result, it becomes an instant dry curry with poor recovery and no restoration.

In the present invention, as a method for solving such manufacturing constraints and making a thick and delicious curry, it is disclosed that the viscosity of the curry before freezing is 900 mPa · s or more using vegetable paste. . If the viscosity of the curry is 900 mPa · s or more, the ingredients and components are hardly settled and separated during storage tank storage in the filling step, and uniform filling can be achieved with low-speed easy stirring. Moreover, it is easy to be recognized as a good curry as a curry in terms of functionality. Curry viscosity was measured by Toki Sangyo Co., Ltd. B-type viscometer DVL-BII, rotor No. 3 is a measurement result when the stirring temperature is 30 rpm, the measurement temperature is 28 ° C. after 30 seconds from the start of measurement.

In addition, when it is desired to further improve the hot water return after freeze-vacuum drying, it can be carried out by not adding the flour used for the production of curry roux. Wheat flour has a sense of body in the curry sensory surface and has a viscosity-imparting effect, but the flour starch contained in the flour is likely to age during freeze-drying and becomes a hindrance to hot water reconstitution by adding more flour. In such a case, it is possible to produce an instant dry curry with improved hot water return by reducing or not adding the amount of flour. When the blending amount of the flour is reduced or not blended, it is possible to supplement the body feeling and to impart viscosity by blending a plurality of vegetable pastes.

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with specific examples and comparative examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples.

A curry before being subjected to freeze vacuum drying was prepared as follows.

(Preparation of curry base 1)
First, 4 parts by weight of lard was heated to 100 ° C., 3 parts by weight of flour was added, and the mixture was heated and stirred to 120 ° C. to obtain white roux. To this white roux, 1.5 parts by weight of curry powder, 3 parts by weight of sugar, 0.5 parts by weight of salt, 1 part by weight of sodium glutamate, 0.2 parts by weight of caramel pigment and 0.1 part by weight of spices are added and stirred. Carrerou. After the temperature of the curry roux thus obtained was lowered to 100 ° C. or less, 1 part by weight of chicken extract, 1 part by weight of bonito extract, and 35 parts by weight of water were added, and the mixture was heated and stirred to 90 ° C. to obtain curry base 1.

(Adjustment of curry of Examples 1-6 and Comparative Examples 1-4)
After cutting to 10 mm × 10 mm, the onion that was boiled at 90 ° C. for 2 minutes and the ingredients listed in the following Table 1 were mixed and stirred into the curry base 1, and the curry of Examples 1 to 6 and Comparative Examples 1 to 4 Finished. The onion paste A is an onion paste having a dietary fiber content of 5% manufactured by a vacuum concentration method. The onion paste B is an onion paste with a dietary fiber content of 1.5%, which is cut into 5 mm × 5 mm with a dicer and then pasted by heating and stirring. Aging resistant starch A is a corn starch imparted with aging resistance by ether crosslinking, and is generally used in freeze-dried foods. The curry was heated to 95 ° C. after each raw material was added and cooked, and immediately cooled to 28 ° C. to measure the viscosity. After removing the onion with a mesh having a mesh size of 5 mm, the viscosity was measured by Toki Sangyo Co., Ltd. B-type viscometer DVL-BII, rotor No. 3 was used as a measurement result with a stirring speed of 30 rpm and a viscosity of 30 seconds after the start of measurement.

(Preparation of curry base 2)
Curry base 2 was obtained by the same procedure as curry base 1 except that it did not contain flour.

(Adjustment of curry of Examples 7 to 11)
The raw materials listed in Table 2 below were mixed and stirred in the curry base 2, and the curries of Examples 7 to 11 were finished by the same procedure as in Examples 1 to 6.

The curry finished as above is filled in a 5cm x 5cm x 2cm plastic tray and checked for separation of onions and fats and oils, and stored in a -20 ° C freezer for 48 hours. Freeze. Then, it dried using the freezing vacuum dryer VF-350 of Toyo Seisakusho, and obtained the instant drying curry.

(Evaluation example)
Table 3 shows evaluation examples of Examples 1 to 11 and Comparative Examples 1 to 4. The evaluation results are indicated by the following symbols.
(Stability during filling)
○: No separation at all.
(Triangle | delta): Although there is no isolation | separation of an oil component, an ingredient settles.
X: The oil component is separated and the ingredients are also settled.
(Return to hot water)
A: Very good.
○: Good.
Δ: A little lumps remain, but it completely returns by stirring.
X: Dama remains even after stirring for 3 minutes or more.
(sensory evaluation)
A: Eat deliciously.
○: The flavor of vegetables is felt strongly, and the flavor balance of curry is a little bad.
(Triangle | delta): The flavor of vegetables is felt strongly and the flavor balance of curry is bad.
-: The hot water return is bad, and there is a dama, so you can't eat it.
(Comprehensive evaluation)
A: Very good.
○: Good.
Δ: Slightly bad
X: Bad.

Claims (4)

(1) Onion paste produced by physical treatment contains 5 to 40 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of curry before lyophilization ,
(2) The onion paste contains 1.5% or more dietary fiber maintaining a fibrous structure,
(3) The viscosity before freezing is 900 mPas or more and 2,531 mPas or less.
Freeze vacuum dried curry. The freeze vacuum dried curry according to claim 1, wherein the onion paste is an onion paste concentrated under reduced pressure. A method for producing a freeze-dried curry comprising the following steps (1) to (5):
(1) After miniaturization by a cutting machine, line and heat and stir to produce an onion paste containing 1.5% or more of dietary fiber maintaining a fibrous structure,
(2) Manufactures a curry base containing fats and oils, curry powder and seasonings,
(3) Mixing and stirring the onion paste of step (1) and the curry base of step (2), and containing 5 to 40 parts by weight of onion paste with respect to 100 parts by weight of curry before lyophilization,
(4) The viscosity before freezing is adjusted to 900 mPas or more and 2,531 mPas or less,
(5) Freeze and vacuum dry. The manufacturing method of the freeze-drying curry of Claim 3 whose said onion paste is the onion paste concentrated under reduced pressure.