JP7408104B1 - How to serve meals to a large number of people - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To propose a method for serving meals to a large number of people, which can provide hot rice to a large number of people while reducing the labor involved in kitchen work compared to conventional methods. [Solution] Put pregelatinized rice and a predetermined amount of water into containers for each person, soak the pregelatinized rice for a certain period of time, and then stir the inside of each container to adjust the water absorption state of the pregelatinized rice. The containers are placed in a food refrigerating and reheating cabinet and refrigerated. Before meal time, the cabinet is activated and steam is used to reheat the rice to make it hot. Afterwards, each container is removed from the food cabinet and each container is refrigerated. provide to people. It is preferable that the refrigeration temperature is 0 to 5°C and the reheating temperature is 100 to 105°C, and it is preferable to use a lidded container made of a heat-resistant resin as the container. [Selection diagram] Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a method for providing meals to a large number of people, which is suitable for facilities that accommodate a large number of people, such as hospitals, nursing care facilities, and welfare facilities.

A large number of people, tens or even hundreds, live in the facilities mentioned above, and each facility must prepare and serve meals for the number of people it accommodates 365 days a year in its own kitchen. Unlike the restaurant industry, these facilities require a variety of menus. For this reason, each facility's kitchen prepares rice, soup, main dishes, and side dishes, then arranges them in containers and makes trays. This series of operations takes a lot of time and is not easy to improve efficiency, and also causes the food to become cold.

In order to solve this problem, a cabinet that can automatically refrigerate and reheat food has been developed, as shown in Patent Document 1. This cabinet can refrigerate food at a low temperature of 5 degrees Celsius or less, and can also automatically start raising the internal temperature according to a program and reheat the food. It is commercially available under the trade name "Reheat Warmer Cabinet."

If you use a reheating cabinet like this, you can use finished cooked products produced at an outside factory as main dishes or side dishes, serve them cold on plates or other containers, and refrigerate them. It will be possible to reheat and serve before the time. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the labor involved in plating main dishes and side dishes. However, when the rice was added to water and heated in a reheating cabinet, it became sticky, making it difficult to make delicious rice.

Therefore, currently, large quantities of rice are cooked in the kitchens of each facility and the cooked rice is served in each person's bowl. However, since cooked rice is sticky, it is not easy to automate the plating process, and the current situation is that it has to be done manually. In particular, when preparing breakfast, it is necessary to start cooking rice very early in the morning, wait for the rice to finish cooking, and then serve the rice.This serving process can take a long time if a large number of people have to be served. It requires hard labor. Furthermore, in recent years, due to the rapid decline in the birthrate and aging of the population, there is a marked tendency for facilities to be unable to secure kitchen staff to perform such work.

To avoid having to work from early in the morning, some people cook the rice and serve it the day before, then refrigerate it in a cabinet at night and reheat it before serving. There is. However, even in this case, it is necessary to cook a large amount of rice and arrange the cooked rice into each person's bowl the day before, which simply shifts the work time to the day before, making kitchen work more efficient. It doesn't matter what you did. Moreover, cooling the cooked rice causes the starch to age, so even if you reheat the cold rice, it won't taste very good. As described above, the work of providing meals for a large number of people every day is hard work, and a solution to this problem has been sought, especially when it comes to rice.

Patent No. 5900939

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to propose a method for serving meals to a large number of people, which can provide hot rice to a large number of people while reducing the labor required for kitchen work compared to the conventional method.

As a result of repeated trial and error in order to solve this problem, the present inventor came up with the idea of using pregelatinized rice instead of ordinary white rice. Pregelatinized rice can be mass-produced and stored in factories, etc., so the labor involved in cooking and serving rice in each facility's kitchen can be significantly reduced.

The present invention was completed based on this idea, and is a method for serving meals to a large number of people using a cabinet equipped with a steam generating means and capable of automatically refrigerating and reheating food. Pregelatinized rice and a predetermined amount of water are put in each container, and the pregelatinized rice is soaked for a certain period of time.Then, the contents of each container are stirred to adjust the water absorption state of the pregelatinized rice, and the containers are set in the cabinet. Refrigerate the rice, then turn on the cabinet before meal time, heat the steam to the reheating temperature of 100-105°C over 45 to 90 minutes, and reheat with the steam at the reheating temperature to make hot rice. , after which each container is taken out from the cabinet and provided to each person.

Note that it is preferable that the refrigeration temperature be 0 to 5° C. and the reheating temperature be 100 to 105° C., and it is preferable to use a lidded container made of a heat-resistant resin as the container.

According to the method of providing meals to a large number of people of the present invention, it is no longer necessary to cook a large amount of rice in the kitchen of the facility and distribute the cooked rice to each person's bowls, which requires less effort in the kitchen work than in the past. can be significantly reduced. Moreover, by starting the cabinet with a timer, hot rice for each person will be ready at any time, making it possible to serve hot food to a large number of people. Also, unlike when reheating cold rice, the starch does not age, resulting in delicious rice.

Furthermore, if the refrigeration temperature is set to 0 to 5 degrees Celsius, it will meet the 5 degrees Celsius or lower refrigeration condition stipulated by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's HACCP, and if the reheating temperature is set to 100 to 105 degrees Celsius, it will meet the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's HACCP. The heating conditions for food core temperatures of 75°C or higher can be met as stipulated in . Furthermore, if a container with a lid made of heat-resistant resin is used as the container, it is lightweight and easy to handle, prevents loss of moisture during reheating, prevents deformation or discoloration of the container, and reduces cost increases. There is.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the steps of the present invention. It is a sectional view of a container used in an embodiment. It is a sectional view showing a stirring state. It is a sectional view showing a refrigerated state. It is a sectional view showing a heated state. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the cabinet. It is a perspective view showing a serving state.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 shows the steps of the present invention.
First, in step 1, containers for each person are prepared, and pregelatinized rice and a predetermined amount of water are distributed into each container.

Pregelatinized rice is dried cooked rice in which the starch of the rice is pregelatinized by adding water and heating, and then the pregelatinized state is fixed by drying. Rice starch that has been pregelatinized by heating with water gradually becomes re-betaized (aged) as heat is released and its taste deteriorates, but pregelatinized rice is dried before this aging occurs to fix its pregelatinized state. ing. Pregelatinized rice can be commercially available for emergency food use, but it can also be mass-produced in advance in a kitchen or factory.

To produce pregelatinized rice, first, white rice is washed with running water and soaked in running water for about 30 minutes. Next, use a rice cooker to cook the rice, and wash the cooked white rice under running water to remove the starch on the surface. Then, dry it in a food dehydrator for about 8 hours. Since dried rice grains are connected, they are ground into small pieces to form pregelatinized rice. The amount of water that should be added to pregelatinized rice varies depending on the drying conditions during production, but commercially available pregelatinized rice has about twice its weight, and pregelatinized rice produced by the applicant's company has about twice the weight. It is approximately 1.2 times. This water content can be adjusted as appropriate depending on the properties of the pregelatinized rice.

Since pregelatinized rice is in the form of granules, it is easy to distribute a fixed amount to a large number of containers, and it is also easy to distribute a predetermined amount of water. Specifically, distributing pregelatinized rice and water into 100 containers can be done by one person within 5 minutes, but distributing cooked rice into 100 containers takes more than 30 minutes. It takes.

As the container, it is preferable to use a lidded container consisting of a main body 10 and a lid 11 as shown in FIG. It is preferable that the lid 11 be an inro lid with a stepped portion 13 that engages with the inside of the mouth edge 12 of the main body 10 to prevent moisture inside from flying away during heating. Further, it is preferable to form an opening 15 in the thread bottom 14 of the main body 10 so that the steam for reheating can easily reach the bottom surface.

The material of the container is not particularly limited, and it is not impossible to use ceramics. However, since ceramics are heavy and difficult to handle and have a large heat capacity, it is preferable to use heat-resistant resin. Considering that the heat-resistant temperature is 130℃ or higher and that oxygen bleach and chlorine bleach can be used in the dishwasher, polyether sulfone (PES) resin, polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) resin, polyester carbonate ( PPC) resin etc. can be used. These heat-resistant resins do not deform or discolor, so they can be used for a long period of time. It is also milky white in color and has the advantage of being able to be served as tableware as is.

Next, in step 2, the pregelatinized rice is soaked for a certain period of time to absorb moisture. The time is, for example, about 30 minutes. However, if the rice is left soaking, water will accumulate at the bottom of the container and the pregelatinized rice at the top will not absorb water well, so in step 3, stir as shown in Figure 3 to adjust the water absorption state of the top and bottom to be equal. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4, the container is covered with a lid 11, and in step 4, the container is set in a cabinet 20 for refrigerating and reheating foods.

As shown in FIG. 6, the cabinet 20 includes a door 21, and a multi-stage rack 22 for placing food containers therein. Inside the cabinet 20, a cooling means 23, a steam generating means 24, a control means 25, etc. are provided, and a circulation fan 26 is provided at the top. The circulation fan 26 has a structure that sucks cold air or steam inside the cabinet 10 and circulates it to the lower part via a circulation path 27 on the back side. As described above, the "Reheat Warmer Cabinet" manufactured by Nichiwa Denki Co., Ltd. can be used as this cabinet, but it is not limited to this as long as it has the same functions.

The food refrigerating and reheating cabinet 20 can perform the refrigerating and reheating processes at arbitrary timing and set temperature using control software installed in the control means 25. Preferably, the refrigeration temperature is 0 to 5°C to prevent spoilage of the food. If the temperature exceeds 5°C, it will not be possible to meet the refrigeration requirement of 5°C or less as stipulated by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's HACCP, and if it is below 0°C, the water will freeze and it will take time to thaw, which is undesirable. In this embodiment, the temperature is set to 3°C.

When preparing breakfast, perform steps up to step 4 the day before, and keep the food refrigerated in step 5 during the night. The next morning, before the meal, the cabinet 20 is activated by a timer, and reheating using steam in step 6 is performed. Note that since the food heated in the previous step is heated after being refrigerated, it is referred to as reheating, but in the present invention, the heating in the previous step is performed in the pregelatinized rice manufacturing process.

The reheating temperature in the cabinet 20 is preferably 100 to 105°C. If the reheating temperature is lower than this, the product becomes wet steam, which causes the problem of water droplets in the cabinet, and if it exceeds 105°C, the product is heated too much and loses moisture, reducing the taste. In this embodiment, the temperature is set to 103°C.

In the present invention, since reheating is performed using high-temperature steam, pregelatinized rice that has been refrigerated in a water-absorbing state is heated and becomes delicious rice as shown in FIG. 5. Since the inside of the cabinet 20 is filled with steam at a temperature of 100 to 105°C, even if the moisture inside the container is heated and turns into steam, the steam pressure inside and outside the container is balanced, and the lid 11 can be lifted from inside the container. This results in delicious rice that does not leak outside and does not lose moisture. The temperature increase rate during reheating can be set freely, but if the temperature increases too quickly, it will be difficult to heat the container evenly, and if the temperature increases slowly, it will take time and the core temperature will exceed 75℃. Therefore, it is preferable to set the temperature so that the temperature reaches 100 to 105°C in 45 to 90 minutes. Even in the case of breakfast, reheating is automatically performed early in the morning, so there is no problem even if the reheating time is longer.

The kitchen employee should come to work at the timing when reheating is finished, take out the containers from the cabinet 20 in step 7, place them on a tray 30 as shown in FIG. 7, and provide them to each person. As mentioned above, the main dish 31 and the side dish 32 are prepared using finished dishes, served cold on a container such as a plate and refrigerated, and then reheated before meal time and placed on the tray 30. It can be loaded and provided. Also, the soup 33 can be easily prepared by simply pouring boiling water, so much effort is not required for anything other than rice.

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to significantly reduce the work of preparing rice, which conventionally required the most time and effort, and there is no need for kitchen employees to come to work early in the morning. Furthermore, since the time required to distribute the cooked rice, which was required in the past, can be omitted, the rice does not get cold, and it is possible to serve hot rice. Therefore, the present invention is a meal serving method suitable for facilities that need to provide meals to a large number of people, from 10 to several hundred people.

Additionally, pregelatinized rice can be manufactured in advance at an outside factory or purchased commercially, so it has the advantage of simplifying kitchen facilities compared to conventional methods. Therefore, the present invention can greatly contribute to the industry as a method for providing meals to a large number of people, which solves the problems of the conventional methods. Note that although the present invention is suitable as a method for providing breakfast, it goes without saying that it can be similarly applied to lunch and dinner.

10 Main body 11 Lid 12 Rim 13 Step part 14 Thread bottom 15 Opening 20 Cabinet 21 Door 22 Rack 23 Cooling means 24 Steam generation means 25 Control means 26 Circulation fan 30 Tray 31 Main dish 32 Side dish 33 Soup

Claims (3)

A method for serving meals to a large number of people using a cabinet equipped with steam generation means and capable of automatically refrigerating and reheating food, the method comprising:
Put pregelatinized rice and a predetermined amount of water into containers for each person, and soak the pregelatinized rice for a certain period of time.
After that, the inside of each container is stirred to adjust the water absorption state of the pregelatinized rice, and the container is set in the cabinet and refrigerated.
Before meal time, start the cabinet, heat the steam to a reheating temperature of 100 to 105°C over 45 to 90 minutes, and reheat the rice with the steam at the reheating temperature to make the rice hot;
A method for serving meals to a large number of people, characterized in that each container is then taken out from the cabinet and served to each person. The method for serving meals to a large number of people according to claim 1, characterized in that the refrigeration temperature is 0 to 5°C. 3. The method for serving meals to a large number of people according to claim 2, wherein a container with a lid made of heat-resistant resin is used as the container.

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