JPH09183A - Heating and cooling treatment for steamed rice and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To decrease the stickiness of the surface layer of steamed rice for the preparation of malt mainly for the brewing of refined Japanese rice wine. CONSTITUTION: This treating method comprises the contact of steamed rice with dry hot air, the control of the temperature of the steamed rice with cold air and contacting the rice again with dry hot air to reduce the surface stickiness of the rice. This invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the method. The apparatus is provided with a conveyor made of an air- permeable porous material and transferring the steamed rice, a hot air drier placed at the front half of the conveyor to blow or suck dry hot air to the steamed rice, a temperature controller for cold air placed at the latter half of the conveyor to adjust the temperature of the steamed rice with cold air and a transfer apparatus to transfer the steamed rice delivered from the conveyor to the next step by the dry hot air.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the treatment of steamed rice for koji making, which is mainly used for sake brewing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Steamed rice as a raw material for koji making after the steaming step is cooled by the air in the factory to a temperature suitable for koji making in the next step. By the way, with air cooling in the factory,
Although the temperature of the steamed rice can be adjusted, the moisture in the surface layer of the steamed rice particles does not evaporate sufficiently, so that the steamed rice has a strong stickiness, which makes it difficult to operate in the koji making process, which is a cause of deteriorating the quality of the koji.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Here, it is possible to provide a method and apparatus for reducing the stickiness of the steamed rice surface layer for koji making, improving the operability in the koji making process, and improving the quality of koji. This is the subject of this invention.

[0004]

Means for Solving the Problems Claim 1 of the present invention provides:
First, steamed rice is brought into contact with dry hot air for a predetermined time, and then the steamed rice having a dried surface is subjected to temperature control and starch aging by cold air. Then, the temperature-controlled steamed rice is brought into contact with the dried hot air again.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a hot air drying device capable of blowing or sucking dried hot air into the steamed rice is provided in the front half of the air conveyer. In the latter half of the net conveyor, a cold air temperature control device is installed to control the temperature of steamed rice with cold air. A hot air transport device is provided to transport the steamed rice discharged from the net conveyor to the next koji making process with dry hot air.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a dehumidifying device is provided on the outside air introduction side of the hot air drying device, the cold air temperature adjusting device, and the hot air transport device, and a heating device is provided at the regulated air outlet. A sensor for measuring the temperature and humidity of the conditioned air is provided near the conditioned air outlet. The capacity of the heating device is automatically controlled so that the temperature of the conditioned air matches each predetermined value. When the humidity of the conditioned air exceeds each predetermined value, the dehumidifier removes water.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, steamed rice is contacted with dry hot air for a predetermined time. When the surface of steamed rice is rapidly dried with hot air, the water content in the surface layer decreases more rapidly than the inside of steamed rice particles. Next, by controlling the temperature of the steamed rice with cold air, the temperature of the steamed rice surface layer rapidly drops. By rapidly cooling α-starch on the surface layer of steamed rice with reduced water content, the aging of starch is promoted, and the inside of steamed rice with a high water content and not advanced aging and the surface layer part with low water content and advanced aging The physical properties of steamed rice are separated by and. Since the surface layer of steamed rice has a low water content and progresses with aging, the tackiness decreases. By making the temperature-controlled steamed rice contact dry hot air again, the surface layer of steamed rice is further dried, and the difference in the physical properties between the steamed rice surface layer portion and the inside is clarified.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a hot air drying device capable of blowing or sucking hot air is provided in the front half portion of the net conveyor to dry steamed rice. A cool air temperature control device is provided in the latter half of the net conveyor to adjust the temperature of the steamed rice with cold air to a temperature suitable for koji making and to dry the steamed rice surface layer.
The steamed rice discharged from the net conveyor is air-transported with dry hot air by a hot air transport device, thereby further changing the physical properties of the steamed rice surface layer.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the temperature and humidity of the outside air greatly differ depending on the season and the weather, the temperature and humidity of the outside air are adjusted. The capacity of the heating device is automatically controlled in order to always maintain the temperature of the conditioned air at a constant value. Since the humidity of the conditioned air needs to be kept low at all times in order to efficiently dry steamed rice, the moisture is removed by the dehumidifying device when the humidity exceeds a predetermined value.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an apparatus for heating and cooling steamed rice according to the present invention.

Steamed rice is put into the steamed rice hopper 1 and sequentially moved in the direction of arrow F by the net conveyor 2. On the net conveyor 2, the steamed rice 3 may be stirred by a stirring and mixing device such as a scraping device, which is not shown. The steamed rice 3 first passes through the hot air drying device A to remove the water content on the surface layer of the steamed rice particles. The hot air drying device A takes in outside air from the outside air introducing duct 4a and converts it into dry hot air by the dehumidifying device 5a and the heating device 6a. The dried hot air passes through three layers of steamed rice to remove the water content of the steamed rice, and is discharged from the hot air exhaust duct port 7a by a suction fan (not shown). The temperature and humidity of the air that has passed through the dehumidifying device 5a and the heating device 6a are measured by the sensor 8a, and the capacities of the dehumidifying device 5a and the heating device 6a are adjusted by feedback control. The dehumidifier 5a is controlled by
The humidity may be measured by measuring the humidity of the outside air in the outside air introduction duct 4a.

The steamed rice 3 that has passed through the drying device passes through the cold air temperature control device B and is adjusted to a temperature suitable for koji making in the next step.
The cool air temperature adjusting device B takes in the outside air from the outside air introducing duct 4b and converts it into dry cold air by the dehumidifying device 5b and the heating device 6b. The dried cold air passes through three layers of steamed rice to remove the temperature of steamed rice, and is discharged from the hot air exhaust duct port 7b by a suction fan (not shown). The temperature and humidity of the air that has passed through the dehumidifier 5b and the heater 6b are measured by the sensor 8, and the dehumidifier 5b and the heater 6 are subjected to feedback control.
Ability is adjusted. The dehumidifying device 5b may be controlled by measuring the humidity of the outside air in the outside air introducing duct 4b.

The steamed rice 3 whose temperature has been adjusted is introduced from the chute 9 into the hot air transporting device C and is transported to the koji making process by dry hot air. Although not shown, the hot air is blown by a roots blower. The hot air transport device C takes in outside air from the outside air introduction duct 4c and converts it into dry hot air by the dehumidifying device 5c and the heating device 6c. The dried hot air transports the steamed rice 3, prevents the temperature of the steamed rice from lowering due to air transportation, and further removes water from the surface layer of the steamed rice. The temperature and humidity of the air that has passed through the dehumidifying device 5c and the heating device 6c are measured by the sensor 8c, and the capabilities of the dehumidifying device 5c and the heating device 6c are adjusted by feedback control. The dehumidifying device 5c may be controlled by measuring the humidity of the outside air in the outside air introducing duct 4c.

[0014]

According to the method and apparatus for heating and cooling steamed rice of the present invention, moisture on the surface of steamed rice is removed and the aging of starch is promoted, the viscosity peculiar to steamed rice is reduced, and the hardness of outer hard and inner soft You can get good steamed rice. Therefore, the operability in the koji making process and the koji quality are improved. In particular, the fact that the existing device can be modified makes the present invention more beneficial and useful.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing most of an embodiment of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Steamed rice hopper 2 Net conveyor 3 Steamed rice 4 Outside air introduction duct 5 Dehumidifier 6 Heating device 7 Exhaust duct 8 Temperature / humidity sensor 9 Chute A Hot air dryer B Cold air temperature controller C Hot air transport device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method of heating and cooling steamed rice, which comprises contacting steamed rice with dry hot air, then controlling the temperature of steamed rice with cold air, and then contacting this steamed rice with dry hot air again to reduce stickiness of the steamed rice surface. Processing method. 2. A hot air drying device capable of blowing or sucking dry hot air into the steamed rice is provided in the front half of the conveyer made of air-permeable porous steam, and the latter half of the conveyor is steamed with cold air. A device for heating and cooling steamed rice, which is provided with a cool air temperature control device for controlling the temperature of, and provided with a hot air transport device for transporting the steamed rice discharged from the conveyor to the next step with hot dry air. 3. The apparatus for heating and cooling steamed rice according to claim 2, wherein the temperature and humidity of the conditioned air generated by the hot air drying device, the cold air temperature control device, and the hot air transportation device are controlled to predetermined values.