JPH10179071A - Production of filled tofu - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide high-quality filled Tofu (soybean curd) having smooth touch with no air bubbles. SOLUTION: Hot soy milk 14 is let flow into a degassing tank 16 and degassed and, during this operation, the hot soy milk 14 is let flow from the downside of degassing tank 16 to a plate cooler 17 and cooled. As a solidifier, bittern 21 is added to cold soy milk 18 and mixed by a line mixer 22. The cold soy milk 18 mixed with bittern is let flow into a storage tub 24 of rotary charger 23 and successively charged from a supply nozzle 25 to a blow vessel 26. After charging, the soy milk is degassed by pressing the blow vessel 26, the opening of blow vessel 26 is sealed by an ultrasonic sealer 27, the blow vessel 26 is carried and heated inside a hot water bath type boil tub 28 and the soy milk is solidified so that filled Tofu can be provided. Afterwards, the filled Tofu is cooled by a water bath type cooling tub 29.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for producing filled tofu to be filled in a sealed container (blow container).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional filled tofu is prepared by cooling hot soy milk obtained in the same manner as hot soy milk used for the production of so-called cut tofu, adding a coagulant, mixing and then adding the coagulant to a container. Fill and seal, then heat at 80-90 ° C. to solidify in container.

[0003] By the way, in producing such a filled tofu, if many fine bubbles due to dissolved air remain in the soy milk, many bubbles are generated in the tofu, and as a result, the smooth feel of the tofu is impaired. It is known to be of poor quality tofu.

[0004] For this reason, conventionally, a method of adding an antifoaming agent to soymilk and then using a vacuum deaerator to remove air bubbles has been generally used. However, in the tofu of the recipe without using the defoamer, the defoaming could not be effectively performed only by the vacuum deaerator.

[0005] Conventionally, in the production of filled tofu, Patent No. 25
As described in Japanese Patent No. 04721, there has been proposed a method capable of defoaming without using an antifoaming agent. According to this production method, after adding and mixing magnesium chloride to the cooled soymilk, the storage tank was immediately filled so that the liquid height became 20 cm or more, and the liquid was retained for 30 to 60 seconds while maintaining the liquid height. Thereafter, the container is filled and sealed, and then heated and solidified and cooled. According to this patent publication, bubbles can be eliminated by setting the liquid height and the residence time.

[0006]

However, with the liquid level and the residence time of the cold soymilk as in the above-mentioned conventional example, not only a storage tank suitable for mass production cannot be manufactured, but also a supply nozzle from this storage tank with a supply nozzle. When filling the container with soy milk in a sprayed state, air is mixed into the soy milk and bubbles are generated, so even if it is possible to defoam by setting the above liquid height and residence time, even in mass production It is completely meaningless. In mass production of filled tofu,
When filling the container with soy milk as described above, air bubbles are generated, so after filling, the container is pressed from the outside and defoamed, and the actual state is that the opening of the container is sealed. . Moreover, it is difficult to obtain a filled tofu with no air bubbles even if defoaming is performed only in the state of cold soy milk.

Therefore, the present inventors have focused on the relationship between the solubility of a gas in a liquid and the relationship between the fluidity of the gas and the viscosity of the liquid, and as a result of intensive studies, the following is presumed. In general, the solubility of gas in liquid decreases as the temperature increases, so degassing at high temperatures can reduce the level of dissolved gas at higher temperatures than degassing at low temperatures, and for sols such as soy milk at high temperatures. As the viscosity decreases, bubbles rise to the liquid level in conjunction with the above-mentioned solubility,
Although it easily aggregates and bursts into large bubbles, the viscosity rises at low temperatures, so that the bubbles are unlikely to rise to the liquid surface and are in a sealed state. As a result, if sufficient defoaming is not performed in the state of hot soy milk, the solubility of the gas in the cold soy milk and the viscosity of the cold soy milk will increase by cooling, and the dissolved air will stabilize. Even if the residence time is set long by increasing the liquid pressure, the air dissolved in the stage of hot soymilk cannot be efficiently removed.
In addition, since the solubility of air in soy milk is reduced again in the subsequent heating step, the foam becomes small foam particles, and is solidified soon after it comes off, resulting in a poor quality product containing foam inside the tofu.

[0008] Further, when air bubbles are mixed when the cooled soymilk is filled into the blow container from the storage tank by the supply nozzle as described above, it is relatively easy to press the container after filling the container. It has been found that defoaming can be performed, and in particular, it is not necessary to consider the defoaming.

The present invention has been accomplished by defoaming at the stage of hot soymilk before cooling as described above to obtain a high-quality filled tofu free of air bubbles, and has been completed. It is.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a method of cooling hot soy milk after a defoaming step by stagnating, adding a coagulant to the cold soy milk, mixing, filling a container and sealing. Then, after sealing, heat coagulation is performed.

[0011] In the above solution, the hot soymilk is allowed to rise into the defoaming tank from the lower part thereof and flow into the defoaming tank through an inflow path provided with an inlet at the upper part.
The hot soymilk is caused to flow out of an outflow passage communicated with a lower portion of the defoaming tank, and during this time, the liquid level of the hot soymilk in the defoaming tank is controlled to be positioned above the inflow port to perform defoaming. In this case, the liquid level of hot soymilk should be 10
cm, and it is preferable to control so as to flow out in 2 to 5 minutes.

If the liquid level of the hot soymilk is controlled to be lower than the inlet, air bubbles cannot be removed by mixing into the hot soymilk, and the liquid level of the hot soymilk does not become higher than the inlet by 10 cm or more. If the control is performed such that the soybean milk flows out with a longer residence time, the hot soymilk retained at the top is oxidized and the coagulation is weakened in the subsequent process. Therefore, as described above, the liquid level of the hot soymilk is set to be less than 10 cm from the inlet, What is necessary is just to select suitably so that it may be made to flow out between 2 minutes and 5 minutes. In particular, by controlling the liquid level of the hot soy milk to about 4 cm from the inflow port and controlling it to flow out in about 3 minutes, foam is produced. This is optimal because it can efficiently float on the surface of the hot soymilk and remove it, and can suppress the oxidation of the hot soymilk and allow it to coagulate appropriately in the subsequent process.

[0013] In the above solution, the cold soymilk to which the coagulant has been added and mixed is guided to a storage tank, and the container can be filled from a supply nozzle provided at a lower portion of the storage tank.
In this case, it is possible to use a storage tank having a ring-shaped storage portion between the inner and outer peripheral walls, and having supply nozzles at a plurality of locations on the circumference below the storage portion. Also, keep the cold soy milk in the storage tank so that the liquid height is in the range of 8 cm to 19 cm, and
It is preferable to set the container to be filled in 5 minutes.

The liquid height of the cold soymilk in the storage tank is less than 8 cm, and it is difficult to fill the container in less than 1 minute due to insufficient pressure of the cold soymilk. Over 5 minutes to fill the container is difficult because the primary coagulation of cold soy milk begins,
Therefore, as described above, the liquid height of the cold soybean milk is 8 cm in the storage tank.
It is sufficient to keep it in the range of ~ 19 cm, and it is sufficient to select appropriately so as to fill the container between 1 minute and 5 minutes. In particular, in order to smoothly and quickly fill the cold soy milk, the cold soy milk is stored in a storage tank. The optimal setting is to fill the container at a liquid height of about 10 cm for about 90 to 100 seconds.

As the above coagulant, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride (bits), calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, glucono delta lactone, etc. can be used alone or selectively combined.

As described above, the present invention is characterized in that the hot soymilk is cooled after the defoaming step by retention, a coagulant is added to the cold soymilk, mixed, filled into a container, sealed, sealed, and then heat-coagulated. According to the method, bubbles are removed at the stage of hot soy milk, and air bubbles mixed in the soy milk after cooling can be relatively easily removed, so that filled tofu without air bubbles can be obtained.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic process explanatory view showing a method for producing a filled tofu according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing a defoaming tank for hot soymilk used in the method, and FIG. It is a schematic perspective view which shows the state which is filling a blow container with soymilk from the supply nozzle of the storage tank used.

As shown in FIG. 1, the whole soybeans 1 are washed by a washing type washing machine 2, and the washed soybeans 1 are immersed in a immersion tank 3 of a timer water supply type to be softened. Next, the soybean soybeans are quantitatively supplied to the attritor 5 by the quantitative feeder 4. Attritor 5
Then, a fixed amount of water 6 is added to grind the soybean soaked, so that a soybean (bean soup) 7 is obtained and supplied to the receiving tank 8. The raw material 7 thus obtained is boiled in a continuous steam boiling pot 9. The cooked rice 10 is supplied to a cooked rice receiving tank 12 via a cyclone 11. Boiled rice 10 in the boiled rice receiving tank 12
Is supplied to a filter 13 to be separated into hot soymilk 14 and okara 15. The hot soybean milk 14 after the separation flows into the defoaming tank 16 and is defoamed.

The defoamed hot soymilk 14 is placed in a plate cooler 1
7 and cooled, and the cold soy milk 18 flowing out of the plate cooler 17 is supplied to a sub-tank 20 with a stirrer via a storage tank 19. A coagulant is added to the cold soybean milk 18 which has flowed out of the sub-tank 20, for example, bittern 21
, And the two are mixed by the line mixer 22. This mixture is allowed to flow into a storage tank 24 of a rotary filling machine 23, and is sequentially filled into a blow container 26 from a supply nozzle 25 of the storage tank 24 described later. After filling, the opening of the blow container 26 is sealed by the ultrasonic sealing machine 27, and the mixture of the cold soybean milk 18 and the bittern 21 is sealed in the blow container 26. Subsequently, the blow container 26 is transported upright in the hot-water boiler tank 28, during which the soymilk is coagulated by heating to obtain filled tofu. Subsequently, the tofu is transported in the water bath-type cooling tank 29, during which the filled tofu is cooled. Thereafter, the presence or absence of a pinhole in the filled tofu 30 is detected by a pinhole detector (not shown), and if there is no pinhole, it can be shipped as a product.

In the present embodiment, the defoaming is performed in each of the steps of grinding, boiling, defoaming, cooling, sealing, and heat coagulation. The respective steps of grinding, boiling, cooling, sealing, and heat coagulation have been conventionally used. In each of these steps, improvements are made so that defoaming is performed. To increase the defoaming effect. Each of these defoaming operations will be described more specifically.

In the attrition step, the waste 7 discharged from the attritor 5
Tank 8 for supplying the steam to the continuous steam boiling pot 9
To relay. In the receiving tank 8, the foam is received on the front side by stirring with a stirrer (not shown) while keeping the liquid level of the rice 7 high, and the rice 7 is supplied to the continuous steam boiling pot 9 from the bottom. , To prevent the incorporation of bubbles. In the boiling step, bubbles floating on the surface of the boiled rice 10 in the cyclone 11 are discharged together with the steam used for boiling in the continuous steam boiler 9.

When the boiled rice 10 is separated into the hot soymilk 14 and the okara 15 by the filter 13 as described above, the hot soymilk 14 comes into contact with air to form bubbles. The defoaming tank 16 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the upper opening of the tank body 31 is closed by a removable lid 32. An inflow pipe 33 forming an inflow passage is inserted through a lower portion of one side of the tank body 31. The inflow pipe 33 is connected to the boiling outlet of the filter 13,
In the tank main body 31, an inflow port 34 that rises in the vertical direction along the inner wall and is opened upward at the upper end is formed. One end of an outflow pipe 35 forming an outflow passage is communicated with the other bottom of the tank body 31, the other end of the outflow pipe 35 is communicated with the inflow port of the plate cooler 17, and a pump 36 is provided in the middle of the outflow pipe 35. Is provided. A discharge port 37 is provided at the upper end of the tank body 31. In the defoaming tank 16, a level sensor (float switch) 38 for detecting the liquid level of the cooked rice 14 is provided.

The hot soybean milk 1 filtered by the filter 13
4 is caused to flow into the defoaming tank 16 by the inflow pipe 33, and the hot soybean milk 14 accumulated in the defoaming tank 16 is caused to flow out of the outflow pipe 35 to the plate cooler 17 by driving the pump 36. At this time, the liquid level of the hot soymilk 14 in the defoaming tank 16 is always positioned above the inflow port 34 of the inflow pipe 33, and the level sensor 38 is set so that the inflow port 34 is not exposed upward from the liquid level of the hot soymilk 14. The drive of the motor 36 is controlled by the detection of. By keeping the liquid level of the hot soymilk 14 higher than the inlet 34 in this manner, the foam can be floated on the surface of the hot soymilk 14, and the floating foam 39 can be discharged from the outlet 37 to the outside of the defoaming tank 16. Can be. The defoaming tank 16
The boiled nuts 14 in the inside are allowed to flow out of the outflow pipe 35 arranged at the bottom of the defoaming tank 16 as described above, so that there is no risk of bubbles being mixed.

In the cooling step, the cooled soymilk 18 is allowed to stand still in a storage tank 19 having a large surface area so that the foam easily floats on the surface. In the sub-tank 20, the cold soymilk 18 is stirred by a stirrer and the defoaming tank As in the case of 16,
By making the liquid flow out from the bottom to the line mixer 22 and controlling the liquid surface to have a substantially constant height by a level sensor (flow switch), the foam is easily floated and the foam is mixed with the outflowing cold soymilk 18. Is prevented.

In the sealing step, bubbles generated when the cold soymilk 18 mixed with the bittern 21 is filled in the blow container 26 by the rotary filling machine 23 are removed. To explain the outline of the rotary filling machine 23, as shown in FIG. 3, an inner peripheral wall 40 and an outer peripheral wall 41 are provided on an outer peripheral portion on a bottom plate (not shown), and a ring is formed between these inner and outer peripheral walls 40, 41. Storage part 4
2 are formed, and supply nozzles 25 are provided on the bottom plate at a plurality of locations on the circumference corresponding to the storage section 42. Then, the bitter mixed cold soybean milk 18 supplied from the line sensor 22 to the storage unit 42 is sequentially filled into the blow container 26 from the supply nozzle 43. At this time, since the filled soybean milk is filled in a sprayed state, foam is formed in the cold soybean milk 18. Occurs. Therefore, as described above, after the cold soymilk 18 mixed with the bittern 21 is filled in the blow container 26, the blow container 26 is pressed from outside by a pressing means (not shown) before the opening is sealed by the ultrasonic sealing machine 27. By doing so, the foam overflows from the opening of the blow container 26. Further, in the heat coagulation process, the cold soymilk 1
By setting the transport distance of the blow container 26 filled and sealed with 8 long by a conveyor or the like, bubbles are collected upward in the container 26 in the upright blow container 26.

[0026]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. First, 180 kg / H of round soybeans is washed with a water washing type washer 2,
In the timer water supply type immersion tank 3, immersion was performed at a water temperature of 16 ° C. for 14 hours. The soybean after immersion was about 400 kg / H. Next, the immersed soybeans were supplied to the grinder 5 via the quantitative feeder 4, and 650 kg of water was added to grind the soybeans to obtain about 1,050 kg / h of raw garlic. Receiving tank 8
After that, the mixture was supplied to a continuous steam boiling kettle 9 of 5 stations and boiled.
The residence time of the previous three steam boiling kettles was set to about 5 minutes, and the residence time of the next two aging steam boiling pots was set to about 3 minutes. The boiled rice thus obtained is about 1,110 kg /
H. This boiled rice is supplied to a filter 13 through a cyclone 11 and a boiled receiving tank 12, and about 900 kg of hot soymilk
/ H and about 210 kg / H of okara.

Next, the hot soymilk was allowed to flow into the defoaming tank 16. As shown in FIG. 2, the defoaming tank 16 has a diameter a of 45 cm and a height b of 45 cm.
So that the liquid level height c is 28 cm, the distance d from the inlet 34 is about 4 cm above, and the distance e of the outlet 37 from the communicating part of the defoaming tank is about 6 cm below.
In step 8, the outflow of hot soymilk 14 was controlled. Under these conditions, 900 kg of hot soy milk that has flowed into the defoaming tank 16 flows into the plate cooler 17 from the outflow pipe 35 while being defoamed with a residence time of about 3 minutes. The hot soymilk having an inlet temperature of the plate cooler 17 of about 90 ° C. was cooled to an outlet temperature of the plate cooler 17 of about 6 ° C.
About 900 kg / H of this cold soybean milk is kept in the storage tank 19 for about 120 minutes, and then kept in the sub tank 20 for about 4 minutes, and after defoaming, about 12.3 l / H of the bittern liquid and the line mixer 22
And mixed.

The cold soymilk mixed with bittern is filled with a rotary filling machine 2
The liquid height of about 12 is stored in the storage section 42 having a diameter of the inner peripheral wall 40 of 58 cm, a diameter of the outer peripheral wall 41 of 78 cm, and a depth of 25 cm in FIG.
cm from the supply nozzle 43.
The blow containers 26 of 0 tubes / H (0.33 kg / tube) were sequentially filled. Under such conditions, the residence time until the bittern mixed cold soy milk was supplied to the storage unit 42 and filled in the blow container 26 was about 97 seconds. Next, the blow container 26 was pressed from the outside to remove bubbles in the cold soybean milk, and then the opening of the blow container 26 was sealed with an ultrasonic sealing machine 27 so that the cold soybean milk was enclosed. Blow container 2 after filling
6 was conveyed by a conveyor and passed through a hot-water boiler tank 28. At this time, the blow container 26 is conveyed while maintaining an upright state so that bubbles are gathered upward while passing through the hot-water boil tank 28 as well as before reaching the hot-water boil tank 28 after sealing. did. During this time, the blow container 26
By heating at 0 ° C. for about 60 minutes, the cold soy milk was coagulated by heating to obtain a filled tofu. Subsequently, the filled tofu is poured into a water bath cooling tank 29.
And conveyed by a conveyor. During this time, about 1 tofu
Cooled at 6 ° C. for about 60 minutes.

The height of the liquid level of the hot soymilk in the defoaming tank 16 with respect to the inflow port 34 is -5 cm, 0 cm, and +, respectively.
It is set to be 10 cm (the-side indicates that the inflow port 34 is lower than the liquid level, and the + side indicates that the inflow port 34 is lower than the liquid level), and other conditions are the same as those in the above embodiment. To produce filled tofu. Table 1 shows the hardness and pH of the packed tofu of each example including the above examples, the total number of air bubbles visually observed on the four side surfaces and the bottom surface, and the taste evaluated by five panelists.

[0030]

[Table 1]

As is clear from Table 1, when the liquid level of the hot soymilk is set lower than the inlet 34, the number of bubbles is large and the taste is inferior, and the liquid level of the hot soymilk is 10 cm or more from the inlet 34. Although the number of air bubbles does not occur even if set to a high value, the oxidation of the hot soymilk progresses with the prolonged residence time, and the taste becomes slightly inferior.
m, and it was set to be discharged in about 3 minutes, so that bubbles were not generated and the taste was the best. However, the liquid level of the hot soymilk was set at less than 10 cm from the inlet 34. It was found that by causing the mixture to flow out in 2 to 5 minutes, a filled tofu which was free of air bubbles and satisfactory in taste was obtained.

[0032]

In summary, according to the present invention, the hot soymilk is cooled after the defoaming step by stagnating, a coagulant is added to the cooled soymilk, mixed, filled into a container, sealed, sealed, and heated and solidified. By defoaming at the stage of hot soy milk, air bubbles mixed into the soy milk after cooling can be removed relatively easily, so there are no air bubbles, and therefore, a smooth feel is obtained. To obtain high quality filled tofu.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic process explanatory view showing a method for producing a filled tofu according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing a defoaming tank for hot soymilk used in the production method.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing a state in which soymilk is filled in a blow container from a supply nozzle of a storage tank used in the manufacturing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Round soybean 5 Grinding machine 9 Continuous steam boiling pot 13 Filter 14 Hot soymilk 16 Defoaming tank 17 Plate cooler 18 Cold soymilk 21 Bittern 22 Line mixer 23 Rotary filling machine 24 Storage tank 25 Supply nozzle 26 Blow container 27 Ultrasonic seal Machine 28 hot water bath type boiler tank 29 water bath type cooling tank 30 filled tofu 33 inflow pipe 34 inflow port 35 outflow port

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ───

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] February 6, 1997

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claim 3

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0002

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional filled tofu is prepared by cooling hot soybean milk obtained in the same manner as hot soybean milk used in the production of so-called cut tofu, adding a coagulant, mixing and then adding the coagulant to a container. Fill and seal, then heat at 80-90 ° C. to solidify in container.

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0021

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

In the attrition step, the waste 7 discharged from the attritor 5
Tank 8 for supplying the steam to the continuous steam boiling pot 9
To relay. In this receiving tank 8, the foam is floated on the surface side by stirring with a stirrer (not shown) while the liquid level of the rice 7 is kept high, and the rice 7 is supplied to the continuous steam boiling pot 9 from the bottom. The mixing of bubbles is prevented. In the boiling step, bubbles floating on the surface of the boiled rice 10 in the cyclone 11 are discharged together with the steam used for boiling in the continuous steam boiler 9.

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0024

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

In the cooling step, the cooled soymilk 18 is allowed to stand still in a storage tank 19 having a large surface area so that the foam easily floats on the surface. In the sub-tank 20, the cold soymilk 18 is stirred by a stirrer and the defoaming tank As in the case of 16,
By making the liquid flow out from the bottom to the line mixer 22 and controlling the liquid surface to have a substantially constant height by a level sensor (float switch), the foam is easily floated, and the foam is mixed with the cold soymilk 18 flowing out. Is prevented.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A filled tofu characterized by cooling hot soy milk after a defoaming step by staying, adding a coagulant to the cold soy milk, filling and sealing the container, sealing, and then heating and coagulating. Manufacturing method. 2. A hot soymilk is raised into a defoaming tank from a lower portion thereof, flows in through an inflow channel provided with an inflow port in an upper portion, and flows out of an outflow channel communicating with a lower portion of the defoaming tank. 2. The method for producing a filled tofu according to claim 1, wherein the hot soy milk is caused to flow out, and during this time, the liquid level of the hot soy milk in the defoaming tank is controlled to be positioned above the inflow port to defoam. Method. 3. The method for producing filled tofu according to claim 2, wherein the liquid level of the hot soymilk is controlled to be less than 10 cm from the inflow port and to be discharged in 2 to 5 minutes. 4. The cold soybean milk to which a coagulant has been added and mixed is guided to a storage tank, and the container is filled from a supply nozzle provided at a lower portion of the storage tank. Production method of filled tofu. 5. The storage tank according to claim 4, wherein the storage tank has a ring-shaped storage portion between the inner and outer peripheral walls, and has supply nozzles at a plurality of locations on the periphery below the storage portion. Production method of filled tofu. 6. The liquid height of the cold soy milk in the storage tank is 8 cm to 19 c.
The method for producing a filled tofu according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the container is filled so as to be kept within a range of 1 to 5 minutes.