JPS5811984B2 - Sauce circulation concentration dipping equipment for sugar solutions, etc. - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is capable of uniformly and quickly penetrating a sauce such as a sugar solution, a spot solution, or a food dye into food materials such as chestnuts, boiled beans, tsukudani, kelp, or cherries. This is a dipping device that circulates and concentrates drippings, and its purpose is to easily adjust the concentration of drippings, achieve uniformity, process in a closed container at a relatively low temperature, have extremely high productivity, and produce high quality products. The aim is to provide a compact device that can produce processed foods.

Conventionally, the third type of equipment for making processed foods such as chestnuts was generally used.
As shown in the figure, prepare multiple containers with different concentrations, and first immerse the food ingredients in the sauce with the lowest concentration for a predetermined time, then in the sauce with a higher concentration for a predetermined time, and then By repeating the process, it becomes the final processed food.

However, as the drippings in these containers are diluted by the moisture released from the food ingredients during processing, they must be boiled in a separately prepared jacket-type boiler, concentrated to a predetermined concentration, and reused. This process must be adopted.

Furthermore, such conventional methods have the following problems.

That is, when a processed food is impregnated with a sauce liquid, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of containers because the processed food is sequentially immersed in sauce liquids of different concentrations to impregnate it with a predetermined concentration of the sauce liquid.
(See Figures I to H).

Therefore, in addition to requiring a large amount of dripping liquid, it is also necessary to secure a large floor area.

Furthermore, the food ingredients immersed in the dripping liquid in each container are immersed for a predetermined time and then transferred to containers with higher concentrations.

In this way, transferring food ingredients requires equipment (for example, Figure 3 C) and manpower, and the food ingredients may be damaged or scratched due to vibrations generated during transfer, resulting in loss of commercial value. .

Furthermore, since the sauce in each container is higher at the top and lower at the bottom, there is a difference in the flavor imparted to processed foods.In addition, the concentration of the sauce is thinner at the top and thicker at the bottom due to the precipitation of components such as sugar solution. As a result, processed foods cannot be seasoned uniformly, resulting in quality differences between the top and bottom.

Conventionally, as a countermeasure to this problem, it was necessary to take the food material immersed in the sauce in and out several times every few hours, changing the top and bottom of the food to be immersed, in order to even out the seasoning.

The sauce diluted by the water released from the food ingredients is boiled under atmospheric pressure and concentrated, resulting in browning of the sauce such as sugar solution, discoloration of processed foods, and the production of bitter taste. There are drawbacks such as deterioration of quality, and for this reason, the actual situation is that the dripping liquid is discarded after being used once or several times.

In addition, with equipment that processes in an open environment under atmospheric pressure, the room in which the equipment is installed will be filled with evaporated steam, increasing both temperature and humidity, creating extremely adverse conditions from the health and safety standpoint of workers. It became.

The present invention has been intensively researched to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks and problems, and provides an extremely rational and high-performance dipping device by incorporating a closed drip container into a concentrating device. It is.

The configuration will be explained below according to the drawings.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a closed type sauce container, and by opening and closing a lid 2, an inner tank 5 formed by stacking a plurality of trays 4 on which a large number of food ingredients 3 are placed can be taken in and out.

Reference numeral 6 denotes an indirect heat exchanger provided below the inside of the dripping liquid container 1, which heats and cools the dripping liquid.

7 is a hot water inlet valve, 8 is a hot water outlet valve, 9 is a cooling water inlet valve,
10 indicates a cooling water outlet valve.

11 is a circulation pump, and the dripping liquid discharged from this pump 11 is supplied from a discharge side piping 12 to the inner tank 5 loaded in the dripping liquid container 1.

The dripping liquid that has passed through the gap between the food ingredients 3 placed on the stacked trays 4 in the inner tank 5 evaporates water from above, while the dripping liquid flows between the inner wall of the dripping liquid container 1 and the outer wall of the inner tank 5. It flows down into the gap, passes through the suction side piping 13, and is returned to the circulation pump 11.

Reference numeral 14 is a flow rate regulating valve, and 15 is a flow meter, which controls the flow rate of the circulating dripping liquid.

16 is a liquid supply valve, 17 is a drain valve, 18 is a strainer, 19
indicates the temperature sensing part.

20 is a condenser, which is communicated with the dripping liquid container 1 via a pipe 21.

22 is an indirect cooler, 23 is a cooling water inlet valve, and 24 is a cooling water outlet valve.

25 is a vacuum gauge, and 26 is a stop valve, which are attached to the piping 21.

Therefore, the vapor evaporated in the dripping liquid container 1 is sent to the condenser 20 and condensed by the indirect cooler 22.

27 is a concentration controller which stores the condensed water condensed in the condenser 20 via a pipe 28.

29 is a liquid level sensing part for sensing the amount of condensed water stored;
It is composed of multiple electrode rods, float type, etc.

Therefore, the liquid level of the condensed water is sensed at a preset position, and the concentration of the dripping liquid in the dripping liquid container 1 can be determined.

30 indicates a drain valve. 31 is a circulation pump, 32 is a part of an ejector, and 33 is a water tank, and these are formed into a circulation path by piping 34 to form a vacuum generating device.

Between the capacitor 20 and the ejector part 32,
They are communicated by a pipe 35, and the negative pressure generated in the ejector part 32 sucks the air inside the dripping liquid container 1 to reduce the pressure and promote evaporation of the dripping liquid.

36 is a water supply valve, and 37 is a drain valve.

When the liquid level sensor 29 of the concentration controller 27 detects the amount of condensed water stored, the stop valve 26 is activated manually or automatically.
When the dripping liquid container 1 is closed, the dripping liquid in the dripping liquid container 1 is maintained at a constant concentration.

Furthermore, when the stop valve 26 is opened, air is sucked in by the ejector part 32 of the vacuum generator, which is communicated through the condenser 20, to promote evaporation in the dripping liquid container 1.

The degree of evaporation can be controlled by driving or stopping the circulation pump 31 of the vacuum generator or by adjusting the stop valve 26.

The present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, and the immersion process can be carried out sufficiently if there is one container for sauce such as sugar solution, and the concentration can be adjusted with this one container. The amount of dripping liquid can now be reduced by a large amount (approximately one-fifth) compared to the conventional method.

Also, the thermal energy and amount of cooling water required for heating and cooling the dripping liquid are small, and the installation area of the device can be sufficiently reduced even in an extremely small place.

In addition, since the concentration can be adjusted, there is no need to take the inner tank containing the food ingredients in and out every time the concentration changes, which saves the time and effort required to put in and take out the food raw materials as in conventional methods.
This eliminates the fear that food ingredients will be damaged or damaged and lose their commercial value due to vibrations caused by loading and unloading.

In order to adjust the concentration, it has become possible to easily and accurately control the concentration by using a concentration control, a stop valve, and a vacuum generator.

Furthermore, since the dripping liquid inside the container is constantly circulated and stirred by the circulation pump, differences in temperature and concentration between the upper and lower parts of the container are eliminated, and processed foods of uniform quality can be obtained.

In addition, since the concentration of sauces such as sugar solutions is carried out under vacuum and low temperature, there is no browning of the sauce, making it possible to reuse the sauce and maintaining stable quality without discoloring processed foods. There are other effects.

Furthermore, since a closed container is used, evaporated steam does not escape into the room, resulting in a much better working environment compared to conventional open-air containers.

What is shown in FIG. 2 is another embodiment, in which the circulation pump 11
A branch pipe 38 is provided in the discharge side piping 12 of the drain pipe 12 to communicate with a sterilizer 39, and a part of the dripping liquid is supplied to the dripping liquid container 1 through a liquid temperature regulator 40.

The sterilizer 39 consists of an indirect heat exchanger and uses steam at about 120° C. to sterilize bacteria present in the dripping liquid.

41 is a gate valve, 42 is a steam inlet valve, and 44 is a steam trap.

The liquid temperature regulator 40 also includes an indirect heat exchanger, and cools the dripping liquid by indirect heat exchange with cooling water, and returns the dripping liquid to the dripping liquid container 1.

44 is a cooling water inlet valve, 45 is a cooling water outlet pipe, and 46 is a gate valve.

Providing a branch pipe in this manner and partially sterilizing the dripping liquid has the effect of preventing the growth of bacteria in the circulating dripping liquid and obtaining a high-quality processed food.

Therefore, unlike the conventional method, the temperature of the dripping liquid is 50 to 60℃, and there are no problems such as bacterial growth during long-term operation, short storage period after processing, and quality deterioration. fruit

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts showing the entire path of the device of the present invention;
The figure is a sectional view of a main part showing another embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a conventional example. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Sealed dripping liquid container, 3... Food raw material, 4... Tray, 5... Inner tank, 6... Indirect heat exchanger, 11... Circulation pump, 12, 13... Piping, 20... ...Capacitor, 2
1... Piping, 26... Stop valve, 27... Concentration controller, 31... Pump, 32... Part of ejector, 33
……water tank.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sealed dripping liquid container removably loaded with an inner tank in which a plurality of stacked trays carrying food ingredients are loaded, an indirect heat exchanger installed in the lower part of this container, and a dripping liquid container in the container. A circulation pump installed via piping to circulate the liquid,
A condenser is provided via a stop valve and piping to condense the evaporated steam generated in the container, and the condensate generated in this condenser is stored, and the concentration of the dripping liquid is adjusted in conjunction with the liquid level sensing part. a concentration controller provided for the purpose, a part of the ejector communicating with the upper end of the capacitor, a water tank,
It consists of a vacuum generator having a liquid circulation path connected to a pump etc. by piping, and the circulation pump circulates the dripping liquid in the container while maintaining the dripping liquid concentration adjusted by the concentration controller and the vacuum generator. A dipping device for circulating and concentrating a dripping liquid such as a sugar solution.