JPS5921579B2 - Cream cheese manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for producing cream cheese, and its purpose is to provide a method for producing cream cheese that can adjust the physical properties of a cream cheese product without using additives. be.

Conventionally, cream cheese has been produced by heating and melting curd obtained by coagulating and fermenting raw milk with the fat percentage adjusted with fresh cream or the like using rennet or the like.

Immediately after production, the card is usually manufactured into a product through heating and melting treatment.

In addition, the physical properties of cream cheese, such as hardness and oil removal, are mainly controlled by additives such as stabilizers.

The present inventors discovered that when producing cream cheese, it is possible to adjust the physical properties of cream cheese, such as hardness and oil removal, by freezing and thawing the curd prior to heating and melting the curd, and based on this, The present invention has now been completed.

That is, the present invention is a method for producing cream cheese characterized by freezing and thawing the curd prior to heating and melting the curd.

In the present invention, curd can be produced from raw milk in the same manner as the curd production method used in conventional cream cheese production.

In other words, the fat percentage of raw milk is adjusted with fresh cream, etc., then heat sterilized, homogenized, cooled, starter, rennet, etc. are added, coagulated and fermented, stirred and heated, and then the whey is extracted. Eliminate and get cards.

To freeze the cards, the cards are packed in a container, such as a 10crIL square stainless steel container, and the entire container is vacuum-packed with a plastic film.
It is carried out using powdered dry ice, liquid nitrogen, ethanol, etc.

Next, the frozen curd is thawed while vacuum-packed with the plastic film in an insulated container at room temperature, in cold water, hot water, boiling water, or the like.

The freezing and thawing speed of the card depends on the type of physical properties that should be adjusted (
It varies depending on the hardness, whether it is oil-free), and the content (hardness suitable for cutting processing and not oil-on when heated, etc.).

That is, the hardness is determined by the thawing rate.

In other words, whether frozen curd is slowly or quickly frozen, if it is rapidly thawed, it becomes hard cream cheese, and when it is slowly thawed, it becomes soft cream cheese.

On the other hand, oil-off decreases in both slow and rapid freezing, but increases in medium-speed freezing.

However, it does not depend on the defrosting speed. Considering processing costs, etc., the freezing point of the card should be around -5 to -2°C.
A preferred method is to freeze slowly using natural convection air to prevent oil-off, and to set the thawing speed according to the hardness.

Here, when thawing slowly, ie, making the card soft, the shape and size of the card are arbitrary; however, when thawing rapidly, ie, making it hard, it is preferable to make the card as small as possible.

The curd thus thawed is heated and melted at 70 to 90° C. in the same manner as in the heating and melting process in the production of cream cheese, and the homogenized product is filled into a container and cooled to obtain cream cheese.

In addition, when heating and dissolving the curd, additives such as locust bean gum and salt may be added to the curd as storage stabilizers.

Here, the ability to adjust the physical properties of cream cheese by freezing and thawing the curd prior to heating and melting, as in the present invention, will be explained using an experimental example.

Experimental example Raw milk (10% milk fat, 8% non-fat milk solids) at 70°C
The mixture was heat sterilized and homogenized at 150 kg/crA, cooled to 21°C, and added with a lactic acid bacteria starter [Streptococcus cremoris].
) IFO342730, 1% and dried calf rennet (manufactured by Christian Hansen) 50-/100
and fermented overnight, pH 4.63.
After stirring and heating to 63℃, pressurization compression (0.15k
g/crA) 'L.

I got rid of Whey and got a card.

After freezing and thawing this curd at 5 levels of freezing and thawing speeds listed in Table 1, 0.3% locust bean gum and 0.8% salt were added to this curd, and 83°
The mixture heated and melted in C was homogenized using a homomixer, filled into a 200 cc polypropylene cylindrical container, and cooled to 5° C. to produce 25 types of cream cheese.

As a result, quickly thaw the frozen card with boiling water at 80℃ (
Thawing level 5) resulted in a hard cheese with a hardness of 300±251, and conversely, when it was slowly thawed in an insulated container with natural convection air at 0°C (thawing level 1), a soft cheese with a hardness of 74±461 was obtained.

When oil-off is slowly frozen in natural convection air at -20°C (freezing level 1) or rapidly frozen in -80°C ethanol (freezing level 5), the sensory rating is 9.6 ± 0.5 or 8.8. It becomes a cheese with less oil off of ±1.1, -
When the cheese was frozen at a medium speed using natural convection carbon dioxide gas at 80°C (freezing level 2), the cheese had a sensory rating of 4.0±35 and had a lot of oil-off.

In addition, the hardness is product temperature 5°C, diameter 7CIrL, thickness 5cI
A 2.5 mm1 disk with a diameter of 7 mm is placed on a cylindrical sample of rL.
It is expressed as the stress when the mass increases in seconds.

In addition, oil-off was sensually evaluated using a 10-point rating system, immediately after heating a 3 crfL square sample for 3 minutes in a household microwave oven.

In addition, as a result of performing a variance analysis on the hardness, oil-off, and water content of these 25 types of cream cheese, using freezing and thawing speed as factors, it was found that hardness was highly significant in relation to thawing speed, and oil-off was highly significant. It was observed that the freezing rate was significant, but the thawing rate was not significant.

Furthermore, it was observed that the freezing and thawing rates were not significant regarding moisture.

From this, it is presumed that the changes in hardness and oil-off are caused by so-called freeze denaturation of the curd components accompanying freezing and thawing.

According to the method of the present invention, when producing cream cheese, a curd freezing and thawing step is introduced prior to heating and melting the curd, and by changing the freezing and thawing speed, chemical methods such as additive adjustment can be applied. It is possible to adjust the physical properties of cream cheese without relying on it, and to produce cream cheese of any hardness with less oil-off.

Furthermore, the present invention has the advantage that heating and melting of the card can be carried out at any time and place, regardless of the date and place of manufacture of the card.

For example, frozen transportation of curd has the advantage of eliminating distance restrictions between the production area of raw milk and the production area of cream cheese.

Next, examples of the present invention will be shown, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

Example 100 kg of raw milk prepared by adding fresh cream to milk and adjusting the fat percentage to 10% was heat sterilized at 70°C, and 150 kg/
The homogenized material with crA was cooled to 21°C, and a lactic acid bacteria starter [Streptococcus fremori, ;z
, (5treprococcus cremori
s) IFO3427) 0.1% and dried calf rennet (manufactured by Christian Hansen) at 50-/10
It was added at a ratio of 0 kg raw milk and fermented overnight with stirring.

When the pH of this fermented milk reached 4.63, stirring was stopped and the mixture was heated to 63°C, then compressed under pressure (0.15kg/r
st) to remove whey and reduce moisture to 57.5±0.2
Got % card.

This card was filled into a prismatic container of 8 x 10 x 3 cIrL, vacuum packed with a 0.1 mm thick plastic film, slowly frozen in natural convection air at -5°C, and then
Rapidly thawed in warm water at ℃.

Locust bean gum 0.
3% and 0.8% salt were added and heated and dissolved at 83°C, homogenized using a homomixer, filled into a 200 cc capacity polypropylene cylindrical container, and cooled to 5°C to obtain cream cheese. Ta.

The cream cheese thus obtained was a hard cheese with a hardness of 3001 and good cutability, with no noticeable oil-off even when heated in a household microwave oven for 3 minutes.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for producing cream cheese, which comprises freezing and thawing the curd before heating and melting the curd. 2. The method for producing cream cheese according to claim 1, characterized in that the curd is slowly frozen near the freezing point temperature of the curd and then thawed.