WO2019244870A1 - Method for manufacturing frozen noodles - Google Patents

Abstract

To prevent noodle line breakage in a step for subdividing noodles, and to improve the qualities of frozen cooked noodles manufactured through a step for subdividing noodles. A method for manufacturing frozen cooked noodles, said method comprising cooking noodles by heating until the amount of the noodles increases to 180-260 mass% relative to the dry mass of the noodles before cooking, subdividing the cooked noodles in water at 20-99oC, and then freezing the subdivided noodles.

Description

Manufacturing method of frozen noodles

The present invention relates to a method for producing frozen noodles which are stored in small portions after being cooked and frozen.

Frozen-cooked noodles are manufactured by heating, cooking and freezing noodles. A wide variety of frozen and cooked noodles are commercially available, such as frozen noodles alone or boiled noodles frozen with sauces and ingredients. Frozen cooked noodles are convenient foods that can be stored for a long period of time, and can easily provide freshly boiled noodles if thawed or reheated.

Frozen-cooked noodles are usually sold in the form of molded or packaged in small portions for each meal. When producing such frozen cooked noodles, one serving of noodles can be individually cooked and frozen. However, from the viewpoint of efficiency, noodles for a plurality of servings are cooked at a time and divided into one serving at a time. It is preferable to freeze afterwards. This subdivision of noodles (also referred to as “beading”) can be performed manually, but in a factory or the like, it is mainly performed automatically by a machine from the viewpoint of efficiency.

自動 An automatic weighing device for boiling noodles has been developed. Patent Literature 1 discloses an apparatus for dispensing and supplying boiled noodles by causing boiled noodles stored in water in a hopper to flow out along with water from a slit-shaped supply port. Patent Document 2 discloses a hopper having at least one inclined inner surface open at an upper end and a lower end and inclined with respect to a vertical plane and containing stored water, the hopper disposed on the hopper, and An input chute for inputting boiled noodles into the storage water in the hopper along the inclined inner surface from an upper end of the hopper, and a plurality of through holes are formed in a peripheral wall connected to a lower end of the hopper and at a lower end. A funnel portion having a boiled noodle outlet formed therein, a discharge opening and closing portion for opening and closing the boiled noodle discharge opening, and the drainage opening and closing portion disposed below the boiled noodle discharge opening and opened by the discharge opening and closing portion. A measuring box for storing the boiled noodles discharged from the outlet together with the stored water and discharging only the stored water to measure the volume of the boiled noodles, and the hopper along the inclined inner side surface of the hopper. From a pouring water supply unit for supplying pouring water into the reservoir water in the hopper, and a plurality of pushing rods swinging in the reservoir water in the hopper, and supplying pushing water into the reservoir water. An automatic boiled noodle having an agitating section for agitating the boiled noodles in the storage water into the funnel section, and an unraveling water supply section for supplying the unraveled water into the storage water in the funnel section through the plurality of through holes. A weighing device is described. In the device described in Patent Literature 2, by supplying the pouring water and the pushing water into the hopper and swinging a plurality of pushing rods, and supplying the dissolving water to the funnel portion, the boiling water of the boiled noodles in the storage water is supplied. Density is stabilized.

In the production of frozen cooked noodles, usually, an operation of rapidly cooling cooked noodles with cold water or the like before freezing is performed. By the cooling, the temperature of the cooked noodles can be lowered to prevent the noodles from growing, and the texture can be improved by tightening the noodles. Patent Document 3 describes a method in which frozen noodles are rapidly cooled with cold water at 0 to 5 ° C., divided into small portions, molded, and frozen in order to form frozen-cooked noodles into a shape that does not cause uneven thawing. Have been.

JP 2012-50425 A International Publication No. 2016/129296 JP-A-3-201957

On the other hand, the present inventors have found that cooling of the noodles after cooking is not always convenient for the subdivision of the noodles. Specifically, when subdividing the cooled noodles, there is a problem that the noodles are cut off, and furthermore, when the cut noodles are stored frozen as they are, the appearance of the obtained frozen cooked noodles and after thawing It has been found that there is a problem that the texture of the food is reduced. Cuts of noodles in such subdivision are more remarkable in subdivision work using an automatic weighing device as described in Patent Document 1 or 2.

(4) The present inventors have studied means for preventing the cut noodles when the cooked noodles are divided into small portions and the resulting reduction in appearance and texture after thawing in the production of frozen cooked noodles. As a result, the present inventors can perform the subdivision of the cooked noodles for freezing in water at a predetermined temperature, thereby preventing the noodles from being cut during the subdivision even when using an automatic weighing device. As a result, they have found that the appearance of frozen-cooked noodles caused by freezing the cut noodles and a decrease in texture after thawing can be prevented.

Therefore, the present invention is a method for producing frozen cooked noodles,
Heating the noodles so as to be 180 to 260% by mass relative to the dry mass of the noodles before cooking;
Subdividing the cooked noodles in water at 20-99 ° C., and freezing the subdivided noodles;
And providing a method.

According to the present invention, even when an automatic weighing device as described in Patent Literature 1 or 2, for example, it is possible to prevent the cut noodles from being cut in the subdivision work. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent a decrease in the appearance of frozen and cooked noodles and a texture after thawing, which is caused by storing frozen noodles as they are during the subdivision. ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION This invention can improve the quality of the frozen cooked noodles manufactured through a subdivision process of cooked noodles. In particular, the method of the present invention is more useful when subdividing cooked noodles is performed by an automatic weighing device.

種類 In the present invention, the type of noodles is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include noodle strings such as soba, udon, and Chinese noodles, and macaroni including short pasta and long pasta. Among these, macaroni have a hard property as compared with other noodles, and tend to be easily cut when subdivided, and thus are suitable as noodles to which the method of the present invention is applied. The macaroni to which the method of the present invention is applied may be short pasta or long pasta, but long pasta such as spaghetti is preferred from the viewpoint of reducing the ease of cutting.

In the method for producing frozen cooked noodles of the present invention, first, the noodles are heated and cooked. Examples of the cooking method include a method in which heated water such as boiling water or heated steam such as saturated steam is brought into contact with the noodles, and preferably boiling or steamed cooking. The noodles to be cooked may be dry noodles, raw noodles, or semi-raw noodles, but are preferably dry noodles. Further, the dried noodles, raw noodles or semi-raw noodles to be cooked may be uncooked (not cooked) noodles or semi-cooked noodles (for example, partially alpha noodles).

In the cooking, the noodles are used in an amount of 180 to 260% by mass, preferably 185 to 240% by mass, more preferably 190 to 220% by mass, and still more preferably 195 to 210% by mass, based on the dry mass of the noodles before cooking. % Cooked. Here, the “dry mass of noodles” in this specification refers to the mass when the noodles are dried to a state of normal dry noodles (water content: about 11% by mass). More specifically, when the noodles to be cooked are dry noodles, the yield of the noodles after the cooking is preferably 180 to 260% by mass, more preferably 185 to 240% by mass, based on the amount before the cooking. It is still more preferably 190 to 220% by mass, and still more preferably 195 to 210% by mass. On the other hand, when the noodles to be cooked are raw noodles, the yield of the noodles after the cooking is preferably 135 to 175% by mass, more preferably 140 to 165% by mass, and still more preferably before the cooking. Is from 145 to 155% by mass. The mass of ordinary cooked noodles is usually from 220 to 260% by mass with respect to the dry mass of the noodles before cooking, and is approximately from 180 to 260% by mass even when slightly boiled. In the method of the present invention, it is preferable to adjust the yield of noodles after heating and cooking in consideration of the amount of water absorption of the noodles in the subdividing step in water described below.

Next, the cooked noodles are subdivided. In the present specification, `` subdivision '' of noodles refers to dividing a bundle of noodles having a certain total mass into a plurality of bundles of noodles having a smaller mass, preferably a bundle of noodles having a certain number of noodles. Dividing into a plurality of smaller bundles of noodles (preferably, the number does not include the number of pieces). In the method of the present invention, the step of cooling the noodles is not performed between the above-mentioned heating and cooking of the noodles and the later-described subdivision of the noodles in water.

に お い て In the method of the present invention, the step of dividing the cooked noodles is performed in water at 20 to 99 ° C. When the temperature of the water is lower than 20 ° C., the generation of noodles chips increases, and the appearance of the obtained frozen cooked noodles and the texture of the noodles after thawing are reduced. On the other hand, if the temperature of the water exceeds 90 ° C., the heat passes through the noodles and the noodles are softened, so that many pieces of the noodles are formed, and the texture of the noodles after thawing is reduced. In the present specification, the “cut pieces” of the noodles refers to noodle pieces whose maximum length is 1/5 or less of the original noodles (noodles before the cut pieces are cut out). In the present invention, the preferable temperature of the water used for the subdivision is 40 to 80 ° C, more preferably 50 to 70 ° C. The time of the subdivision step in water (the time of immersing the cooked noodles in the subdivision water) is preferably 140 seconds or less, more preferably 120 seconds or less, and even more preferably 60 to 100 seconds. If the time required for subdivision is too long, heat may pass through the noodles and become soft, resulting in the generation of many pieces of the noodles and a decrease in the texture of the noodles after thawing.

に お い て In the present invention, the subdivision of the cooked noodles may be performed manually, but is preferably performed by an automatic weighing device. As the automatic weighing device, a conventional general automatic weighing device for cooking noodles can be used. For example, as described in Patent Document 1 or 2, a noodle mass is put into water in a funnel-shaped container. An automatic weighing device capable of dispensing noodles by discharging the noodles divided with water from the lower part of the container while stirring the noodles in the water as needed. Preferably, an automatic weighing device described in Patent Literature 2, that is, a hopper that has at least one inclined inner surface that is open at an upper end and a lower end and is inclined with respect to a vertical plane and stores stored water, A charging chute arranged on the hopper and for charging cooked noodles into the stored water in the hopper along the inclined inner surface from the upper end of the hopper; A through hole is formed and a funnel portion having a noodles discharge port formed at the lower end, a discharge port opening / closing section for opening and closing the noodles discharge port, and a discharge port opening / closing section disposed below the noodles discharge port. A measuring box for storing the noodles discharged together with the stored water from the opened noodles discharge port and discharging only the stored water to measure the volume of the cooked noodles; and an inclined inner surface of the hopper. A pouring water supply unit for supplying pouring water from the upper end of the hopper into the stored water in the hopper, and a plurality of pushing rods swinging in the stored water in the hopper and pushing water into the stored water. Noodles comprising: a swirling unit for supplying noodles in the storage water to the funnel unit to feed the noodles into the funnel unit; and a disintegration water supply unit for supplying the water to the storage water in the funnel unit through the plurality of through holes. An automatic weighing device is used.

(4) In the conventional production of frozen cooked noodles, in the subdivision of cooked noodles using the automatic weighing device as described above, many cuts of the noodles occurred. This is because, in the conventional manufacturing process of frozen cooked noodles, the yield of cooked noodles to be fed into the automatic weighing device was set to be low in consideration of the subsequent freezing and thawing processes, so that it was relatively hard. This is considered to be caused by the fact that the rigidity of the noodles was increased by the cooling step after cooking. In the method of the present invention, it is presumed that the subdivision of the noodles is performed in warm water in the above temperature range, whereby the rigidity of the noodles is alleviated and the noodles are prevented from being cut during the subdivision. On the other hand, in the method of the present invention, the noodles can be further heated by the subdivision operation in hot water, but since the mass percentage of the noodles after heating and before cooking is in the above-described range, the noodles are not affected by the influence of the warm water. A decrease in feeling can be suppressed.

Subsequently, in the method of the present invention, the divided noodles are frozen. Freezing may be performed by a conventional method, and may be either rapid freezing or slow freezing, but rapid freezing is preferred. Prior to the freezing, it is preferable to remove water adhering to the noodles by using a hot water bath or the like. Prior to the freezing, the noodles may be formed into small portions according to a conventional method for producing frozen noodles. In the shaping, the noodles may be formed by stacking the noodles, or the noodles may be filled in a container. In the method of the present invention, since noodles are hard to be cut, the formation of cut pieces of noodles can be suppressed even when molding the noodles. Alternatively, in the method of the present invention, the noodles may be cooled before the freezing. The cooling means may be a conventional method such as water cooling or air cooling, but water cooling is preferred. The order of cooling and forming the noodles is not particularly limited. For example, the noodles that have been dispensed may be drained with hot water to remove excess water, and then cooled if necessary, and then formed into noodle masses or filled into containers and frozen, or the dispensed noodles may be heated with hot water. After being cut, molded or filled into a container, it may be cooled and frozen as required.

In the method of the present invention, when freezing the noodles, the noodles may be frozen together with a coating solution or sauce for preventing adhesion of the noodles. For example, the noodles divided as described above may be filled in a container such as a tray, and sauces or the like may be put on the noodles and frozen, or the divided noodles may be mixed with sauces or the like, and then the tray or the like may be used. May be filled and frozen.

と し て As the sauces, any of the sauces used for ordinary noodles may be used. For example, Japanese sauces such as noodle soup, soba soup, dashi soup; white sauces such as cream sauce and carbonara sauce; tomato sauces such as meat sauce, napolitan sauce and arabita sauce; brown sauces; However, it is not limited to these. The sauces may appropriately contain ingredients such as vegetables, mushrooms, meat, seafood, eggs, spices, and the like.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples, but the present invention is not limited only to these Examples.

(Test Example 1)
1,000 commercially available dried spaghetti (manufactured by Nisshin Foods, length 250 mm, thickness 1.7 mm) (about 500 g) were boiled and cooked with boiling water for about 7 minutes to produce a boiled spaghetti with a yield of 210% by mass. The obtained boiled spaghetti was taken out of boiling water and quickly transferred to a thermostatic bath filled with water at the temperature shown in Table 1. Using the tongs for pasta in the thermostatic oven, the spaghetti boiled is divided into small portions for each meal (200 g) over a predetermined time shown in Table 1 and transferred to a tray with holes to drain excess water. Immediately at -80.degree. C., the mixture was rapidly frozen and boiled frozen to produce spaghetti.

The prepared frozen boiled spaghetti was stored at −18 ° C. for one week, removed from the tray, transferred to a heat-resistant dish, wrapped, heated at 600 W for 1 minute and 50 seconds, and thawed. The following evaluation was performed on the spaghetti after thawing.
(Evaluation of ease of cutting noodles)
Regarding the boiled spaghetti after thawing, the number of pieces (one-fifth or less of the whole length of the unbroken noodle strings) in one meal was measured. Each temperature shown in Table 1 was measured 10 times, and the average value was obtained. Table 1 shows the results.
(Evaluation of texture)
The texture of the boiled spaghetti after thawing was evaluated by ten trained panelists according to the following evaluation criteria, and the average value of the evaluations of the ten persons was obtained. Table 1 shows the results.
Evaluation Criteria 5: Freshly boiled spaghetti-like koshi and elasticity are enough, and very good texture 4: Freshly boiled spaghetti-like koshi and elasticity, good texture 3: relatively stiff and elastic Yes, no problem texture 2: Slightly too soft or slightly too hard, lacking spaghetti texture 1: Too soft, too hard, lacking spaghetti texture

(Test Example 2)
Except that the boiling yield was changed as shown in Table 2, a frozen boiled spaghetti was produced in the same procedure as in Production Example 4, and the noodles were cut easily and the texture after thawing was evaluated by the procedure described in Test Example 1. Table 2 shows the results. Table 2 shows the results of Production Example 4 again.

(Test Example 3)
Except that the subdivision time was changed as shown in Table 3, a spaghetti was prepared by freezing and boiling in the same manner as in Production Example 4, and the noodle ease and the texture after thawing were evaluated by the procedure described in Test Example 1. Table 3 shows the results. Table 3 shows the results of Production Example 4 again.

 

Claims (8)

1. A method for producing frozen cooked noodles,
   Heating the noodles so as to be 180 to 260% by mass relative to the dry mass of the noodles before cooking;
   Subdividing the cooked noodles in water at 20-99 ° C., and freezing the subdivided noodles;
   Including, methods.
2. 製造 The method according to claim 1, wherein the temperature of the water is 40 to 80 ° C.
3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the time for performing the subdivision in water is 120 seconds or less.
4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a step of molding the noodles before the freezing.
5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising cooling the noodles before the freezing.
6. 製造 The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the noodles to be cooked are dry noodles.
7. 製造 The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the noodles are macaroni.
8. The production method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the subdivision is performed by an automatic weighing device.