Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Heating above ambient temperature
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-29
2003-01-21
Yeung, George C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Heating above ambient temperature
C426S438000, C426S462000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06509053
ABSTRACT:
In the traditional preparation of rice at home, water is put in a recipient and heated till the boiling point is reached. At that moment the rice is incorporated, maintaining the water with the rice in boiling state for a time ranging from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Once elapsed the cooking time the rice is strained and cooked rice is obtained.
The cooking gelatinizes the rice starch and increases the transfer of soluble compounds towards its interior; so that if the rice is cooked in a liquid different from water, such as sauces or broths, it takes the flavour of that means, giving rise to tasteful cooked dishes.
Different processes have been developed trying to obtain rice cooked in an industrial way, maintaining it in this state for a certain time later on, until it is used by the user, but so far a really satisfactory solution has not been found for the preparation of rice cooked under vacuum with meat, shellfish and/or fish sauces, as it would be necessary in the case of the preparation of a traditional dish such as paella.
Indeed, under the up to now well-known solutions, we find different options which are subsequently summarized:
A.—THERMALLY TREATED RICE
Today the day, an industrial process is known in which the following ingredients take part: on the one hand rice, thermally treated and dehydrated previous to the process (i.e. vaporized rice) and on the other hand water. According to this process, the water is heated till a certain temperature and the previously treated and dehydrated rice is introduced for its rehydration and afterwards it is packed and thermally treated. This product has the main inconvenience that its texture is corklike and the rice grain does not absorb any flavour and, therefore, it is not advisable to use it in the preparation of culinary dishes which are more than simply rice cooked in water.
B.—RICE BLENDED WITH ACIDS AND OTHER AGENTS
Through the European Patent EP 0322996, a process is known in which the rice is maintained at a pH from five to seven, by mixing the rice with acids and neutralizing alkaline agents.
During the blending and packaging process, the product is maintained at about 82° C. (aseptically packed).
The main inconveniences of this process are the fact of the incorporation itself of neutralizing acids and alkaline agents to achieve the conservation, and on the other hand the short life of the product obtained this way, since the maximum expiration time does not surpass 9 months from the preparation date on.
C.—HYDRATED RICE
Industrial processes are already known that start from previous rice hydration; so that this hydrating is carried out by putting the rice to soak or by moistening it. When the hydration is carried out by soaking, the cooking is usually done in cameras with pressureless vapour or in some cases by indirect heating. When the hydration is carried out by moistening, the cooking is done in continuous or discontinuous autoclaves with vapour under pressure. With this previous hydration process, the industrial preparation of cooked rice is known, to be frozen or canned afterwards.
In the European Patent EP 0736260 a previous rice hydrating process is described, in which peeled rice is started from, which is put to soak in water at a temperature between twenty and seventy degrees centigrade, being later on cooked by means of vapour under pressure and finally the rice is dried and dehydrated for its sale.
Also, in the “CDTI Notebooks of Nourishment Technology—April 1993”, industrial processes to prepare cooked rice are described, always with a previous rice hydrating phase, either by soaking the rice in water or by moistening.
JP-11056270 discloses a process for the preparation of rice in containers, wherein an hydration is produced and thus being the rice gelatinised.
These processes which require a previous rice hydration have the inconvenience that the rice grain is filled with water during the soaking or moistening phase, which hinders greatly the later entrance of sauces or broths, which are to give the rice a characteristic flavour, so that the rice cooked by means of industrial processes with previous rice hydrating are not appreciated in culinary uses, since they do not allow the dish to get the appropriate cooking flavour.
Saving this inconvenience, a solution is already known which allows the production of cooked rice in an industrial way and without previous hydration of the rice, as we will see subsequently.
D.—RICE NOT HYDRATED PREVIOUSLY
In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,995 a procedure for the production of cooked rice is described, starting from raw rice, without the need of its previous hydration.
According to this procedure, rice cooked in retort according to a process in which raw rice is introduced in a recipient with water and after having sealed this recipient the rice is cooked and at the same time sterilized raw inside the mentioned recipient.
This way, inside the mentioned recipient the gelatinization of the rice starch and the transfer of the soluble compounds to the interior takes place, so that if this cooking is done with sauces instead of with water, the flavour of these sauces penetrates inside the rice, improving this way its taste, as compared to the processes with previous hydration.
In the mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,995, it is indicated that in this process an inconvenience arises, residing in an unwished rice colouring. This colouring takes place as a result of a reaction of the oxygen with certain elements which are present in the rice or by decomposition of such elements. This phenomenon takes place when the rice is cooked at high temperatures (a hundred and twenty degrees centigrade and more), these temperatures are the ones employed in the industrial processes.
According to the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,995, a procedure is proposed by means of which cooked rice can be produced in retort without acquiring an unwished colour and without it losing any of the characteristics of its flavour. Therefore, the amount of oxygen inside the recipient that has to contain the rice is adjusted, using inert gas which when introduced in the recipient displaces the oxygen in the necessary amount so as to avoid that resulting unwished colouring. According to this procedure the amount of oxygen inside the recipient has to be from 4 to 12 ml per 100 gram of rice.
The mentioned procedure has in turn two main inconveniences, one of them the incorporation itself of inert gas inside the recipient with the rice to be cooked and on the other hand the fact that the recipient is not subjected to vacuum, since what is done is insuflating inert gas into the recipient to displace a certain amount of oxygen.
On the other hand, this procedure is valid for its use in the industrial preparation of rice cooked in water or even rice cooked in vegetable sauces and in similar products, but it is not valid for its use for rice cooked in meat, fish or shellfish sauces and, consequently such procedure would not be applicable for the preparation of rice for paella.
Indeed, according to the procedure described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,995, the conditions reached during the cooking are of about a hundred and twenty degrees centigrade for twenty minutes, which allows a Fo of between 5 and 6 to be reached. A Fo between 5 and 6 is acceptable for vegetables, but not for meat, fish, etc. . . What is more, even a Fo between 5 to 6 would not be admitted for tropical and similar countries.
With the procedure described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,995 it is not possible to reach a Fo value higher than 5 or 6, since when increasing the temperature and/or the cooking time, the rice does not resist it so and the final result is unacceptable rice.
According to the present invention, a process for the preparation of rice cooked in an industrial way is proposed, which discloses the following characteristics:
A previous hydration of the rice is not necessary.
There is no need to incorporate inert gas inside the recipient in which the rice is introduced for its cooking, so as to avoid its unwanted colouring.
A Fo between 8 and 16 is r
Franco Balibrea Onofre
Hernández Callejas Antonio
Hernández Callejas Felix
Arrocerias Herba, S.A.
Meyer Jerald L.
Nath Gary M.
Nath & Associates PLLC
Yeung George C.
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