Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Cooling – freezing – or treating cooled or frozen product,...
Reexamination Certificate
1995-08-21
2001-04-17
Yeung, George C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Cooling, freezing, or treating cooled or frozen product,...
C062S063000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06217928
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process of freezing sushi, boiled rice or processed food with boiled rice as the main component.
Among varieties of sushi which can be frozen by a process according to the invention is nigiri-sushi (or edomae-sushi)
1
as shown in FIG.
19
(A). A piece of this food is prepared by forming an adequate amount of boiled rice
1
a
with vinegar into a mouthful-sized oval piece, putting a piece of fish, shellfish, shrimp, etc.
1
b
on this rice piece, and then adjusting the overall shape of the food by lightly gripping the same. Another variety of sushi is oshi-sushi
3
as shown in FIG.
19
(B). This food is prepared by filling a rectangular wooden frame of about 20 cm×10 cm with boiled rice with vinegar
3
a
, putting a piece or pieces of fish, shellfish, shrimp, etc.
3
b
on the rice, pressing the resultant food from above with a wooden lid for shape adjustment, and then cutting the food into mouthful-sized pieces. A further variety of sushi is inari-sushi
4
as shown in FIG.
19
(C). This food is prepared by using aburage (or fried sliced tofu)
4
b
prepared by frying rectangular sliced tofu in oil after water draining. Each aburage piece
4
b
is cut into two halves, and these aburage halves are boiled using sweet shoyu. Then, each boiled aburage half is opened from the cut side into a sack-like form, and then boiled rice
4
a
with vinegar is charged into the open boiled aburage half. In this way, a piece of inari-sushi is obtained. A further variety of sushi is maki-sushi or norimaki
12
as shown in FIG.
19
(B). As shown, a piece of this food has a circular sectional profile. This variety may also include futomaki
13
. This variety comprises a central ingredient part
12
b
,
13
b
which may be a piece or pieces of fish, baked egg, cucumber or like vegetables, etc., a boiled rice part
12
a
,
13
a
surrounding the ingredient part and having a predetermined thickness, and paper-like toasted layer
12
c
,
13
c
surrounding the boiled rice part. (The norimaki
12
and futomaki
13
are different in that in the norimaki
12
only a single kind of ingredient is used for the central ingredient part, while the futomaki
13
uses a plurality of different ingredients, the former being about 3 cm in diameter and the latter being about 5 cm.)
Particularly, the invention concerns a process of freezing sushi, which permits substantially the same quality as non-frozen sushi to be obtained after natural thawing.
Further, the invention is applicable to a process of freezing boiled rice or processed food, with boiled rice as a main component, permitting substantially the same quality as non-frozen food to be obtained after natural thawing. Among varieties of this type of food, there is boiled cleaned or uncleaned rice as shown in FIG.
20
(A). The boiled cleaned rice
5
is prepared by boiling cleaned rice or white rice grains, which are obtained by polishing off surface portions of uncleaned rice after hulling. The boiled uncleaned rice is prepared by boiling uncleaned rice in a high pressure oven. A further variety of the food is sekihan
6
as shown in FIG.
20
(B). This food is prepared by boiling or steaming glutinous rice with azuki bean, making the rice itself pink. A further variety of the food is rice cake
7
as shown in FIG.
20
(C). This food is prepared by squeezing steamed glutinous rice into a grain-free state. A further variety of the food is onigiri
8
utilizing boiled rice as shown in FIG.
21
(A). This food is a substantially triangular piece of boiled rice
8
a
formed with both hands or with a wooden frame. If desired, pickled fish egg, pickled plum, etc. may be provided inside. Further, onigiri may have a cover of a paper-like layer
8
b.
A further variety of the food is takikomi gohan (combination boiled rice)
9
as shown in FIG.
21
(B). This is prepared by boiling rice together with sliced meat, vegetables, fish, shellfish, etc. and also with shoyu or like seasoning. A further variety is fried rice prepared by frying boiled rice with slices of meat, vegetables, fish, shellfish,. etc. A further variety of the food is okowa (combination steamed glutinous rice) similar to the takikomi gohan
9
. This food is prepared by steaming glutinous rice together with meat, vegetables, fish, shellfish, etc. and also with shoyu or like seasoning. Sometimes, the materials are steamed while they are wrapped in bamboo bud skin. A further variety of the food is pilaf which is prepared by boiling rice together with meat, vegetables, fish, shellfish, etc. and also with olive oil, Safran or like seasoning. A further variety of the food is ohagi
11
as shown in FIG.
22
(A). This food is a mouthful ball-like boiled glutinous rice piece
11
a
in sweet boiled azuki bean
11
b
. A further variety of the food is chirashi as shown in FIG.
21
(C), which is prepared by mixing boiled rice with vinegar and sliced fish, baked egg, vegetables such as cucumber, etc. A further variety of the food is beaf bowl or other bowls, which is prepared by filling a bowl with rice and then putting cooked meat, egg, curry, etc. on the rice. There are further varieties of the processed food, the volume of which is mainly occupied by boiled rice, for instance curry rice.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among recent frozen foods are fresh foods and cooked foods, and boiled rice, rice cake, sushi and the like are not exceptions. These conventional frozen foods, however, have their texture destroyed when they are frozen. Therefore, when they are thawed, a great deal of liquid is produced, giving rise to great differences of smoothness and sense of touch compared to fresh foods.
Particularly, frozen nigiri-sushi presents such problems as escapement of vinegar from the rice ball part, which is made from boiled rice with vinegar and carries a piece of fish or the like, hard rice grains due to loss of stickiness, discoloring of ingredients, loss of taste, etc.
Also, boiled rice or processed food with boiled rice as a main component, when frozen and thawed in the usual way, results in hard rice grains due to loss of stickiness and therefore in unsatisfactory taste, sense of eating, etc.
To solve the above problems, various processes of freezing sushi or boiled rice or the like have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 61-260843 (Prior Art Example 1) shows a freezing process in which maki-sushi is frozen quickly in a state of being wrapped in transparent film to a temperature of −40 to −70° C.
Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 2-100643 (Prior Art Example 2) shows a method of manufacturing frozen sushi in which washed rice is boiled while adding vinegar to additive liquid for extraction of branched cyclodextrine for vinegar escapement prevention and organic phosphate, amino acid, etc. for preventing the hardening and oxidation of the rice to obtain boiled rice with vinegar. Sushi is then prepared with the boiled rice and ingredients, and the sushi thus prepared is frozen momentarily in contact with liquid nitrogen gas in a short period of time (i.e., 18 to 20 min.).
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 5-38266 (Prior Art Example 3) shows a process of producing frozen boiled rice including frozen sushi, in which rice boiled in the usual way is cooled down to 25 to 40° C., formed to a predetermined shape, frozen quickly in a freezer preliminarily cooled down to −40 to −50° C. by blowing liquified gas against the rice while maintaining a constant reduced pressure in the freezer, and then frozen continually by passing a maximum ice generation temperature range in a short period of time (i.e., 3 min.), thus obtaining substantially the same temperature of the superficial and central parts of the formed rice.
Prior Art Example 1, however, is a special process of freezing maki-sushi and can not be applied to nigiri-sushi with a piece of fish, shellfish, cooked egg (hereinafter referred to as sushi raw materials) put on a riceball. Bedsi
Mikawa Noboru
Narumiya Tadaoki
Evenson, McKeown, Edwards & Lenahan P.L.L.C.
Mayekawa Mfg. Co., Ltd.
Yeung George C.
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