JPH0965845A - Coagulation and molding of tofu (soybean curd) and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a production process for TOFU (soybean curd) which can produce TOFU of high quality and facilitates the TOFU-cutting operations and the device therefor. SOLUTION: A deep box 12 is arranged in a shallow box 11. The deep box is equipped with a packing means 15 at its bottom to prevent the soybean milk 16 from leaking out. The soybean milk 16 in the deep box 12 is stirred in the presence of a coagulating agent. During the stirring or after completion of the stirring, the side face frame 13 for the deep box 12 is smoothly and swiftly lifted up by a certain size. Thus, the soybean milk 16 in the deep box 12 spreads in the shallow box 11 and aged by allowing to stand statically for a prescribed time whereby TOFU is completed. In this invention, the soybean milk and the coagulating agent are sufficiently stirred in the deep box 12 to give the soybean curd of high quality. Additionally, since the soybean curd is produced in a shallow box 11, the cutting operations becomes easy.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for coagulating and molding tofu, which is suitable when applied to silk-cured tofu or soft tofu. More specifically, it relates to a method and a device for high-quality solidification and molding of tofu, which is easy to cut.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a method of coagulating soymilk in a deep box has been adopted as an example of a method for producing silken tofu or soft tofu. According to this manufacturing method, tofu is soft and elastic, and moreover, tasteless. High-quality tofu can be produced by using not only slow-acting coagulants such as sushi powder and GDL but also immediate-acting coagulants such as bittern (magnesium chloride, magnesium chloride-containing material). If a deep box is used, the soybean milk can be easily stirred, and soybean milk and the coagulant are sufficiently mixed to perform preferable coagulation. However, since the tofu manufactured in the deep box is large in length, width, and height, a complicated process is required to cut it to the size of the final tofu product. Automatic cutting packaging (auto pack) However, there is a problem in that it is time-consuming because it is mainly necessary to cut manually.

Highly suitable for autopacking is tofu coagulated and molded using a shallow box in which the dimension of one side of the final tofu product is the depth dimension. When the tofu is coagulated and molded using a shallow box, the double-catch method and the mash-in method are adopted. The two-fold approach method is to mix hot soymilk at 70 ℃ to 90 ℃ with a coagulant in a bucket in advance and immediately put it in a shallow box (flat box).
It is a method of pouring into. The bubbling method is a method in which a coagulant is dissolved in water at the bottom of a shallow box, and hot soy milk at 70 ° C to 90 ° C is poured into the bottom. However, in the method using such a shallow box, it is difficult to adjust the stirring conditions for adding a coagulant to soy milk to coagulate it, and there is a problem that it destroys the soft block of the protein that is about to coagulate. is there. Therefore, it was easy to remove water and only powdery tofu could be produced.

Further, tofu is produced by a filling tofu type, that is, a method in which low temperature soymilk and a coagulant are mixed and sealed in a container for packaging the final product of tofu, and reheated during the production of the tofu to coagulate. It may be done. This filling tofu type does not require cutting and packaging after coagulation and molding, but it makes the product look good on the skin, but the outside is heated more than necessary and it becomes astringent and easy to separate water, and the inside is soft and remains as soymilk. Become. As described above, it is difficult to produce high-quality tofu by using a shallow box or a filling tofu type.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks of the above-mentioned conventional methods and to provide a method and apparatus for solidifying and molding tofu, which is of high quality and easy to cut.

[0006]

The above object of the present invention is to place a deep box for stirring soy milk in a shallow box for molding tofu, and then add soy milk in the presence of a coagulant in the deep box. Stirring, during or after stirring, soybean milk is discharged from the vicinity of the bottom of the deep box into the shallow box and spread evenly, and then allowed to stand for aging, and a coagulation molding method of tofu, and coagulation A deep box for stirring soy milk is provided in a shallow box for tofu molding that can stir the soy milk after the agent is added and stirred, and the vicinity of the bottom of the deep box is configured to be openable and closable. This can be achieved by the characteristic tofu coagulation molding device. According to this method and apparatus, the coagulant and soy milk are sufficiently stirred in the deep box, so that high-quality tofu can be produced. Further, the soybean milk is discharged from the vicinity of the bottom of the deep box into the shallow box and allowed to stand and ripen to obtain soybean milk having a commercially available thickness, which facilitates the cutting work.

The molding or coagulation molding of tofu referred to in the present invention means adding a coagulant to soymilk to completely solidify it in a mold box. Further, the stirring of soymilk is an operation for uniformly mixing the soymilk and the coagulant when the coagulant is added to the soymilk and coagulated.

The shallow box referred to in the present invention is a mold box in which the depth of the soybean milk contained inside is the length of one side of the tofu final product, and the deep box refers to the length, width, and depth. Both dimensions are
A mold box whose length is greater than the length, width, and height of the final tofu product. Further, the shape of the shallow box and the deep box is not particularly limited, and may be round, quadrangular or any other shape, but quadrangular is preferable because it facilitates cutting of the molded tofu and processing of the mold box. Generally, the depth of the shallow box and the deep box is 0.1 to several cm deeper than the depth of the soy milk contained therein.

The structure of the deep box for stirring soy milk provided in the shallow box for molding tofu in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it can discharge soy milk into the shallow box from the vicinity of its bottom. Not done. It should be noted that the vicinity of the bottom of the deep box means a region including the bottom plate of the deep box and a part of the side surface close to the bottom plate. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 1, the bottom of a shallow box for tofu molding is shared, and a side frame is provided in the shallow box to form the structure. In order to discharge the soy milk into the shallow box from the bottom of the deep box having this structure, it can be achieved by raising the side frame or lowering the bottom of the shallow box. According to this structure, since the bottoms of the shallow box and the deep box are shared, the structure of the equipment is simplified and the cost can be reduced. Also, the soy milk released from the bottom of the deep box is released into the shallow box while contacting the shared bottom surface, so the soft block of protein that has solidified in the deep box hits the bottom of the shallow box. It won't be destroyed and you won't break this block.

The soy milk used in the present invention is for making silken tofu or soft tofu and has a solid content of 10% w.
It has a relatively high concentration of t or more and a protein concentration of 4% wt or more, and has a relatively low temperature of 50 to 70 ° C. If the soymilk temperature is less than 50 ° C, the coagulation reaction does not proceed and 70
If the temperature exceeds ℃, soy milk will solidify immediately after the addition of the coagulant in the deep box, which is not preferable. There is no particular limitation on the presence of the coagulant in the soymilk in the deep box, and the soymilk may be added after the coagulant has been put in the deep box in advance, but the coagulant is added after the soymilk is put in the deep box. Preferably.

The coagulant used in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it has an action of solidifying soymilk, but specific examples include bittern (magnesium chloride), sushi powder (calcium sulfate), and gluconodelta lactone ( GLD),
Calcium chloride, acid, natural bittern, seawater, salt and the like can be mentioned, among which bittern (magnesium chloride), sushi powder (calcium sulfate), gluconodelta lactone (GL
D) is preferable in that the quality of the coagulant is stable, and is more preferable in that the taste of the tofu that makes bittern is improved.

The method of stirring soy milk in the deep box is not particularly limited, but may be Kai type stirring, kitchen knife type stirring, one-two type stirring, screw type stirring or the like. When performing screw type agitation, controlling with a servo motor is more convenient than the conventional case where an inverter motor is used.
It is preferable because high-quality tofu can be stably produced. The stirring may be performed after adding the coagulant to the soy milk, but it is preferable to perform the stirring before adding the coagulant. The soybean milk may be discharged from the bottom of the deep box after the soybean milk has been stirred, but it is preferable that the soymilk is stirred.
However, in this case, it is necessary that the coagulant to be added be completely added and that the added coagulant and soy milk be uniformly and completely mixed.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the method and apparatus for solidifying tofu according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a basic embodiment of a tofu coagulation molding apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a tofu manufacturing procedure (1/2), and FIG. 3 is a tofu manufacturing procedure (2
2), FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the tofu coagulation molding apparatus of the second embodiment, FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the operation of the tofu coagulation molding apparatus of the second embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the tofu coagulation molding apparatus according to the third embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing the operation of the tofu coagulation molding apparatus according to the third embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, a coagulation-molding apparatus 1 for tofu according to the present invention forms a deep box 12 having a square cross section in a shallow box 11 having a rectangular cross section, for example. The side frame 13 is arranged. Shallow box 11 and deep box 1
2 has a common bottom surface. That is, the bottom of the deep box 12 uses the bottom of the shallow box 11. At the lower end of the side frame 13 of the deep box 12, a sealing portion 14 having a groove is provided,
Packing means 15 is provided in the groove of the sealing portion 14. The packing means 15 is provided to completely separate the shallow box 11 and the deep box 12.

Next, a method of producing tofu by the tofu coagulation molding apparatus 1 will be described. Here, first, the optimum conditions (stable conditions) for making high-quality tofu, that is, relatively low-temperature thick soymilk 16 (50 ° C to 70 ° C, solid content 10% wt or more, protein concentration 4% wt or more) ) Is placed in the deep box 12. The soybean milk 16 under such conditions is suitable for producing over-silk tofu and soft tofu. Soy milk 16
Then, the coagulant is put into the deep box 12 and the soy milk 16 is stirred.

Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the soybean milk 16 is stirred or after being stirred, the side frame 13 of the deep box 12 is slightly lifted, in this example, the height t. Then, the soy milk 16 in the deep box 12 flows out from the lower end of the side frame 13, and the soy milk 16 spreads uniformly in the shallow box 11. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the side frame 13 of the deep box 12 is immediately further pulled up so that the soybean milk 16 in the shallow box 11 can be completely pulled out. And soy milk 16 in shallow box 11 for a predetermined time
The tofu is completed by aging it. At this time, since the side frame 13 of the deep box 12 is not in the soy milk 16,
The solidified and molded tofu makes clean tofu without any irregularities or breaks.

When the side frame 13 of the deep box 12 is first pulled up by the dimension t, the soy milk (semi-solidified product) 16 that has softly solidified and flows out from the bottom of the side frame 13 into the shallow box 11 is not broken. Try to pull up quickly while holding down the flow. by this,
It is possible to stably produce high-quality tofu with water retention and clean skin.

In the above-described basic embodiment, the case where the deep box 12 is arranged in the center of the shallow box 11 has been described. However, as in the tofu coagulation molding apparatus 2 shown in FIG.
It is also possible to arrange the deep box 12 at the end of 1. In this case, when the side plate 11a of the shallow box 11 is raised and shared with the deep box 12 and the soybean milk 16 in the deep box 12 is spread in the shallow box 11, as shown in FIG. Only the side frame 13a is appropriately pulled up. This tofu coagulation molding device 2
The configuration is simple and the cost can be reduced. Further, like the tofu coagulation molding apparatus 3 shown in FIG. 6, the deep box 12 is arranged in the shallow box 11 so as to float by a predetermined height (several mm to 1 cm), and as shown in FIG. It is also possible to pull out the bottom plate 12a of the deep box 12 and spread the soy milk 16 in the deep box 12 into the shallow box 11. In this case, after all the soy milk 16 in the deep box 12 has spread into the shallow box 11, immediately the deep box 12 is moved to the soy milk 16
Completely pull from. If the height from the bottom of the shallow box 11 to the bottom of the deep box 12 exceeds a predetermined value, a soft block of protein that is about to coagulate in the deep box will be struck on the bottom of the shallow box. It may be broken, resulting in poor quality tofu.

[0019]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the following examples. It is easily understood by those skilled in the art that the components, ratios, operation sequences, etc. shown here can be changed without departing from the spirit of the present invention. [Example 1] Using the tofu coagulation molding apparatus 1 shown in Fig. 1, the tofu was produced under the following conditions. The results are shown in Table 1.

Shallow box 11: width 400 mm, length 500 m
m, depth 150 mm Deep box 12: width 200 mm, length 400 mm, depth 320
mm Soy milk 16: temperature 60 ° C., solid content 11% wt, protein concentration 5% wt, volume 22 liters Coagulant: magnesium chloride (MgCl · 6H ₂ O) 50% + calcium sulfate (CaSO ₄ · 2H ₂ O) 50% Is added to the time difference type. 33 g of calcium sulfate was dispersed in 250 ml of water, and 33 g of magnesium chloride was dissolved in 33 ml of water. Stirring method: screw type Lifting method of the side frame 13 of the deep box 12: a coagulant is added to the soy milk 16 and stirred, and the deep box 12 is t 1 second before the end of stirring.
= 10 mm, the semi-solidified product was softly spread in the shallow box 11. Aging time: 1 hour Further, Comparative Example 1 was performed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that only the shallow box 11 was used, and under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that only the deep box 12 was used. What was done was designated as Comparative Example 2.

[0021]

[Table 1]

As can be seen from Table 1, in the conventional production method using only the shallow box (Comparative Example 1), the water separation rate of tofu is high, the taste is slightly brittle, watery and the sweetness is slightly reduced.
Further, in the conventional production method using only the deep box (Comparative Example 2), the water separation rate of tofu is low, and the taste is soft and crispy and the sweetness becomes strong. In the production method of the present invention (Example 1), high-quality tofu was produced in the same manner as the conventional production method using only the deep box (Comparative Example 2). On the other hand, in Comparative Example 2, since only the deep box is used, high quality tofu can be produced,
The cutting work of tofu after completion is troublesome. On the contrary,
According to the production method of the present invention (Example 1), since tofu can be produced in the shallow box, the cutting operation is easy while having high quality. In the above-described embodiment, the side frame 13 of the deep box 12 is pulled up to spread the soy milk 16 inside the shallow box 11, but the deep box 1
The soybean milk 16 inside can also be spread in the shallow box 11 by holding the second side frame 13 in the same position and lowering the shallow box 11.

[0023]

As described above, according to the method and apparatus for coagulating and molding tofu of the present invention, a deep box for stirring soy milk is provided in a shallow box for tofu molding, and a coagulant is contained in the deep box. Stir the soy milk in the presence of, during or after the stirring, soy milk is released from the bottom of the deep box and spread evenly in the shallow box, and then aged for standing, so use the deep box. High-quality tofu can be produced by sufficient stirring, and the tofu is completed in a shallow box, so the cutting operation becomes easy. Also, by sharing the bottom of the shallow box and the bottom of the deep box, the configuration is simple and the cost can be reduced, and the soft block of the protein that is about to coagulate in the deep box can be struck on the bottom of the shallow box. In addition, since this block is not broken, it is possible to produce higher quality tofu.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a basic tofu coagulation molding apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing procedure (1/2) of tofu.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing procedure (2/2) of tofu.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a tofu coagulation molding apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the operation of the tofu coagulation molding apparatus according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a tofu coagulation molding apparatus according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing the operation of the tofu coagulation molding apparatus according to the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2, 3 Tofu coagulation molding apparatus 11 Shallow box 12 Deep box 13 Side frame 16 Soy milk

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. After placing a deep box for stirring soy milk in a shallow box for molding tofu, soy milk is stirred in the presence of a coagulant in the deep box, and during or after the stirring. A method for coagulating and molding tofu, characterized in that soybean milk is discharged from the vicinity of the bottom of a deep box into the shallow box, uniformly spread, and then allowed to stand for aging. 2. A side frame for forming a deep box for stirring soy milk is positioned in the shallow box for molding tofu, the bottom surface of the shallow box is shared, and then the side frame is formed. Stir the soy milk in the presence of a coagulant in a deep box and raise the side frame or lower the bottom of the shallow box during or after the stirring to discharge the soy milk into the shallow box and uniformly. A method for coagulating and molding tofu, which comprises coagulating and aging after spreading. 3. A deep box for stirring soy milk is provided in a shallow box for tofu molding in which a soy milk after the coagulant is added and stirred can be allowed to stand and mature, and the vicinity of the bottom of the deep box can be freely opened and closed. A solidification molding device for tofu, which is characterized in that 4. A deep box for stirring soybean milk is formed by sharing the bottom of the soybean box in a shallow box for tofu molding, in which the soybean milk after the coagulant is added and stirred is allowed to stand and age. And a side frame for allowing the side frame to move between a position where the end of the side frame abuts the bottom of the shallow box and a position where the soy milk is retreated during stationary ripening. An apparatus for coagulating and molding tofu characterized by being processed.