JPH10248514A - Freeze-dried tofu with pattern and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a production method of a freeze-dried tofu (soybean curd) which is provided with a desired printed pattern on the surface in a swelled state at the time of being impregnated with water. SOLUTION: A pattern such as characters, graphic using a coloring material obtained by mixing a pigment material and binding agent is printed on the surface of the frozen tofu 14 in a not-dried state which is obtained by freezing a raw tofu so as to freeze-transform, then thawing and dewatering it. Next, the frozen tofu 14 in the not-dried state is dried.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a patterned frozen tofu and a method for producing the same, and more particularly to a patterned frozen tofu having a pattern such as characters and figures formed on a porous surface and a method for producing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It has been attempted to increase the commercial value of frozen tofu by applying a branding to the surface of frozen tofu. However, when branding is applied to dried frozen tofu, the portion of the frozen tofu on which the heating mark is pressed becomes black. At the same time as burning, the protein smells extremely unpleasant smell. In addition, if the frozen tofu after drying is branded, the fox-colored portion spreads to the periphery of the branding and the branding becomes unclear. For this reason, in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 59-266908, the applicant has frozen and denatured raw tofu, thawed and dehydrated, and imprinted the surface of the frozen tofu in an undried state. Later, he proposed a method for producing frozen tofu by drying frozen tofu.

[0003]

According to the method for producing frozen tofu, since water is contained in the frozen tofu, when performing the branding, the frozen tofu portion pressed with the heating mark is kept in a fixed state until it becomes in a state of burning. Time is secured. Therefore, it is sufficient that the heating mark is separated from the frozen tofu surface until the burned state is reached, and the burning mark can be stably applied without being brought into the burned state. However, it has been found that the width of the temperature of the heating mark and the timing of releasing the heating mark are extremely narrow, and it is difficult to control the temperature of the heating mark and the like. Moreover, the color of the branding is only fox,
Because of lack of change in color and the like and lack of interest, frozen tofu with a color pattern is desired. For this reason, the present inventors attempted to impart a color pattern to the dried frozen tofu by printing, and since the surface of the dried frozen tofu was porous and uneven, the color pattern was uniformly printed on the surface of the frozen tofu. It was very difficult to perform the printing, and it was found that the periphery of the printed color pattern was blurred and unclear.

[0004] Dried frozen tofu, when cooked,
Since it is used in a swollen state by immersion in water, the dimensions of the frozen tofu are different between the dry state and the swollen state. Further, the shrinkage rate of the dried frozen tofu (the swelling rate of the swollen frozen tofu) may be different in the portion of the frozen tofu, and the color pattern on the surface of the swollen frozen tofu is different from the desired color pattern printed on the surface of the dried frozen tofu. Sometimes. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a frozen tofu having a desired pattern attached to the surface of a swollen frozen tofu when a dried frozen tofu having a pattern printed by printing is impregnated with water to obtain a swollen state. It is to provide a manufacturing method thereof.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems As a result of investigations to solve the above problems, the present inventors have frozen and denatured raw tofu, thawed and dehydrated, and obtained an undried swollen frozen tofu obtained by dehydration. By printing a color pattern on the surface of the dried tofu, it is possible to print a clear color pattern uniformly on the surface of the swollen frozen tofu, and when the obtained dried frozen tofu is impregnated with water to obtain a swollen frozen tofu, The present inventors have found that a desired pattern is provided on the surface of the present invention and arrived at the present invention. That is,
The present invention is a patterned frozen tofu obtained by printing a pattern such as letters and graphics on the surface of a frozen tofu in a hydrated state, and drying the colored raw material for forming the pattern on a porous frozen tofu surface with a binder. Characterized by a patterned frozen tofu. In addition, the present invention provides a method in which raw tofu is frozen and denatured, and then thawed and dehydrated. And printing a pattern such as a figure and then drying the undried frozen tofu.

In the present invention, as a binder for forming a pattern, it absorbs water existing on the surface of frozen tofu in an undried state and develops adhesiveness, and becomes hardly soluble or insoluble in boiling water in a drying step. The use of a denaturing binder and the use of a coloring material that is hardly soluble or insoluble in boiling water can prevent discoloration of the pattern during cooking. Especially,
By using a protein binder such as dried egg white that absorbs water existing on the surface of frozen tofu in an undried state, develops adhesiveness, and denatures insoluble in boiling water in the heating and drying step, as a binder. In addition, the protein binder is bound to the protein tissue forming the frozen tofu, and the pigment raw material can be firmly fixed to the frozen tofu. Further, it is preferable to use a natural coloring material such as dried vegetables and dried seaweed as the coloring material from the viewpoint of food safety and the like.

[0007] In the present invention, the surface of the swollen frozen tofu, which is swelled by being hydrated, is printed with a pattern such as a character or a figure, and then dried. Since the surface of the swollen frozen tofu is substantially flat, a color pattern can be uniformly printed on the surface of the swollen frozen tofu. Furthermore, even when the shrinkage ratios generated during the change from swollen frozen tofu to dried frozen tofu are partially different, when the dried frozen tofu is immersed in water to form swollen frozen tofu, a desired pattern appears on the surface of the swollen frozen tofu. Further, since the coloring material forming the pattern is bound to the surface of the frozen tofu by the binder, it is possible to prevent the coloring material from falling off the surface of the dried frozen tofu during transportation or the like.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of frozen tofu according to the present invention, and a dried frozen tofu 10 is a patterned frozen tofu having a maple pattern 12, 12,...
The maple pattern 12 is formed by the dried egg white used as a binder, and the dried hijiki powder as a pigment material is dried tofu 10
It is bound to the surface of. Since the dried hijiki powder is black, the surface of the dried yellow tofu 10
The black maple pattern 12 is drawn vividly.

In producing the patterned frozen tofu shown in FIG. 1, first, an undried frozen tofu is obtained. This undried frozen tofu is, like in the case of producing normal frozen tofu, cut raw tofu to a predetermined size and then freeze in a freezer,
After aging for about 14 to 20 days to obtain a unique sponge structure (porous structure), it can be obtained by thawing frozen tofu and dehydrating with a pressing machine or a centrifuge. The obtained undried frozen tofu contains about 50 to 60% of water.

In the present invention, a pattern such as a character or a graphic is printed on the surface of a frozen tofu in an undried state obtained by a dehydration treatment using a coloring material in which a coloring material and a binder are mixed. By using a binder capable of exhibiting adhesive strength due to water present on the surface of the frozen tofu in an undried state, the pigment material can be bound to the surface of the frozen tofu. As such a binder, cooking of frozen tofu can be performed by using a binder that exhibits adhesive strength due to water existing on the surface of frozen tofu in an undried state and that is hardly soluble or insoluble in boiling water in the drying step. It can prevent discoloration of the pattern inside,
Bright patterns can be left on the surface of cooked frozen tofu. In particular, in the printing process, it is possible to express the adhesive force by absorbing water present on the surface of the frozen tofu in an undried state, and in the drying process, by using a protein binder that is hardly soluble or insoluble in boiling water, The protein structure of the frozen tofu is bound to the binder, and the discoloration of the pattern can be further prevented. As the protein binder, powders of dried egg white, gluten, casein and the like can be used. Above all, the dried egg white powder, in the heating drying process,
Since it is insoluble in boiling water, it is most suitable as a binder.

On the other hand, by using a coloring material which is insoluble in boiling water, a clear pattern can be formed on the surface of the cooked frozen tofu without bleeding of the coloring material during cooking. As a dye material insoluble in such boiling water,
From the viewpoint of food safety, use of dried seaweed powder such as dried hijiki (black) and dried seaweed (green), dried vegetable powder such as dried pumpkin (yellow), and natural pigment materials such as matcha (green) Is also preferred. Further, since such a natural coloring material is insoluble in room temperature water, the coloring material does not seep out in the printing step, and a clear pattern can be formed on the surface of the finally obtained frozen tofu. However, for a color that is difficult with a natural pigment raw material, for example, for a red color, a synthetic colorant that is safe to add to food such as food coloring may be used as a pigment raw material. When using such a pigment material, particularly a natural pigment material such as dried seaweed, it is convenient to pulverize it with a pot mill or the like and use it as a fine powder when printing a pattern on the surface of frozen tofu in an undried state. .

The coloring material and the binder can be mixed at an appropriate mixing ratio, and it is preferable to experimentally determine the optimum mixing ratio in advance. When dried hijiki powder and dried egg white are used as the pigment raw material and the binder, it is preferable that the mixing ratio (dry hijiki / dried egg white) becomes 1/2. In this way, when printing a pattern on the surface of frozen tofu in an undried state using a coloring material composed of a pigment raw material and a binder mixed in an appropriate mixing ratio, the coloring material is drawn with a paintbrush or the like. However, as shown in FIG. 2, printing is preferably performed using a mold.

In FIG. 2, frozen tofu 12 in an undried state
(Hereinafter may be referred to as swollen frozen tofu 12) is placed on a conveyor (not shown). The conveyor stops when the swollen frozen tofu 12 reaches a predetermined position, prints a pattern on the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12, and is driven again to convey the swollen frozen tofu 12 to the drying process. Here, as a mold used for printing a pattern on the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12, a mold in which rectangular metal frames 16, 18, and 20 are laminated can be suitably used. Of the formwork, a screen 22 made of a fine mesh (about 120 mesh) is stretched on the upper frame body 16, and a cutout pattern 24, 24. 2
4 are deployed. Further, only two frame portions 28 are formed on the lower frame 20.

A pattern is printed by bringing the lower surface of the lower frame body 20 constituting the mold into close contact with the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12. At this time, the coloring material sprinkled on the screen 22 of the upper frame 16 is rotated while rotating the screen 22 in the direction of arrow A.
A brush 32 is used to uniformly scrape off the eyes of the screen 22 with the brush-equipped roller 30 and to remove excess colorant from the receiver 32 provided on the short side of the rectangular upper frame 16.
Drop. The coloring material dropped in the receiver 32 is reused. The coloring material scraped off from the eyes of the screen 22 is the cutout patterns 24, 24 of the pattern 26 of the middle frame 18.
··· falls onto the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12 and absorbs moisture, and the binder material exhibits glue-like adhesive strength. As described above, the binder having the glue-like adhesive strength adheres the coloring material to the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12 to form a pattern. The lower frame 20 is for forming a space between the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12 and the pattern 26 so that the pattern 26 of the middle frame 18 does not contact the surface of the swollen tofu 12. When the pattern 26 comes into contact with the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12, the pattern 26 may be torn and a hygienic problem may occur.

The swollen frozen tofu 12 having a pattern formed of a coloring material on its surface is sprayed with mist as needed to condense the coloring material, and then conveyed to a drying step by a conveyor. In the drying step, the swollen frozen tofu 12 is heated to 110 to 120 ° C.
Heat to dryness at the temperature described above to obtain dried frozen tofu. In such a drying step, the binder that absorbs water and adheres the dye material to the surface of the frozen tofu by glue-like adhesive force is dried to bind the dye material to the surface of the dried frozen tofu. In particular, if a coloring agent using a protein binder such as dried egg white is used, the water-soluble binder is denatured insoluble in boiling water during heating and drying, and is bound to a protein tissue forming frozen tofu. In addition, a coloring material insoluble in boiling water can be firmly fixed to frozen tofu. For this reason, a clear pattern appears on the surface of the frozen tofu after cooking without falling off during cooking. In addition, since a multicolored pattern can be formed on the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12 by using a plurality of types of pigment raw materials, it is possible to provide, for example, a frozen tofu in which patterns of different colors such as a bamboo bamboo plum or a shop name are drawn. In FIG. 2, two types of patterns are applied to the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12 and heating and drying are performed. The obtained dried frozen tofu may be bisected at a dotted line shown in FIG. Cooking or the like may be performed.

In the above description, a coloring material in which a coloring material which is insoluble in boiling water and a binder which is modified insoluble or insoluble in boiling water in the drying step is used as the coloring material. After the drying step, a coloring material using a binder soluble in boiling water may be used. Because the pattern formed on the surface of frozen tofu by such coloring material disappears during the cooking of frozen tofu,
For example, starchy binders and polysaccharide binders can be suitably used as the binder soluble in boiling water, which is preferably used for indicating the date of manufacture and the manufacturer. When the powder of the binder is added to the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12, the powder of the binder absorbs moisture and develops a glue-like adhesive force, so that the coloring material adheres to the surface of the swollen frozen tofu 12. Thereafter, by drying the glue-like binder, the pigment raw material can be bound to the surface of the frozen tofu. In this case, a coloring material that is soluble in boiling water may be used as the coloring material. In addition, even if the dried frozen tofu with no pattern is mixed with water to form a swollen frozen tofu, the pattern is formed with a coloring material obtained by mixing a coloring material and a binder, and then dried, the dried tofu is shown in FIG. You can get frozen tofu.

[0017]

According to the present invention, a pattern can be formed on the surface of frozen tofu by printing.
Various patterns, such as multicolored patterns, can be easily applied to the surface of the frozen tofu without being limited to the fox-colored pattern. For this reason,
It is also possible to improve the added value of frozen tofu.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of frozen tofu according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a method for producing frozen tofu according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 frozen tofu 12 patterns 14 undried frozen tofu

Claims (9)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A frozen tofu with a pattern in which a pattern such as a character or a graphic is printed on the surface of a frozen tofu in a water-containing state and dried, wherein a pigment material for forming the pattern is formed on a porous frozen tofu surface by a binder. Frozen tofu with a pattern that has been established. 2. The patterned frozen tofu according to claim 1, wherein the binder and the coloring material forming the pattern are hardly soluble or insoluble in boiling water. 3. The frozen tofu with a pattern according to claim 1, wherein the binder is a protein binder such as egg white which is denatured insoluble in boiling water. 4. The frozen tofu with a pattern according to claim 1, wherein the coloring material is a natural coloring material such as vegetables and seaweed. 5. A method in which raw tofu is frozen and denatured, then thawed and dehydrated, and the surface of an undried frozen tofu is obtained by using a coloring material obtained by mixing a coloring material and a binder with a colorant. A method for producing a patterned frozen tofu, comprising printing a pattern such as a figure, and then drying the undried frozen tofu. 6. A binding material which absorbs water present on the surface of frozen tofu in an undried state to exhibit adhesive strength and is modified to be hardly soluble or insoluble in boiling water in a drying step. A method for producing a patterned frozen tofu according to claim 5. 7. As a binder, protein binding of dried egg white or the like which absorbs water present on the surface of frozen tofu in an undried state and expresses adhesiveness, and denatures insoluble in boiling water in a heating and drying step. The method for producing a frozen tofu with a pattern according to claim 5 or 6, wherein a material is used. 8. The method according to claim 5, wherein a coloring material insoluble in boiling water is used as the coloring material. 9. The method for producing a patterned frozen tofu according to claim 5, wherein a natural coloring material such as dried vegetables or dried seaweed is used as the coloring material.