BATTER FOR FRIED FOOD

Abstract

Provided are a fried food having a favorable appearance and an improved coating texture, and a batter for producing the same. The batter for fried foods contains a flaky starch lump. The starch lump contains a pregelatinized starch, and the flaky starch lump has a thickness of 100 μm to 1000 μm.

Claims

1. A batter, comprising a flaky starch lump, wherein the flaky starch lump comprises a pregelatinized starch, the flaky starch lump has a thickness of 100 μm to 1000 μm, and the flaky starch lump has a liquid component of less than 20%.

2. The batter according to claim 1, wherein the flaky starch lump has a degree of pregelatinization of 50% or more.

3. The batter according to claim 1, comprising 5 to 100% by mass of the flaky starch lump.

4. The batter according to claim 1, wherein the flaky starch lump contains a fraction that does not pass through a sieve having an opening of 400 μm and passes through a sieve having an opening of 2000 μm in an amount of 50% by mass or more in the total mass of the flaky starch lump.

5. The batter according to claim 1, wherein the starch is an above-ground starch.

6. The batter according to claim 1, which is in a powder form.

7. (canceled)

8. A method for producing a fried food, the method comprising: attaching a batter comprising a flaky starch lump to a food ingredient, and deep-firing the food ingredient to which the batter is attached, wherein the flaky starch lump comprises a pregelatinized starch, the flaky starch lump has a thickness of 100 μm to 1000 μm, and the flaky starch lump has a liquid component of less than 20%.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the flaky starch lump has a degree of pregelatinization of 50% or more.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the batter comprising 5 to 100% by mass of the flaky starch lump.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein the flaky starch lump contains a fraction that does not pass through a sieve having an opening of 400 μm and passes through a sieve having an opening of 2000 μm in an amount of 50% by mass or more in the total mass of the flaky starch lump.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein the starch is an above-ground starch.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein the batter is in a powder form.

Description

EXAMPLES

[0038] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples. However, the present invention is not limited to the following Examples.

Test Example 1

[0039] (Preparation of Flaky Starch Lump)

[0040] To 100 parts by mass of commercially available cornstarch (degree of pregelatinization 2%), 100 to 400 parts by mass of water was added to prepare a slurry-like starch solution. This solution was spread on a drum dryer heated to 130 to 170° C. so as to form a thin film, and heated and dried while the drum was rotated to form a thin film-shaped starch sheet. The dried starch sheet was peeled off from the drum, and the thickness of the starch sheet was measured. The starch sheet was crushed, and then the crushed sheet was sieved using a sieve having an opening of a predetermined size. A fraction remaining on the sieve was collected to obtain a flaky starch lump. At this time, by variously changing the starch concentration of the slurry-like starch solution to change the thickness of the starch sheet and changing the size of an opening of a sieve to be used, flaky starch lumps having the thicknesses illustrated in Table 1 were produced. The degree of pregelatinization was measured by a BAP method using a part of each of the obtained flaky starch lumps.

[0041] (Preparation of Batter)

[0042] 50% by mass of the prepared flaky starch lump and 50% by mass of commercially available wheat flour (weak flour) were mixed to prepare batters for fried foods of Production Examples 1 to 6 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 as illustrated in Table 1. As Reference, a batter made of wheat flour was prepared.

[0043] (Production of Fried Food)

[0044] Chicken thigh was cut into pieces each having 25 g and seasoned to prepare a food ingredient. The batter prepared above was sprinkled on this food ingredient and attached thereto. The food ingredient with the batter was deep-fried with salad oil heated to 175° C. for four minutes to produce deep-fried chicken. The produced fried food was evaluated for appearance and texture of coating after rough heat was removed from the fried food. In the evaluation, 10 specialized panelists scored the appearance of the fried food and the texture of the coating according to the following evaluation criteria, and an average of the scores of the 10 panelists was calculated. The evaluation results are illustrated in Table 1.

[0045] Evaluation criteria

[0046] (Appearance)

[0047] 5: The entire surface of coating is densely covered with white and fine sword-shaped flakes, and the coating has a very dry appearance that does not make a consumer feel that the coating is greasy. Very good.

[0048] 4: The surface of coating is covered with white and fine sword-shaped flakes, and the coating has a dry appearance that does not make a consumer feel that the coating is greasy. Good.

[0049] 3: The surface of coating has a few white and fine sword-shaped flakes, and the coating has a slightly dry appearance with less greasiness.

[0050] 2: The surface of coating has almost no white and fine sword-shaped flakes, and the coating has a wet appearance that makes a consumer feel that the coating is greasy.

Poor.

[0051] 1: The surface of coating has no white and fine sword-shaped flakes, and the coating has a very wet appearance that makes a consumer strongly feel that the coating is greasy. Very poor.

[0052] (Texture of Coating)

[0053] 5: Very good because the coating is very light and crispy, and does not make a consumer feel at all that the coating is greasy.

[0054] 4: Good because the coating is light and crispy, and does not make a consumer feel that the coating is greasy.

[0055] 3: The coating is slightly crispy, and makes a consumer slightly feel that the coating is greasy.

[0056] 2: Poor because the coating has no crispness, is slightly hard or slightly sticky, and makes a consumer feel that the coating is greasy.

[0057] 1: Very poor because the coating has no crispness, is hard or sticky, and makes a consumer strongly feel that the coating is greasy.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Composition of batter Production Example Comparative Example (% by mass) 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 Reference Flaky starch lump 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 — (cornstarch) Thickness (μm) 100 180 250 450 800 1000 60 1200 — Degree of 56 58 61 75 79 82 55 85 — pregelatinization (%) Wheat flour 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 100 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Appearance 3.9 4.2 4.5 4.4 4.1 3.8 2.7 3.2 2.0 Texture of coating 3.6 4.0 4.3 4.5 4.2 3.9 2.8 2.6 2.4

Test Example 2

[0058] In a similar procedure to Test Example 1, except that the raw material starch was changed from cornstarch to the starches illustrated in Table 2, flaky starch lumps were obtained. The degree of pregelatinization was 60% or more for each of the obtained starch lumps. Using the obtained flaky starch lumps, the batters for foods illustrated in Table 2 were prepared by a similar procedure to Test Example 1, and deep-fried chicken was produced using the batters and evaluated. The evaluation results are illustrated in Table 2 together with the results of Production Example 4.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Composition of batter Production Example (% by mass) 4 7 8 9 10 11 Flaky starch lump (Raw material starch) Above-ground starch Cornstarch 50 Waxy cornstarch 50 Wheat starch 50 Rice starch 50 Under-ground starch Potato starch 50 Tapioca starch 50 Thickness (μm) 450 450 450 450 450 450 Wheat flour 50 50 50 50 50 50 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 Appearance 4.4 4.1 4.3 4.0 3.8 3.7 Texture of coating 4.5 4.4 4.4 4.5 4.1 4.0

Test Example 3

[0059] In a similar procedure to Test Example 1, except that the temperature of the drum dryer was changed, flaky starch lumps having the degrees of pregelatinization illustrated in Table 3 were obtained. Using the obtained flaky starch lumps, the batters for fried foods illustrated in Table 3 were prepared by a similar procedure to Test Example 1, and deep-fried chicken was produced using the batters and evaluated. The evaluation results are illustrated in Table 3 together with the results of Production Examples 3 and 4.

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Composition of batter Production Example (% by mass) 3 4 12 13 14 15 Flaky starch lump 50 50 50 50 50 50 (cornstarch) Thickness (μm) 250 450 250 450 250 450 Degree of 61 75 53 67 68 82 pregelatinization (%) Wheat flour 50 50 50 50 50 50 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 Appearance 4.5 4.4 4.2 4.2 4.6 4.6 Texture of coating 4.3 4.5 3.9 4.0 4.5 4.7

Test Example 4

[0060] The flaky starch lump (cornstarch, thickness 450 μm, degree of pregelatinization 75%) used in Production Example 4 and wheat flour were blended at the compositions illustrated in Table 4 to prepare batters for fried foods. Using the obtained batters, deep-fried chicken was produced by a similar procedure to Test Example 1 and evaluated. The evaluation results are illustrated in Table 4 together with the results of Production Example 4.

TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 Composition of batter Production Example (% by mass) 16 17 18 19 4 20 21 22 Flaky starch lump 3 5 10 15 50 70 90 100 Wheat flour 97 95 90 85 50 30 10 — Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Appearance 3.4 3.7 3.9 4.1 4.4 4.2 4.0 3.9 Texture of coating 3.6 3.8 3.9 4.2 4.5 4.3 4.0 3.8

Test Example 5

[0061] A flaky starch lump (cornstarch, thickness 450 μm, degree of pregelatinization 76%) was prepared by a similar procedure to Test Example 1. From the obtained starch lump, a fraction having a size that passes through a sieve having an opening of 2000 μm and does not pass through a sieve having an opening of 400 μm (fraction A) and a fraction that passes through a sieve having an opening of 400 μm (fraction B) were collected. The obtained fractions were mixed at the ratios illustrated in Table 5 to prepare batters for fried foods. Using the obtained batters, deep-fried chicken was produced by a similar procedure to Test Example 1 and evaluated. The results are illustrated in Table 5.

TABLE-US-00005 TABLE 5 Composition of batter Production Example (% by mass) 23 24 25 26 27 Flaky starch lump 50 50 50 50 50 (fraction A + fraction B) Thickness (μm) 450 450 450 450 450 Degree of 76 76 76 76 76 pregelatinization (%) (Content of (40) (50) (60) (70) (80) fraction A in flaky starch lump, % by mass) Wheat flour 50 50 50 50 50 Total 100 100 100 100 100 Appearance 4.2 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Texture of coating 4.3 4.5 4.5 4.6 4.7