PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF A SAUCE CONTAINING MEAT

Abstract

A process for the production of a sauce containing minced meat, tomato, vegetables, edible oils or fats and optional complementary ingredients is disclosed. The process includes the steps of a) of subjecting pellets of a mixture containing minced meat to baking in an oven, obtaining baked pellets, b) adding, in a cooker, the baked pellets to tomato, vegetables, edible oils or fats and optional complementary ingredients, and c) cooking the whole mixture for a predetermined time.

Claims

1. A process for the production of a sauce comprising minced meat, tomato, vegetables, edible oils or fats and optional complementary ingredients, comprising: a) subjecting pellets of a mixture comprising minced meat to baking in a conduction and convection oven, at a temperature of between 160 C. and 280 C., for a time of between 0.5 and 30 minutes, thus obtaining baked pellets, b) adding, in a cooker, said baked pellets to said tomato, vegetables, edible oils or fats and optional complementary ingredients; and c) cooking the whole mixture for a predetermined time.

2. The process according to claim 1, wherein said complementary ingredients are selected from the group consisting of salt, pepper, sugar and aromatic herbs, including rosemary, sage, mint, oregano, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, basil, chives, marjoram, nutmeg and coriander.

3. The process according to claim 1, wherein said vegetables are selected from the group consisting of onion, shallot, carrot, celery, leek, garlic and parsley.

4. The process according to claim 3, wherein said vegetables are minced and have a particle size of between 3 mm and 20 mm.

5. The process according to claim 1, wherein said pellets to be baked in the oven of step a) have a length of between 10 mm and 70 mm, and a thickness of between 3 mm and 15 mm.

6. The process according to claim 5, wherein said mixture pellets further comprise at least one complementary ingredient selected from the group consisting of salt, sugar, starch, fiber, pepper, aromatic herbs including rosemary, sage, mint, oregano, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, basil, chives, marjoram, nutmeg and coriander, and/or tomato and/or at least one vegetable selected from the group consisting of onion, shallot, leek, carrots, celery and garlic.

7. The process according to claim 1, wherein, in step a), said pellets are arranged on a conveyor belt and the oven is a tunnel oven inside which the conveyor belt runs.

8. The process according to claim 7, wherein said conveyor belt is heated to a temperature of 160 C.-280 C.

9. The process according to claim 8, wherein the temperature inside said tunnel oven is between 180 C. and 280 C.

10. The process according to claim 9, wherein means for injecting jets of steam and hot air having a temperature of 200 C.-300 C. are provided in said tunnel oven.

11. The process according to claim 7, wherein said mixture pellets are produced by extruding a mixture comprising minced meat and optionally one or more complementary ingredients selected from the group consisting of salt, sugar, starch, fiber, pepper, aromatic herbs including rosemary, sage, mint, oregano, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, basil, chives, marjoram, nutmeg and coriander and/or tomato and/or one or more vegetables selected from the group consisting of onion, shallot, leek, carrots, celery and garlic, by means of an extruder provided with a cutter which divides the mixture output from the extruder in the form of a string into pellets having a length of between 10 mm and 70 mm, and a thickness of between 3 and 15 mm.

12. The process according to claim 7, wherein upon leaving the oven said pellets are dropped onto a second conveyor belt, which conveys them to a disaggregation apparatus to free individual pellets from any clumps formed during baking.

13. The process according to claim 1, wherein, following baking, said pellets have a length of between 5 and 60 mm.

14. The process according to claim 1, wherein in step b) said cooker is provided with mixing means and said pellets are introduced into said cooker already containing inside it a fried mixture obtained from said vegetables, from the optional complementary ingredients and from said edible oils or fats, as well as the tomato, which was subsequently added to said fried mixture.

15. The process according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined time of the cooking step c) is between 15 and 120 minutes.

16. The process according to claim 1, wherein said minced meat is selected from the group consisting of bovine, pork, ovine, horse, poultry and fish meat.

17. The process according to claim 16, wherein said minced meat consists of bovine meat, pork meat or a mixture thereof.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0036] The process according to the present invention will be further described with reference to an example of application provided hereinbelow by way of non-limiting illustration.

EXAMPLE

[0037] Rag Bolognese

[0038] Blocks of bovine meat (front quarter cuts) and pork (frozen shoulder), kept stored in a cold room at 20 C., were used for the production of rag bolognese using the process according to the present invention.

[0039] These blocks of meat were defrosted in a radiofrequency (RF) tunnel for about 40 minutes. The blocks of defrosted meat were then fed to the hopper of a first meat mincer, producing minced meat with particles having a size of about 13 mm.

[0040] The minced meat thus obtained (300 kg) was fed into a mixer and 3.5 kg of salt were added thereto. After mixing for two minutes at a speed of 0.6 rpm, the mixture thus obtained was fed to the hopper of a second meat mincer, which reduced the size of the pellets in sequence first to 7.8 mm and then to 4 mm.

[0041] Thereafter the mixture was conveyed to an extruder with holes having a size of 44 mm, provided with a cutter, which divided the strings of mixture into pellets with a thickness of about 4 mm, a length of about 36 mm and a weight of about 0.6 g.

[0042] These pellets were dropped onto a conveyor belt heated to a temperature of 260 C. and conveyed by the latter inside a convection tunnel oven (air temperature 280 C.). After remaining inside the tunnel oven for about 2 minutes, the baked pellets leaving the oven were transferred onto a second conveyor belt, where they were drained, namely the baked pellets were separated from the liquid generated during baking.

[0043] The aforementioned second conveyor belt then conveyed the baked and drained pellets to the aforementioned disaggregation apparatus where the single pellets were separated from any lumps which may have formed during baking.

[0044] The baked pellets had a length of about 11-13 mm, a thickness of about 5-7 mm and a weight of about 0.17 g.

[0045] The following ingredients were introduced inside a cooker provided with a horizontal-paddle mixer:

TABLE-US-00001 Sunflower oil 70 kg Chopped onions 250 kg Chopped carrots 105 kg Chopped celery 110 kg

[0046] The chopped onions, carrots and celery had a particle size of about 4-10 mm.

[0047] After cooking the aforementioned ingredients at boiling temperature for 27 minutes with continuous mixing, the following ingredients were introduced into the cooker:

TABLE-US-00002 Tomato 900 kg Cooked meat pellet 550 kg Salt 19 kg Sugar 14 kg Aromatic herbs and spices 3 kg

[0048] Thereafter (after about 20 minutes) the following premixed ingredients were added:

TABLE-US-00003 Corn starch 25 kg Yeast extract 10 kg

[0049] Finally (immediately following the addition of starch and yeast) a second amount of tomato (400 kg) was added and heated for 30 minutes.

[0050] The meat rag thus obtained was heated to a temperature of 90-95 C. and filled into 400 g glass jars and these were finally sterilized in an autoclave with F0=8 minutes (TBC).

Comparative Example

[0051] A rag bolognese was prepared using the same ingredients used in the preceding example and in the same amounts, with the difference that the minced meat (350 kg) obtained at the outlet of the first meat mincer was introduced, together with the salt (3.5 kg), into a first cooker provided with horizontal-paddle mixer and cooked for about 30 minutes with continuous mixing.

[0052] At the end of cooking, the meat was transferred into a second cooker provided with a horizontal-paddle mixer inside which the chopped onions, the chopped carrots and the chopped celery had already been browned in sunflower oil in the amounts and using the methods described in the preceding example. Tomato, salt, sugar, aromatic herbs and spaces were also introduced into the cooker in the same amounts as in the preceding example, after about 20 minutes corn starch and yeast extract were added in the same amounts as in the preceding example, followed immediately thereafter by the same amount of tomato as in the preceding example, and cooking performed for a further 30 minutes.

[0053] The meat rag thus obtained was then heated to a temperature of 90-95 C. and filled into 400 g glass jars which were finally sterilized in an autoclave with F0=8 minutes.

[0054] The rag prepared according to the example of the present invention was subjected to a tasting test for comparison with the raga prepared according to the comparative example.

[0055] The two rag preparations were tasted by 160 consumers of meat sauces who were asked to rate on a scale from 0 to 9 the organoleptic and structural characteristics of the two rag sauces, with particular reference to the consistency, taste and appearance of the meat.

[0056] A significant preference was expressed for the rag prepared according to the example of the present invention, with the following ratings:

TABLE-US-00004 Rag according to Rag according to the Characteristics the invention comparative example Overall impression 6.1 5.3 Appearance 6.5 6.1 Consistency of the sauce 6.4 5.5 Consistency of the meat 6.1 5.5 Flavor of the meat 5.9 5.1