Pasta Preparation

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of pasta.

It is very desirable to have a pasta which has a firm texture and this depends on the amount of water absorbed during processing. Conventional methods which are used to reduce the water absorption of pasta have certain disadvantages and such methods include:

a) use of egg products and other protein materials--relatively large amounts needed;

b) use of emulsifiers--not natural products;

c) use of fibre materials--do not give a good texture;

d) use of thick pasta--does not give the desired shape and appearance;

e) acidic water blanching and use of acidic sauce --gives a brittle pasta texture and a poor eating quality; and

f) use of a viscous sauce--does not give the desired consistency and appearance.

We have found, surprisingly, that by coating the pasta with a mixture of egg white and edible oil, we can not provide not only a retorted or sterilised pasta with a firm texture but also provide an uncooked pasta that can be cooked in a microwave oven, or be baked or boiled for consumption starting from cold or warm water without disintegration of the structure or texture of the pasta.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a process for the preparation of a pasta which comprises forming an uncooked, partially cooked or precooked dough which may be in the form of a dough sheet or a pasta shape, coating the dough with a mixture of egg white and an edible oil, and then heating to coagulate, dry and bind the coating.

The coated pasta may be dried or partially or retorted

The dough sheet be formed from uncooked dough by extrusion, sheeting, or sheeting/laminating. The dough which is coated may be:

a) a partially cooked or precooked dough sheet,

b) in the form of dehydrated pasta shapes made by extrusion or extrusion cooking of uncooked dough followed by dehydrating, or

c) in the form of dehydrated pasta shapes made by slitting and cutting an uncooked dough sheet followed by dehydrating.

The amount of the mixture of egg white and edible oil coated onto the dough may be from 1 to 25%, preferably from 3 to 15% and especially from 5 to 10% by weight based on the weight of the dough.

The weight ratio of egg white to oil in the coating mixture may be from 10:90 to 90:10 preferably from 20:80 to 80:20 and especially from 40:60 to 60:40.

The egg white and edible oil mixture is conveniently in liquid form and may be coated onto the dough by spraying or soaking. The egg white may be fresh or pasteurised.

A powdered egg white may be used but it should be rehydrated with water before mixing with oil.

The edible oil may be an animal or vegetable oil, for example, corn oil, cottonseed oil, soy bean oil. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils may also be used.

In a first embodiment of the invention, a dough sheet is partially cooked or precooked, coated with a mixture of egg white duct and edible oil, pre-dried at a temperature of 80.degree. to 200.degree. C. for a period of from 20 to 0.5 minutes, to coagulate, dry and bind the coating, slit and cut into pasta shapes and then partially dried to a moisture content of from 2 to 60% water followed by retorting.

The cooking of the dough sheet may be carried out by boiling, steaming, extrusion cooking or GOUDA drum cooking. The pasta shapes may be, for instance, noodle, fettuccine or linguine, etc. The partial drying of the pasta shapes may be carried out at a temperature from 95.degree. to 110.degree. C. over a period of from 5 to 15 minutes, preferably to a moisture content of from 20% to 35%.

Before retorting, the pasta may be premixed with other solid ingredients conventionally used in pastas and then filled into cans and sauced.

The retorting process may be carried out by stationary or rotary methods. Rotary retorting may be carried out at a temperature from 110.degree. to 150.degree. C for a period of from 40 to 15 minutes, more usually from 30 to 20 minutes in the liquid medium which may be, for instance, a sauce type such as tomato or a soup type such as chicken broth. The amount of dough in the liquid medium is preferably from 20 to 50% by weight based on the total weight.

In a second embodiment of the invention, an uncooked dough sheet is slit and cut into pastas shapes, dehydrated, coated with a mixture of egg white and edible oil and further dried at a temperature of from 80.degree. to 200.degree. C. for a period of from 20 to 0.5 minutes to coagulate, dry and bind the coating. The pasta shapes may be noodle, fettuccine or linguine, etc.

The dehydration of the uncooked pasta shapes is usually conducted in conditions of high humidity and relatively low temperature over long periods of time, for example, 70-90% relative humidity at 40.degree. to 60.degree. C. for from 5 to 10 hours depending on the size and thickness of the pasta.

Preferably, the further drying of the coated pasta is carried out at a temperature of from 125.degree. C. to 175.degree. C. for a period of from 5 minutes to 1 minute.

The pasta of the second embodiment of the invention may be prepared for consumption by cooking in cold or warm water in a microwave oven. However, if desired, it may be retorted as for the pasta of the first embodiment.

In a third embodiment of the present invention an uncooked dough is extruded or extrusion cooked into pasta shapes, dehydrated, coated with a mixture of egg white and edible oil, further dried at a temperature of from 80.degree. to 200.degree. C. for a period of from 20 to 0.5 minutes to coagulate, dry and bind the coating followed by retorting. The pasta shapes may be noodles, spaghetti, rotini, elbow macaroni, etc.

The firmness of the retorted pasta of this invention is superior to that of raw, blanched pasta. The firmness is also better than either oil coated or egg white coated pasta. In addition, the firmness is better than using regular dried pasta (without coating), precooked or not precooked.

The process of this invention is applicable to wheat and non-wheat pasta products e.g, rice, corn, etc. and, if desired, other materials conventionally used in making pastas may be added to the flour e.g., protein materials such as protein, whole egg, egg yolk, wheat gluten, soy flour or soy protein isolate, gums such as propylene glycol alginate or surfactants such as glyceryl monostearate.

In these Examples, the moisture content was determined by using COMPUTRAC moisture testing equipment. The pasta firmness was measured by weighing out 100 grams of retorted pasta and recording the peak force required to shear the pasta in an INSTRON Universal Testing Instrument by using a Framer Shear Test attachment (kg/g).

An extruded dough sheet containing 5.5% whole egg solid was partially cooked by water blanching at 95.degree. C. for 1 minute, and then sprayed with 14% of a 50:50 mixture of fresh egg white and edible oil, predried at 95.degree. C. for 10 minutes, cut into noodles 0.125 cm thick and dried further at 95.degree. C. for 15 minutes to a moisture content of 25-30% H.sub.2 O.

The partially dried pasta was premixed with flavouring, spices and garnish ingredients, filled into cans and chicken broth sauce was added so that the amount of pasta was 30%. The pasta was retorted at 125.degree. C. for 20 minutes in a rotary steriliser.

The retorted pasta's firmness was 0.180 kg/g and the moisture content was 75%. It had a good appearance. In comparison a retorted wet/blanched pasta having the same egg content but without coating had a firmness of only 0.095 kg/g and a moisture content of 83%.

Retorted pastas were prepared in a similar manner to that described in Example 1 except that the coatings were different. The results are given in Table I below.

From the above results it can be seem that the pasta of the present invention prepared in accordance with Example 1 has a superior firmness and absorbs less moisture than any of the comparison pastas. In addition, its appearance is superior to the pastas of comparative Examples E, F and G.

A dough was formulated from 70.70% Durum wheat flour, 17.30% whole egg liquid and 12.00% water and extruded into a sheet 0.125 cm thick. The dough sheet was cooked with saturated steam in a steam tunnel at a temperature of 95.degree. C. for 100 seconds, then coated with 10% of a 50:50 mixture of corn oil and fresh egg white and dried at 102.degree. C. for 8 minutes to a moisture content of 24%. The dried pasta was cut into noodle form which were mixed with twice their weight of a pumpable sauce having the following ingredients:

The mixture was then retorted at 121.degree. C. for 21 minutes. The noodles had a good texture, were not sticky, the pasta samples could be separated easily and had a firm texture.

The dough sheet of Example 2 was cut into noodle form, cooked by super-heated steaming and dried to a moisture content of 24% before being further steam blanched, and finally mixed with the sauce and retorted as in Example 2. The noodles obtained were sticky and had a poor texture.

An uncooked pasta dough sheet was slit and cut into noodle shapes and dehydrated at 50.degree. C and 85% relative humidity over 6 hours. The noodle having a thickness of 0.075 cms and moisture content of 10% was coated with 8% of a 50:50 mixture of fresh egg white and corn oil and heated at 150.degree. C. for 15 minutes. 50 parts of this coated pasta were added to 250 parts of cold water and cooked in a microwave oven at high power for 8 minutes The water remained clear and the cooked pasta was firm.

An uncooked pasta dough sheet prepared from a flour containing glyceryl monostearate was slit and cut into noodle shapes and dehydrated at 50.degree. C., and 80% humidity over 7 hours. Two dehydrated noodle products containing glyceryl monostearate prepared as above having a thickness of 0.14 cms and moisture content of 10% were coated with 12% of a 50:50 mixture of fresh egg white and corn oil, heated at 150.degree. C. for 1 minute and mixed with a sauce in an amount of 40 parts noodle to 100 parts sauce. The sauced noodle of Example 4 was immediately retorted while the sauced noodle of Example 5 was soaked for 30 minutes before retorting. Retorting was carried out in a rotary retort at 125.degree. C. for 21 minutes Both pastas were firm, not sticky and had a good shape.

Two noodle products similar to those used in Examples 4 and 5 were treated in a similar manner except that they were not coated and heated. Both pastas were softer and more sticky than those of Examples 4 and 5 while the pasta which was soaked for 30 minutes in the sauce (J) was softer and more sticky than the pasta which was not soaked in the sauce (K).

An uncooked pasta dough sheet was slit and cut into noodle shapes and dehydrated at 55.degree. C. and 80% humidity over 8 hours to a moisture content of 10%. Four dehydrated noodle products having a thickness of 0.15 cms prepared as above were coated with 10% of a 50:50 mixture of egg white and corn oil, two using fresh egg (Examples 6 and 7) and two using pasteurised refrigerated egg white (Examples 8 and 9), and all were heated at 150.degree. C. for 2 minutes and then mixed with sauce in a ratio of 50 parts noodle to 100 parts sauce. The sauced noodles of Examples 6 and 8 were immediately retorted while those of Examples 7 and 9 were soaked in the sauce for 30 minutes before retorting being carried out in a rotary retort at 125.degree. C. for 21 minutes. The results are given in Table II below:

A similar procedure to that carried out for Examples 6 to 9 was followed on two uncooked dehydrated noodle products which were uncoated one of which was retorted immediately and the other soaked for 30 minutes before retorting. The results are given in Table III below:

The results of Examples 6 to 9 and Comparative examples L and M indicate that coated thick pasta can withstand prolonged soaking in sauce.

An uncooked dough was extruded into a rotini pasta and dehydrated at 55.degree. C. and 80% humidity over 6 hours to a moisture content of 10%. These pastas were coated with 10% of a 50:50 mixture of egg white and corn oil, and heated at 150.degree. C. for 2 minutes. The water absorption of this coated pasta was measured by soaking 10 g of the pasta in 200 ml water for 90 minutes, then weighing out the soaked weight. The soaked pasta weighed 15.5 g and remained firm.

The rotini pastas used in Example 10 were treated in the following conditions;

N=No coating or heating

O=No coating but heated at 150.degree. C. for 1 min.

P=Coated with only corn oil and heated at 150.degree. C. for 1 min.

Q=Coated with only egg white and heated at 150.degree. C. for 2 min.

10 g of each pasta was soaked in 200 ml water for 90 minutes, then weighed out. The weights and firmness of the soaked pastas were as follows;

N=19.4 g, soft

O=17.6 g, soft

P=16.6 g, not as firm as Example 10 sample

Q=19.0 g, soft

The results of Example 10 and comparative Examples N, O, P and Q indicated that egg white/oil coated pasta can inhibit water absorption better than 1) uncoated/unheated, 2) heated, 3) oil coated/heated, 4) egg white coated/heated, or pastas. These results also indicate that the coated pastas of Example 10 would have a more firm pasta texture after retorting than the pastas of comparative Examples N, O, P and Q.