Support implement and auxiliary implement for production of fried food

Abstract

This support implement for production of a fried food: can be used to support frying fare 91 obtained by coating an ingredient with a coating material in an oil fry when the frying fare 91 is to be fried in oil to produce a fried food 92; and has a base member 2 and a plurality of support members 3 that protrude from the base member 2 and support the frying fare 91 from below. The support members 3 have a receiving part 30 that contacts the frying fare 91 at the opposite end of the support member 3 from the base member 2. The plurality of support members 3 are arranged such that the receiving parts 30 of the support members 3 do not contact each other.

Description

Supporting and auxiliary tools for deep-fried food production

[0001] The present invention relates to a device used when deep-frying ingredients coated with a batter.

[0002] Deep-fried foods are foods obtained by frying ingredients coated with a batter in oil, i.e., deep-frying. The batter, consisting of the batter from the deep-fried batter, typically covers the surface of the ingredients. Because this batter typically forms the majority of the surface of the fried food, the appearance of the fried food is largely dependent on the batter. Generally, deep-fried foods with a good appearance have a matte surface due to the formation of minute irregularities, also known as "flower scattering" or "flower blooming," across the entire surface of the batter. This, combined with the burnt brown color of the batter, stimulates the viewer's appetite. However, advanced technology is required to produce deep-fried foods with a good appearance. In particular, shrimp tempura and fried shrimp, which are types of deep-fried foods, are generally desired to have a straight shape. However, because shrimp, the ingredient, has poor shape retention and is easily deformed, the shrimp often bend during frying, resulting in a failure to obtain a straight shape.

[0003] Furthermore, in the past, auxiliary tools also known as frying frames have sometimes been used in the deep-frying process of ingredients to efficiently produce fried foods. Patent Documents 1 to 5 disclose improved techniques for such auxiliary tools. The auxiliary tools described in Patent Documents 1 to 5 have in common the fact that the support member that supports the ingredients from below is a single flat member that is in surface contact with the ingredients. For example, the auxiliary tool described in Patent Document 5 includes a flat auxiliary plate having a mounting surface on which tempura ingredients are placed, and the mounting surface is formed with a number of recesses of specific shapes and dimensions. The auxiliary tool described in Patent Document 5 is capable of lengthening the time it takes for tempura ingredients to rise to the surface of the oil, thereby making it possible to add batter ingredients to the tempura ingredients before they rise to the surface of the oil, thereby easily producing beautiful tempura.

[0004] Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 52-11088 Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 6-58827 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-353082 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2013-17679 Japanese Patent No. 5074731

[0005] As described above, the auxiliary tools described in Patent Documents 1 to 4 support the ingredients from below while making surface contact with the ingredients. Therefore, when deep-frying ingredients using the auxiliary tool, the surface of the resulting fried food, which was in surface contact with the support member during deep-frying, becomes flat and lacks irregularities, leaving room for improvement in appearance. Furthermore, when deep-frying fried foods industrially in large quantities, uniformity in size and shape is typically required. While auxiliary tools are effective in such cases, conventional auxiliary tools can easily deform the ingredients, particularly when deep-frying ingredients containing relatively deformable ingredients such as shrimp, resulting in problems such as failure to obtain straight fried foods and irregular sizes and shapes of fried foods. The auxiliary tool described in Patent Document 5 can add batter material to tempura ingredients to enlarge the batter (to make it bloom), but leaves room for improvement in terms of achieving uniform size and shape of fried foods.

[0006] An object of the present invention is to provide a technique that can easily and efficiently produce fried foods with good appearance.

[0007] The present invention provides a support device for producing fried foods that can be used as a support device to support a frying mixture, which is made by frying ingredients coated with a batter, during frying to produce fried foods.The support device for producing fried foods has a base member and a plurality of support members that protrude from the base member and support the frying mixture from below, each support member having a receiving portion that comes into contact with the frying mixture at the end of the support member opposite the base member, and the plurality of support members are arranged so that the receiving portions of each support member do not come into contact with each other.

[0008] The present invention also provides an auxiliary tool for making fried foods, which has a support tool connection body formed by connecting multiple supports for making fried foods of the present invention, and a handle connected to the support tool connection body, and which can be handled by holding the handle with the fingers.

[0009] Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of the main parts of one embodiment of the fried food making auxiliary device of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a schematic top view of the auxiliary device shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a schematic front view of the auxiliary device shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a schematic side view of the auxiliary device shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a diagram (corresponding to Fig. 4) showing an example of use of the auxiliary device shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a photograph, substituted for a drawing, of the fried food making auxiliary device of Comparative Example 2.

[0010] A preferred embodiment of the support and auxiliary tools for producing fried foods of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figures 1 to 4 show auxiliary tool 10, which is one embodiment of the auxiliary tool for producing fried foods of the present invention. Figure 5 shows an example of how auxiliary tool 10 is used. Auxiliary tool 10 has a support tool assembly 11 formed by connecting multiple supports 1, which are one embodiment of the support tool for producing fried foods of the present invention, and a gripping portion 12 connected to support tool assembly 11, and can be handled by gripping gripping portion 12 with the fingers.

[0011] In this embodiment, the support tool connector 11 and the gripping portion 12 are connected via a gripping portion connecting member 13. The gripping portion connecting member 13 is connected to a part of the support tool connector 11 (support tool connecting member 14) and consists of two parallel rod-shaped members extending in a direction away from the support tool connector 11, with the gripping portion 12 connected to the upper ends of the two rod-shaped members. As shown in Figure 4, when the assisting device 10 is placed at rest and observed from its side, with the gripping portion connecting member 13 extending in the up-down direction (vertical direction) as the reference, the support tool connector 11 extends to one side from the lower end of the gripping portion connecting member 13, and the gripping portion 12 extends to the other side from the upper end of the gripping portion connecting member 13. As shown in Figure 2, the gripping portion 12 is composed of two parallel rod-shaped members extending from the upper end of the gripping portion connecting member 13 to the side opposite the support tool connecting body 11, and the distance between these two rod-shaped members is adjusted so that the gripping portion 12 can be easily grasped with the fingers.

[0012] The support tool 1 can be used as a support tool for supporting a deep-fried ingredient, which is an ingredient coated with a batter, during deep-frying to produce a fried food, and has a base member 2 and a plurality of support members 3 that protrude from the base member 2 and support the deep-fried ingredient from below.

[0013] FIG. 1 shows a fried food 91 as an example of the fried food. The fried food 91 is made by applying a coating material to the surface of peeled shrimp as an ingredient. In FIG. 1, the coating material is a powder coating material mainly made of grain flour such as wheat flour, but a liquid coating material may also be used. An example of the liquid coating material is batter liquid made by mixing grain flour with water and egg liquid. Also, reference numeral 92 in FIG. 1 denotes a fried food (shrimp tempura) obtained by frying the fried food 91 to which batter liquid is applied as a coating material using the auxiliary tool 10. The fried food 91 and the fried food 92 are not components of the auxiliary tool 10.

[0014] In this embodiment, the base member 2 has a linear rod shape extending in one direction X. The direction X is the longitudinal direction (axial direction) of the base member 2 and also the longitudinal direction (axial direction) of the support 1.

[0015] In this embodiment, the support tool connected body 11 is formed by connecting five supports 1 together. More specifically, in this embodiment, the multiple (five) supports 1 that make up the support tool connected body 11 are arranged intermittently in a direction Y perpendicular to their longitudinal direction X. The direction Y is the horizontal direction. Each of the multiple supports 1 that make up the support tool connected body 11 has one end in the longitudinal direction X connected to a support tool connecting member 14 and the other end in the longitudinal direction Y as a free end. The support tool connecting member 14 has a linear rod shape that extends in the direction Y.

[0016] The support member 3 has a receiving portion 30 that comes into contact with the frying seeds at the end of the support member 3 opposite the base member 2 side. In this embodiment, the support member 3 has a base end 31 that protrudes upward from the base member 2, and the receiving portion 30 is connected to the upper end of the base end 31. That is, the support member 3 of this embodiment has the receiving portion 30 at the upper part (the end opposite the base member 2 side) and the base end 31 at the lower part (the end on the base member 2 side). The base end 31 has a straight rod shape.

[0017] In this embodiment, each of the multiple (five) supports 1 constituting the support support assembly 11 has five support members 3. In each support support 1, the multiple (five) receiving portions 30 are arranged intermittently in the longitudinal direction X of the support support 1. In this embodiment, the spacing Lx (see FIGS. 2 and 4) between the multiple receiving portions 30 adjacent to each other in the longitudinal direction X is uniform. Also, in this embodiment, the support members 3 of multiple supports 1 adjacent to each other in the direction Y are adjacent to each other. In other words, the positions of the support members 3 in the longitudinal direction X are the same for multiple supports 1 adjacent to each other in the direction Y. In the support support assembly 11, the spacing Ly (see FIGS. 2 and 3) between adjacent support members 3 is uniform.

[0018] In this embodiment, the receiving portion 30 has a concave shape that is convex toward the base member 2 (downward in this embodiment) as shown in Fig. 1. More specifically, the receiving portion 30 of this embodiment has a V-shape when observed from one direction X, in other words, a projection image of the receiving portion 30 in one direction X, as shown in Fig. 3. The entire support member 3 including the base end portion 31 has a Y-shape when observed from one direction X.

[0019] The support device 1 is characterized in that the multiple support members 3 are arranged so that the receiving portions 30 of the support members 3 do not come into contact with each other. In other words, as shown in Figure 1, the support device 1 is characterized in that the multiple support members 3 are arranged so that they come into contact with the frying material 91 at multiple points via the receiving portions 30.

[0020] The "configuration in which multiple support members contact the ingredients at multiple points and support the ingredients from below" (hereinafter also referred to as "point contact support") of the fried food production support device of the present invention, typified by Support Device 1, contrasts with the "configuration in which a single flat support member contacts the ingredients at multiple points and supports the ingredients from below" (hereinafter also referred to as "surface contact support") of the auxiliary devices described in Patent Documents 1 to 5. Fried foods obtained by frying ingredients using conventional auxiliary devices employing surface contact support have a flat, uneven surface where the batter was in surface contact with the support members of the auxiliary device, leaving room for improvement in appearance. However, the auxiliary device of the present invention employing point contact support solves this problem of the conventional technology and is capable of forming fine irregularities, also known as scattered or blooming flowers, on the entire surface of the batter of the fried food, giving the fried food an appearance that stimulates the appetite of the viewer. Furthermore, because the auxiliary tool of the present invention employs point-contact support and supports the ingredients with multiple support members (receiving portions), it is possible to prevent the ingredients from deforming during frying, even for ingredients that are prone to deformation during frying, such as shrimp ingredients, and to stably produce fried foods of the desired shape. Therefore, the support tool of the present invention can stably produce fried foods with a good appearance, specifically fried foods with a finely uneven surface and a desired shape.

[0021] In particular, in the support device 1 of this embodiment, the plurality of receiving portions 30, each having a concave shape (specifically, a V-shape) that protrudes toward the base member 2, are arranged linearly in one direction X, so that during frying of the ingredients, the concave portions at the tops of the plurality of receiving portions 30 support the ingredients from below, as in the case of the ingredients 91 shown in Fig. 1, while maintaining the shape of the ingredients in a linear manner. Therefore, according to this embodiment, even if the ingredients contain shrimp, such as the ingredients 91, the ingredients are less likely to deform during frying, and straight-shaped fried foods, such as the fried food 92 shown in Fig. 1, can be stably produced.

[0022] Furthermore, the fried food production auxiliary device of the present invention, represented by auxiliary device 10, has a plurality of fried food production supports of the present invention that have the above-mentioned effects, so that a plurality of fried foods with good appearance can be produced simultaneously, and the plurality of fried foods produced simultaneously are uniform in size and shape. Therefore, the fried food production auxiliary device of the present invention is suitable for use in industrial mass production of fried foods.

[0023] The dimensions of each part of the support tool 1 or auxiliary tool 10 can be adjusted as appropriate depending on the type of fried food to be produced. For example, when the fried food to be produced is a straight-shaped fried food such as fried shrimp or shrimp tempura, the dimensions of each part of the support tool 1 or auxiliary tool 10 are preferably set as follows. In the support tool 1, four or more receiving portions 30 are preferably arranged intermittently in the longitudinal direction X, as in this embodiment. The spacing Lx (see FIGS. 2 and 4) between adjacent receiving portions 30 in the longitudinal direction X in the support tool 1 is preferably 10 to 30 mm, more preferably 14 to 20 mm. The length (width) Wx (see FIGS. 2 and 4) of the receiving portion 30 in the longitudinal direction X is preferably 1 to 6 mm, more preferably 2 to 4 mm. The length (maximum opening width) Wy (see FIG. 3) of the recess of the receiving portion 30 in the direction Y is preferably 10 to 40 mm, more preferably 20 to 30 mm. The protruding height H of the support member 3 from the base member 2 (see Figures 3 and 4) is preferably 1 to 10 mm, and more preferably 3 to 6 mm. The spacing Ly (see Figures 2 and 3) between adjacent support members 3 in direction Y in the auxiliary tool 10 is preferably 5 to 30 mm, and more preferably 10 to 20 mm. The material of the support tool 1 and the auxiliary tool 10 may be any material that will not change quality when immersed in high-temperature oil normally used in frying, and any material that has conventionally been used for this type of support or auxiliary tool can be used without particular limitation, and is typically metal.

[0024] When using the auxiliary tool 10 to prepare fried foods, first, ingredients are placed on all or some of the multiple support tools 1 of the support tool connection 11 of the auxiliary tool 10. This operation is typically performed on a workbench near the oil tank in which the ingredients are fried. Since the auxiliary tool 10 of this embodiment has five support tools 1, placing one ingredient on each of the five support tools 1 allows five fried foods to be prepared simultaneously in one frying operation. When placing ingredients on the support tools 1, as in the frying ingredient 91 shown in FIG. 1 , the ingredients are placed on the receiving portions 30 of the multiple support members 3 of the support tool 1, with multiple portions of the ingredients positioned within the recesses of the receiving portions 30. Next, the support tool connection 11 with the ingredients placed thereon is immersed in hot cooking oil, and the ingredients are fried. FIG. 5 shows the frying of the ingredients 91 using the auxiliary tool 10. In the example of use of the auxiliary tool 10 shown in FIG. 5 , the support tool connected body 11 is placed on the bottom surface inside an oil vat 94, and the fried food 91 on the support tool connected body 11 is fried in cooking oil 93. The amount of cooking oil 93 is typically such that the entire fried food 91 on the support tool connected body 11 is immersed in the cooking oil 93 and is positioned near the surface of the cooking oil 93. The temperature of the cooking oil 93 during frying varies depending on the type of fried food, but is typically about 180°C. While the fried food 91 is being fried, the fried food 91 may be turned over on the receiving portion 30 using chopsticks or the like, as needed. After the frying is complete, i.e., after the fried food 91 has become a fried food, the fried food may be removed from the oil vat 94 together with the support tool connected body 11, or the fried food on the receiving portion 30 may be removed from the oil vat 94 using chopsticks or the like, with the support tool connected body 11 remaining in the state shown in FIG. 5 . In the latter case, the fried food on the receiving part 30 can be moved to a location in the cooking oil 93 other than the receiving part 30 without removing it from the oil tank 94. When handling the assisting tool 10 by hand, such as when immersing the support tool connected body 11 in oil or removing the support tool connected body 11 from oil, it is convenient and safe to hold the gripping part 12 with the fingers.

[0025] While the present invention has been described above based on preferred embodiments, it is not limited to these embodiments and can be modified as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment, the receiving portion 30 has a V-shape when viewed from the longitudinal direction X of the support 1 (see FIG. 3 ). However, in the present invention, the receiving portion 30 may have a concave shape that protrudes toward the base member 2, such as a U-shape. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, four or more receiving portions 30 are arranged intermittently in a straight line in one direction X in the support 1. However, in the present invention, the multiple support members 3 do not have to be arranged intermittently in a straight line in one direction as long as the receiving portions 30 of each support member 3 do not contact each other. The present invention also includes, as an example of the support 1, a configuration in which multiple support members 3 are arranged irregularly on the base member 2. Furthermore, the number of supports for fried food production in the auxiliary device for fried food production of the present invention and the number of support members in the support device for fried food production of the present invention are not particularly limited and can be set to any number.

[0026] The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the following reference examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

[0027] Reference Examples 1 to 7: Using a stainless steel square bar with a cross-sectional shape perpendicular to the axial direction and a side length of 4 mm, a point-contact support-type fried food production auxiliary device with a basic configuration similar to the aforementioned auxiliary device 10 was manufactured. That is, as shown in Figures 1 to 4, "a fried food production auxiliary device having a support device connection body in which five supports having a linear rod-shaped base member are intermittently connected in one direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the base member, and in each of the five supports constituting the support device connection body, multiple support members are linearly arranged intermittently in the longitudinal direction, and the receiving portion of each support member has a V-shape when observed from the longitudinal direction." The dimensions of each part of the manufactured auxiliary device are shown in Table 1 below. The symbols "Wx" and "Lx" in Table 1 below refer to the parts corresponding to the same symbols in the drawings.

[0028] Comparative Example 1 A stainless steel auxiliary tool having a similar configuration to the tempura auxiliary plate A of Example 1 described in Patent Document 5 (see Figure 2 of the same document) was manufactured as a surface-contact support type auxiliary tool for making fried foods, and was used as Comparative Example 1.

[0029] Comparative Example 2 A stainless steel auxiliary tool shown in Fig. 6 was manufactured as a surface-contact support type fried food production auxiliary tool and designated as Comparative Example 2. The auxiliary tool shown in Fig. 6 has a plate-shaped base portion 95 having a mounting surface on which the ingredients to be fried are placed, and a plurality of protrusions 96 provided on the mounting surface. When in use, the ingredients to be fried are placed in the area surrounded by the plurality of protrusions 96 on the mounting surface of the base portion 95.

[0030] [Evaluation Test] Shrimp tempura was produced using each of the auxiliary devices of the Reference Examples. Specifically, shrimp with shells were first prepared, and the shells and vein were removed to obtain a filling consisting of the tail and meat. The total length of the filling, including the shrimp tail, was 13 cm. Separately, commercially available tempura flour (manufactured by Nisshin Seifun Welna) was dissolved in water according to the manufacturer's instructions to prepare a batter. Next, the shrimp tails, which were the filling, were held with the fingers, and the shrimp meat was dusted with wheat flour as a dusting powder. The shrimp meat was then dipped into the batter, and the batter adhered to the entire surface of the meat, resulting in a deep-fried filling. The resulting deep-fried filling was then placed on each of the five support devices that constituted the support device assembly of the auxiliary device being evaluated. In this case, as shown in Figure 1, frying ingredients were placed on the receiving portions of multiple (five) support members of the support tool, with multiple locations of the ingredients positioned within the recesses of the receiving portions. Next, the support tool connection of the auxiliary tool to be evaluated was immersed in edible oil heated to 180°C in an oil tank, and the five ingredients placed on the support tool connection were fried. The ingredients were supported so that the distance from the oil surface to the top of the support tool connection was 1 cm to 3 cm. During this frying process, the ingredients remained in the state they were in just before immersion in oil, i.e., placed on the receiving portions of the support members of the support tool, until a certain amount of time had passed since immersion in oil. As frying progressed and buoyancy was imparted to the ingredients, they left the receiving portions and floated to the oil surface. Once the ingredients reached this floating state, the auxiliary tool was removed from the oil, and the ingredients were continued to be fried in oil. The frying time was 2 minutes and 30 seconds from the time the ingredients were immersed in oil. Shrimp tempura was produced in the same manner as above, except that the auxiliary tools of each comparative example were used as the auxiliary tools. When frying ingredients using the auxiliary tools of each comparative example, the auxiliary tool on which the ingredients were placed was placed on the bottom of the oil tank so that the distance from the oil surface to the ingredients was 1 cm to 3 cm. The shrimp tempura batter produced using the above procedure was visually observed by a panel of 10 experts and evaluated according to the following evaluation criteria. Table 1 below shows the average evaluation scores of the 10 expert panels.

[0031] <Evaluation criteria for appearance> 4 points: Flat areas without irregularities or areas with depressions (hereinafter referred to as "low evaluation areas") account for 5% or less of the total surface area of ​​the batter, giving the impression of small, scattered flower-like irregularities across the entire surface of the batter; very good. The depressions have a depth or maximum diameter of 20 mm or more when viewed from above. 3 points: Low evaluation areas account for 5% to less than 20% of the total surface area of ​​the batter, giving the impression of small, scattered flower-like irregularities across almost the entire surface of the batter; good. 2 points: Low evaluation areas account for 20% to less than 50% of the total surface area of ​​the batter, giving the impression of relatively many small, scattered flower-like irregularities across the surface of the batter; poor. 1 point: Low evaluation areas account for 50% or more of the total surface area of ​​the batter, giving the impression of relatively few small, scattered flower-like irregularities across the surface of the batter; very poor.

[0032]

[0033] As shown in Table 1, Reference Examples 1 to 7 all used point-contact support types of support tools, and therefore produced shrimp tempura with a superior appearance compared to Comparative Examples 1 and 2, which used surface-contact support types. Furthermore, Reference Examples 2 to 6, in which the spacing Lx between the receiving portions (see Figures 2 and 4), i.e., the spacing between the multiple receiving portions arranged at intervals in one direction, was in the range of 10 to 30 mm, produced shrimp tempura with a superior appearance compared to Reference Examples 1 and 7, in which the spacing Lx was outside this range. This demonstrates that a preferred support tool for producing fried foods using shrimp as an ingredient is one in which "four or more receiving portions are arranged at intervals in one direction (the longitudinal direction of the base member), and the spacing between adjacent receiving portions in that direction is 10 to 30 mm."

[0034] According to the present invention, fried foods with good appearance can be produced simply and efficiently.

Claims

1. A support for deep-frying, which can be used as a support for deep-frying ingredients that have been coated with batter to produce deep-fried food, It has a base member and a plurality of support members that protrude from the base member and support the lifting mechanism from below, The support member has a receiving portion at the end of the support member opposite to the base member that contacts the lifting element, A support device for deep-frying, wherein the plurality of support members are arranged so that the receiving portions of each support member do not come into contact with each other.

2. The support for deep-frying according to claim 1, wherein the receiving portion has a concave shape that is convex toward the base member side.

3. The support device for deep-frying according to claim 1, wherein four or more of the receiving portions are intermittently arranged in one direction, and the distance between adjacent receiving portions in that direction is 10 to 30 mm.

4. The support for deep-frying according to claim 3, wherein the length of the receiving portion in one direction is 1 to 6 mm.

5. The support for deep-frying according to claim 3, wherein the receiving portion is V-shaped or U-shaped when observed from the one direction.

6. An auxiliary tool for making fried foods, comprising a support assembly formed by connecting a plurality of support devices for making fried foods according to any one of claims 1 to 5, and a gripping portion connected to the support assembly, wherein the gripping portion can be grasped and handled by the fingers.

7. The auxiliary device for making fried foods according to claim 6, wherein the plurality of support devices for making fried foods that constitute the support device connecting body are intermittently arranged in the horizontal direction.