JP5629103B2 - Coagulant for tofu and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a tofu coagulant and a method for producing the same, and more particularly to a tofu coagulant used for producing a tofu having excellent flavor, elasticity, texture and yield, and a method for producing the same.

Tofu is one of the foods that have been widely used as a traditional food. For the production of such tofu, a method has been used in which soy milk separated from beans is coagulated with a coagulant such as bitter juice, magnesium chloride, calcium sulfate and the like and then aged.
At this time, bitter juice was used as a traditional coagulant, but it is known that the main ingredient of bitter juice, magnesium chloride, can revitalize the fragrant taste of the beans and create a savory tofu. Because.

Such a coagulant for tofu is generally divided into a slow-acting coagulant and a fast-acting coagulant.
The above-mentioned slow-acting coagulant is a coagulant having a slow reaction rate with soy milk protein that starts a coagulation reaction within about 5 seconds to 1 minute when added to soy milk, and includes calcium sulfate, glucono delta lactone, and the like. Such a slow-acting coagulant can obtain tofu with good water retention due to its slow reaction rate, but has a disadvantage that it cannot obtain tofu with good flavor.

The above fast-acting coagulant is a coagulant with a fast reaction rate with soymilk protein that starts coagulation reaction within about 1 to 2 seconds when added to soymilk, such as magnesium chloride, bitter juice, concentrated seawater, calcium chloride, lactic acid, etc. And organic acids and salts thereof.
In particular, magnesium chloride and its fast-acting coagulants, such as bitter juice and concentrated seawater, which have this as the main ingredient, have the advantage of improving the flavor of tofu, and recently the intake of magnesium as a mineral ingredient has become important. There is a growing awareness of magnesium chloride tofu, which contains abundant amounts of magnesium.

However, when producing tofu using such a fast-acting coagulant, the coagulation rate is fast, so in order to produce excellent tofu with excellent water retention, elasticity, texture, yield, etc. There is a technical problem that is required.
Therefore, while using the fast-acting coagulant as described above, the reaction rate of soy milk protein and coagulant is slowed down to produce various kinds of tofu with excellent quality such as flavor, elasticity, texture and yield. Research has been carried out, and at the beginning, a fast-acting coagulant such as magnesium chloride and a slow-acting coagulant such as calcium sulfate are used together to slow down the reaction rate of the fast-acting coagulant, or citric acid Chemically delayed methods using organic acids and their salts such as

  In another method, soy milk is cooled to create an environment in which coagulation is difficult to occur, and then a fast-acting coagulant is added and mixed, and then gradually controlled while controlling the temperature rise with hot water, steam or electrically. The method was used to solidify soy milk as it was heated.

However, the above method uses a fast-acting coagulant and has good water retention, but it requires excessive production equipment, time, energy, etc. to produce a tofu with a flavor, in order to control this. However, there was a problem that considerable skill and skill were required.
To improve this, emulsify a fast-acting coagulant such as magnesium chloride with a vegetable oil or emulsifier such as corn oil, soybean oil or olive oil, that is, coat the fast-acting coagulant with a fat layer. In addition, there has been provided a method for using magnesium chloride finely powdered and then dispersing it in edible oils such as corn oil. (Patent Document 1)

  However, the above-mentioned method contains more fats and emulsifiers, which are incidental components used to emulsify, than a fast-acting coagulant such as magnesium chloride, which plays a role in coagulation. In addition to the waste of resources due to the use of emulsifiers, there is a problem that a separate device is necessarily required for breaking the emulsified layer when added to soy milk.

JP-A-10-57002

The present invention is for solving the above-mentioned problems, and it has excellent flavor, texture, elasticity and yield by slowing down the coagulation rate of the fast-acting coagulant while minimizing the amount of incidental components. It aims at providing the coagulant for tofu for manufacturing tofu, and its manufacturing method.
Another object of the present invention is to more effectively slow down the coagulation rate.
Another object of the present invention is to improve the flavor of the produced tofu.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a coagulant used for coagulation of soy milk in the production of tofu, wherein the coagulant contains a fast-acting coagulant in a gel substance, In this case, a tofu coagulant is provided in which the rapid-acting coagulant is gradually eluted.
The coagulant is 0.1 to 10% by weight of the gelled substance, 3 to 75% by weight of the fast-acting coagulant, and the balance is water.

Further, the gelling substance is characterized in that it is one or a mixture of two or more selected from agar, gelatin, carrageenan, alginate and pectin.
In addition, the gelling material may be one or a mixture of two or more selected from sugar, crystalline fruit cake, liquid fructose, oligosaccharide, CMC (carboxymethylcellulose), gum arabic, guar gum, locust bean gum, and xanthan gum. Is added as an auxiliary agent.

In addition, the rapid-acting coagulant is one or a mixture of two or more selected from magnesium chloride, bitter juice (crude seawater magnesium chloride), concentrated seawater (brine), calcium chloride, lactic acid and salts thereof. It is characterized by.
Furthermore, the gel material further includes one or a mixture of two or more selected from sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and magnesium sulfate.

And a step of producing a 0.1 to 10% by weight gelling substance aqueous solution by mixing the gelling substance and water; a step of adding a fast-acting coagulant to the gelling substance aqueous solution and dissolving the gelling substance aqueous solution; A method for producing a coagulant for tofu, comprising the step of cooling the gelling substance aqueous solution in which the coagulant coagulant is dissolved at a temperature of 0 to 40 ° C. for gelation.
Further, a step of producing a 0.1 to 10% by weight gelling substance aqueous solution by mixing the gelling substance and water; a step of cooling and gelling the gelling substance aqueous solution; and a fast-acting coagulant aqueous solution A method for producing a coagulant for tofu comprising the steps of: depositing and stirring the gelled material as described above, and infiltrating the fast-acting coagulant into the gel material by a permeation phenomenon; To do.
The method further comprises the step of drying the coagulant produced by the above production method into a solid or semi-solid form.

  As described above, the coagulant for tofu according to the present invention is composed of water and magnesium chloride, and most of the components are almost free of incidental components. Of course, by extending the reaction between the fast-acting coagulant and soy milk protein through the gel-like substance, the reaction between the coagulant and the soy milk protein quality occurs after the coagulant is uniformly dispersed in the soy milk. This makes it possible to produce tofu with excellent water retention. It also has the effect of producing tofu with excellent elasticity, texture and yield.

In addition, an appropriate amount of a fast-acting coagulant is contained in the tissue of the gel substance, and the reaction rate is more effectively slowed so that it does not immediately cause a chemical reaction with soy milk protein during tofu production. Thus, the coagulant is effectively prevented from being solidified before being uniformly dispersed.
In addition, the use of a separate additive has the effect of further enhancing the tofu flavor.

It is explanatory drawing showing the process of the manufacturing method of the coagulant for tofu by 1st Example of this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the process of the manufacturing method of the coagulant for tofu by 2nd Example of this invention.

Hereinafter, the coagulant for tofu of the present invention and the production method thereof will be described in more detail.
The coagulant for tofu of the present invention is a coagulant used for coagulation of soy milk in the production of tofu. The coagulant contains a fast-acting coagulant in a gel substance, and The fast-acting coagulant is gradually eluted, and such a tofu coagulant uses a fast-acting coagulant, but slows the reaction rate with soy milk protein.
More specifically, the coagulant is mainly composed of a gelling substance, a fast-acting coagulant, and water, and the gelling substance of the coagulant is selected from agar, gelatin, carrageenan, alginate, and pectin. One or a mixture of two or more is used, and a gelled material is produced through the gelation of such a gelled material.

Such a gel-like substance has a three-dimensional network structure and can contain a large amount of water in the tissue. The present invention contains a rapid-acting coagulant in the three-dimensional network structure of such a gel-like substance, so that the coagulant of the present invention is uniformly dispersed in soy milk during tofu production. It prevents soy milk protein and fast-acting coagulants from coming into direct contact with chemical reactions.
In addition, while the structure of the gel-like substance is gradually decomposed by the temperature and stirring of the soy milk, the fast-acting coagulant is naturally eluted from the inside of the gel-like substance and causes a reaction with the soy milk tumble quality.

  Therefore, if the tofu coagulant as described above is used, the fast-acting coagulant is used, so that the tofu with excellent flavor is obtained, and the reaction between the fast-acting coagulant and soy milk tumble quality is prolonged through the gel substance. As a result, after the coagulant is uniformly dispersed in the soy milk, the reaction between the coagulant and the soy milk tumble quality occurs, so that it becomes possible to produce tofu with excellent water retention. In addition, the tofu produced with the tofu coagulant has excellent elasticity, texture and yield.

The above rapid-acting coagulant coagulates soy milk by a chemical reaction with soy milk protein. At this time, the fast-acting coagulant used in the tofu coagulant of the present invention is one or two selected from organic acids such as magnesium chloride, bitter juice, concentrated seawater, calcium chloride, lactic acid, and salts thereof. A mixture of the above is used.
The coagulant is preferably 0.1 to 10% by weight of the gelled substance, 3 to 75% by weight of the fast-acting coagulant, and the balance is water.
If the gelled material is less than 0.1% by weight, the gelled material is not formed, and the fast-acting coagulant cannot be confined in the tissue. It becomes difficult to slow down the chemical reaction between the agent and the soy milk tumble quality. On the other hand, if the gelled substance is contained in an amount of more than 10% by weight, it becomes difficult to form an aqueous solution due to the excessive addition of the gelled substance, and the use of the excessive gelled substance becomes uneconomical.

  Further, if the rapid-acting coagulant is contained in less than 3% by weight, the amount of the fast-acting coagulant in the coagulant is small, and a relatively large amount of the coagulant is contained in the coagulant contained in the above range. Since it must be used, it is uneconomical, and physical properties such as elasticity of tofu may deteriorate. On the other hand, if it exceeds 75% by weight, it is difficult to dissolve the fast-acting coagulant, and the rate of coagulation of soy milk is delayed due to the precipitation of crystals of the fast-acting coagulant component in the gel substance. It becomes difficult to demonstrate the effect of making it.

As with the above, the tofu coagulant containing each component in an appropriate ratio contains an appropriate amount of a fast-acting coagulant in the structure of the gel material, and immediately reacts with the soy milk protein during tofu production. It can effectively slow down the reaction rate so that it does not occur and prevent the coagulant from coagulating before being evenly dispersed, which also improves water retention, flavor, texture, It can produce tofu with excellent rates.
At this time, the fast-acting coagulant contained in the gel-like tissue can be dissolved out of the tofu coagulant of the present invention by the temperature and stirring of the soymilk. In addition, the elution rate can be controlled by changing the type and content of the gelling substance, the content of the fast-acting coagulant, or the temperature of the soymilk during the production of tofu, the method of mixing the coagulant and soymilk according to the present invention, and the stirring speed.

  In addition, the gelling substance includes one or a mixture of two or more selected from sugar, crystalline fructose, liquid fructose, oligosaccharide, CMC (carboxymethylcellulose), gum arabic, guar gum, locust bean gum, and xanthan gum. It can be added as an adjuvant. Such an auxiliary agent affects the physical properties of the gel-like substance to adjust the degree of gelation of the gel-like substance, and through this, the elution rate of the coagulant can be controlled. Therefore, the above-mentioned auxiliary agent can be used by arbitrarily adjusting the addition amount in consideration of the elution rate for elution of the fast-acting coagulant.

Meanwhile, one or a mixture of two or more selected from sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and magnesium sulfate may be further included in the gel substance.
As an additive added to improve the flavor of tofu, the additive as described above can be added at 10% by weight or less with respect to the fast-acting coagulant. Sodium can be added at 2 to 7% by weight relative to the fast-acting coagulant, potassium chloride at 1 to 3% by weight relative to the fast-acting coagulant, and magnesium sulfate at 5 to 10% by weight relative to the fast-acting coagulant.

The tofu coagulant as described above can be more easily produced through the following method.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing the steps of a method for producing a coagulant for tofu according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown here, in order to produce the coagulant for tofu according to the present invention, first, a gelling substance is mixed with water to produce a 0.1 to 10% by weight aqueous gelling substance solution ( S1). At this time, the temperature of water is set to 80 to 100 ° C., which is a temperature at which the gelled substance aqueous solution can be maintained as a liquid. In addition, if the concentration of the gelled substance aqueous solution is lower than 0.1% by weight, the concentration is very thin, and then the gelation may not proceed. If it is higher than 10% by weight, it becomes difficult to form an aqueous solution due to the increase in viscosity. It is uneconomical with the use of excessive gelling material.

  Thereafter, a step (S2) is performed in which a fast-acting coagulant is added and dissolved in the gelled substance aqueous solution produced in the step (Sl). At this time, after the rapid-acting coagulant is added to the gelled substance aqueous solution, the rapid-acting coagulant is uniformly distributed in the gelled substance aqueous solution through stirring. Finally, after dissolution of the fast-acting coagulant is completed, the step of cooling it to a temperature of 0 to 40 ° C. to perform gelation (S3) completes the production of the coagulant for gel-like tofu.

Here, when performing the gelation step (S3), gelation of the gelled material occurs smoothly using a divalent metal salt such as calcium chloride depending on the type of gelled material used in the production of the coagulant. It can also be done.
In this case, the gelling material may be one or a mixture of two or more selected from agar, gelatin, carrageenan, alginate, and pectin.
The gelled substance aqueous solution is prepared such that the concentration of the gelled aqueous solution is 0.4 to 5% by weight when agar or sodium alginate is used as the gelled substance, and the gelled aqueous solution when carrageenan is used. It is desirable to make the concentration of 0.1 to 3% by weight because the maximum effect can be obtained while reducing the amount of gelled material used.

  In addition, the gelling substance includes one or more mixtures selected from sugar, crystalline fructose, liquid fructose, oligosaccharide, CMC (carboxymethylcellulose), gum arabic, guar gum, locust bean gum, and xanthan gum. Can be further added as an auxiliary agent to improve the physical properties of the gelled substance so that the gelation can proceed smoothly.

At the same time, as described above, one or a mixture of two or more selected from organic acids such as magnesium chloride, bitter juice, concentrated seawater, calcium chloride, and lactic acid, and salts thereof is used as the rapid-acting coagulant. The flavor of tofu can be improved by adding one or more mixtures selected from sodium chloride, potassium chloride and magnesium sulfate to the fast-acting coagulant.
The gel-like substance coagulant obtained by the above production method can be used by adding it to soy milk by a conventional tofu production method.

On the other hand, after the production of the gel-like coagulant is completed through the step of gelling together with the above (S3), the step of drying the produced coagulant into a solid or semi-solid (S6) is further included. Sometimes done.
For such drying, freeze drying or a method of drying at a temperature of 50 to 100 ° C. is used. By such drying, the tofu coagulant is changed into a solid or semi-solid state. The coagulant can be used more easily.

On the other hand, the following method can be used as a method for producing the coagulant for tofu according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the steps of a method for producing a coagulant for tofu according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
As shown here, the gelling material and water are mixed to produce a 0.1 to 10% by weight gelling material aqueous solution (Sl). At this time, the temperature of water is set to 80 to 100 ° C., which is a temperature at which the gelled material can be maintained in a liquid state. Also, if the concentration of the gelling substance aqueous solution is lower than 0.1% by weight, the concentration is very thin, and then gelation may not proceed smoothly. If it is higher than 10% by weight, its viscosity is high and it is difficult to form an aqueous solution. It is uneconomical with the use of excessive gelling material.

Thereafter, the gelled substance is obtained through a step (S4) of cooling and gelling the aqueous gelling substance solution. In this case, the gelation can be performed by cooling the gelled substance aqueous solution at 0 to 40 ° C.
Here, when performing the gelation step (S4), gelation of the gelled material occurs smoothly using a divalent metal salt such as calcium chloride depending on the type of gelled material used for the production of the coagulant. It can also be done.

Thereafter, as a final step, the gel-like substance gelled in the above-described step (S4) is deposited and stirred in the aqueous solution of fast-acting coagulant to allow the fast-acting coagulant to permeate the gel-like substance through the permeation phenomenon (S5). The production of the coagulant for gelled tofu can be completed.
At this time, the types of the fast-acting coagulant and the gelling substance are the same as those in the method for producing the coagulant for tofu according to the above-described first embodiment, and detailed description thereof is omitted.
At the same time, a tofu coagulant is prepared by adding one or more mixtures selected from sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and magnesium sulfate in the production of an aqueous fast-acting coagulant solution. The tofu flavor can be improved.
The gel-like substance coagulant obtained by the above production method can be used by adding it to soy milk by a conventional tofu production method.

Meanwhile, after completing the production of the coagulant through the step (S5) of allowing the rapid-acting coagulant to penetrate into the gel substance as described above, the step of drying the coagulant produced above into a solid or semi-solid state. (S6) may be further performed.
Such drying can be carried out by freeze-drying or by baking at a temperature of 50 to 100 ° C., and the tofu coagulant can be changed into a solid or semi-solid state by such drying, which makes it easier. A coagulant can be used.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail through the following examples in order to explain the present invention more effectively. This is only provided to help understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the following examples.

( Reference Example 1 )
1.5 g of agar powder was dissolved in 95 ± 5 ° C. water to obtain 60 g of an aqueous gelling substance solution having a concentration of 2.5% by weight. Thereafter, 40 g of magnesium chloride is added to the gelled substance aqueous solution and gradually mixed, stirred and dissolved, and then cooled at room temperature to add about 100 g of a gel-like coagulant containing 40% by weight of magnesium chloride in the tissue. Obtained.

( Reference Example 2 )
Carrageenan powder (1.1 g) was dissolved in 80 ° C. water to obtain a gelled substance aqueous solution (80 g) having a concentration of 1.4% by weight. The same procedure as in Reference Example 1 was conducted except that 30 g of magnesium chloride was used. Thus, about 110 g of a gel-like coagulant containing 27% by weight of magnesium chloride was obtained.

( Reference Example 3 )
2 g of sodium alginate powder was dissolved in 90 ± 10 ° C. water to obtain 80 g of a gelled substance aqueous solution having a concentration of 2.5% by weight, and then gelled with a 10% by weight calcium chloride aqueous solution. Thereafter, calcium alginate gelled in 240 g of a saturated aqueous solution of magnesium chloride is deposited for 3 hours to allow the magnesium chloride to permeate into the tissue by the permeation phenomenon, and then a gel form containing about 35% by weight of magnesium chloride. About 100 g of material coagulant was obtained.

( Reference Example 4 )
50 g of the gel-like substance coagulant obtained in Reference Example 3 was dried at 70 ± 5 ° C. for 3 to 5 hours to obtain 23 g of a solid coagulant.

( Reference Example 5 )
1 g of agar powder and 1 g of carrageenan powder were dissolved in 95 ° C. water at a temperature of 5 ° C. to obtain 80 g of a gelled substance aqueous solution having a concentration of 2.5% by weight. Then, it is cooled at room temperature to be gelled, and this gelled material is deposited in 240 g of a saturated magnesium chloride aqueous solution for 3 hours so that the magnesium chloride permeates into the structure of the gelled material by the permeation phenomenon. Thereafter, free water was removed to obtain about 125 g of a gel-like coagulant containing about 40% by weight of magnesium chloride.

( Example 1 )
1.5 g of agar powder was dissolved in 90 ° C. water at 5 ° C. to obtain 67.5 g of a gelled substance aqueous solution having a concentration of 2.2% by weight. Maintaining this temperature, 30 g of magnesium chloride, 2 g of sodium chloride and 0.5 g of potassium chloride were added together, mixed and stirred, then cooled at room temperature, about 30 wt% magnesium chloride, about 2 wt% sodium chloride, About 110 g of a gelled coagulant containing about 0.5% by weight of potassium chloride was obtained.

(Experimental Example 1: Production of tofu)
Tofu is produced by a normal tofu production method using soy milk maintained at a temperature of 65 to 95 ° C. The coagulant produced in Reference Example 1 is added as a coagulant, and the soy milk is coagulated by stirring. I let you. About 5 minutes were required until the tofu coagulation reaction was completed, and this was aged for about 15 minutes.
The tofu produced in Experimental Example 1 was excellent in texture, elasticity and yield, and it was possible to produce a tofu having the same flavor as that of a conventional tofu using a fast-acting coagulant.

(Experimental example 2: Production of tofu)
Tofu was produced by the same method as in Experimental Example 1, but 5 kinds of tofu were produced by adding the coagulants of Reference Examples 2 to 5 and Example 1 as coagulants. It took about 5 seconds to 5 minutes until the coagulation reaction of soymilk was completed and tofu was produced.
Each of the tofu produced by the coagulants of Reference Examples 2 to 5 and Example 1 has excellent texture, elasticity, and yield, similar to the case of using the slow-acting coagulant, and using the fast-acting coagulant. It was confirmed that it has an excellent flavor similar to that of tofu.

  Based on the results as described above, the coagulant for tofu according to the present invention has the same flavor as the fast-acting coagulant even though most of the components constituting it are water and magnesium chloride and hardly contain incidental components. It was confirmed that the tofu can be produced and the coagulation rate can be extended as well as the slow-acting coagulant, and the tofu with excellent texture, elasticity and yield can be produced.

Claims (5)

In the coagulant used for coagulation of soy milk in the production of tofu, the above coagulant contains 0.1 to 10% by weight of gelling substance , magnesium chloride, bitter juice, concentrated seawater, calcium chloride, lactic acid and salts thereof. 3 to 75% by weight of at least one fast-acting coagulant selected from 2 to 7% by weight of sodium chloride, 1 to 3% by weight of potassium chloride, and 5 to 10% of the fast-acting coagulant. A coagulant for tofu comprising at least one additive selected from the group of weight percent magnesium sulfate and the balance water . The coagulant for tofu according to claim 1 , wherein the gelling substance is at least one selected from the group consisting of agar, gelatin, carrageenan, alginic acid and pectin. The gelling material further includes at least one auxiliary selected from the group consisting of sugar, crystalline fructose, liquid fructose, oligosaccharide, CMC (carboxymethylcellulose), gum arabic, guar gum, locust bean gum, and xanthan gum. The coagulant for tofu according to claim 1 or 2 . Mixing a gelling material and water to produce a 0.1-10 wt% aqueous gelling material solution (Sl); cooling the gelling material aqueous solution to gelation (S4); and magnesium chloride An aqueous solution of at least one fast-acting coagulant selected from the group of, bitter, concentrated seawater, calcium chloride, lactic acid and its salts and at least one additive selected from the group of sodium chloride, potassium chloride and magnesium sulfate to, coagulation tofu, characterized in that it comprises a step (S5) to infiltrate the immediate coagulant and additives to the gel-like substance deposited a gel-like substance obtained by gelling the above and stirred to osmosis Manufacturing method. A method for producing a coagulant for tofu, further comprising the step (S6) of drying the coagulant for tofu produced by the method of claim 4 into a solid or semi-solid state.

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