1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for making hard pretzel sticks and, in particular, to a method for making a pretzel product that effectively absorbs a seasoning slurry, such as an oil-based seasoning added after baking. The invention uses several processing levers in order to produce a hard pretzel stick that has an available surface for the absorption of a seasoning added after baking.
2. Description of Related Art
Hard pretzels are typically extruded, flour-based baked products that have gone through a caustic bath prior to cooking and dehydration. Unlike soft pretzels, hard pretzels have a final moisture level low enough to make them good candidates for packaging as a snack food having a relatively long shelf life. Hard pretzels are quite popular as a snack food, particularly in the United States, and come in a variety of sizes and shapes, including a small version of the traditional soft pretzel shape, a twisted shape involving two or more extruded dough strands that are twisted or braided prior to cutting individual pieces, and pretzel stick or rod shapes.
As with soft pretzels, hard pretzels have a dark brown and glossy exterior finish resulting from the caustic bath step that occurs prior to baking. This hard glossy finish is a low porosity exterior shell that makes it difficult to apply seasoning to hard pretzels by traditional snack food means, such as using a seasoning tumbler with a seasoning slurry. Put simply, the seasoning thus applied tends to fall off, which reduces consumer appeal and leads to a number of production problems such as seasoning build-up on the equipment used during and post seasoning. It is possible to get some seasoning adherence when using a water-based spray that is applied to cooked pretzels. However, water-based seasoning media does not deliver the same robust flavor characteristics as an oil-based seasoning media. Consequently, it is quite difficult to impart many of the interesting and intense flavors onto hard pretzels using seasoning techniques that are routinely used with other snack foods, such as potato chips and corn chips. Yet, marketing studies have shown that a highly seasoned, hard pretzel is desirable for many consumers.
One prior art approach to this problem is to physically break hard pretzels into irregular pieces, thereby exposing surfaces that are not covered with the hard glossy shell. These exposed surfaces are much more capable of effectively absorbing a seasoning, such as an oil-based seasoning. As a result, these pretzel pieces can be seasoned with a number of interesting and flavorful seasonings that cannot be used practically with unbroken hard pretzels. It would be desirable, however, to devise a method to season hard pretzels so that the pretzels do not have the appearance of being broken into irregular pieces.
A need exists, therefore, for a method of producing hard pretzels that are well-suited for the effective absorption of seasoning, including an oil-based seasoning slurry. This method should produce pretzels that are recognizable as being complete pretzel products, without the appearance of being broken into smaller and irregular components or pieces. Ideally, such method should use, as much as possible, standard pretzel processing techniques and machinery. The end product should also maintain some of the hard pretzel bite and flavor characteristics as well as have a good shelf life.
The proposed invention comprises a method for making a hard pretzel having a portion of its surface available for the absorption of a seasoning slurry. In a preferred embodiment, this involves simultaneously extruding three pretzel dough strands in a triad arrangement with one dough strand on top and two dough strands on the bottom. These dough strands are cut into individual pieces, still maintaining the triad arrangement of three sticks or strands grouped together. A dough having a lower than normal moisture level is used in order to reduce the adherence as between the three sticks. A lower caustic concentration is used in the caustic bath so that the hard shell formed around the triad of sticks is less hard than had the shell been formed by prior art production processes. When cooked in an oven after the caustic bath, the humidity level in the oven is manipulated such that the first portion of the cooking process is in an extremely low humidity (dry) environment, which is contrary to the prior art. The final moisture level of the product is also slightly lower than prior art hard pretzels. This lower final moisture level is achieved by additional drying in a kiln step.
The result of the above processes imparts stress fractures between the contact areas of the three strands or sticks that comprise the triad previously described. These stress fractures allow for the three individual sticks to break apart, some in the kiln and the rest in a later seasoning tumbler, thereby exposing the former contact area of each of the three sticks. Thus, the parting of the sticks from the triad exposes the more highly absorptive pretzel internal area along a portion of each stick. Upon parting, the three strands are now individual pretzel sticks, each having a portion of its surface area available for effective absorption of a seasoning slurry.
The end result is a hard pretzel that appears as a normally-formed and unbroken rod or stick shape. However, this pretzel piece formed by Applicants' invention is not completely encased in the hard glossy shell, but, rather, there is a strip running longitudinally down each stick that is in essence exposed and available for absorbing a seasoning slurry. This exposed strip provides just enough surface area for a hard pretzel made by Applicants' invention to absorb oil-based seasoning, thereby providing opportunities to make new and interesting seasoned pretzels. Further, Applicants' invention uses standard pretzel manufacturing equipment and is easily adaptable to existing pretzel lines. The end product is familiar in appearance, maintains much of a hard pretzel's bite and flavor characteristics, and is shelf stable.
The above as well as additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following written detailed description.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, farther objectives and advantages thereof will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
a,
2
b,
2
c,
2
d, and 2e are schematic representations of various embodiments of an extrusion hole followed by the rod dough shape produced by such hole after extrusion and cutting in accordance with Applicants' invention;
a,
3
b,
3
e, and 3d are schematic plan views of various extruder hole shapes reflecting various embodiments of Applicants' invention;
a and 4b are schematic plan views of additional extruder hole shapes relating to various embodiments of Applicants' invention;
a is a perspective view in elevation of a pretzel dough strand triad exhibiting stress cracks prior to breakage between the individual sticks in accordance with a preferred embodiment of Applicants' invention; and
b is a perspective view in elevation of a single pretzel stick of Applicants' invention.
Applicants' invention is best understood in contrast with prior art methods for making hard pretzel product, such as pretzel rods/sticks or pretzel twists. Referring to
The dough exits the extruder after the extrusion step 104 in, for example, a single dough strand or rope configuration. This dough strand must be cut during a cutting step 106 to individual strand segments. Once the segments are formed by the cutting step 106, these dough strands are conveyed to a caustic bath for a caustic bath step 108. The caustic bath, using prior art methods, typically is about a 1% to 2% caustic aqueous solution between 180° F. to 200° F. The dwell time during the caustic bath step 108, depending on the product being made, can range from less than 10 seconds to up to about 25 seconds.
From the caustic bath step 108, the dough strands are then conveyed to an oven for a baking step 110. It is the goal in the prior art for this oven to form the hard shell around the pretzel pieces as slowly as possible in order to avoid blow-out of the shell by the escaping moisture from within the pretzel piece. As a consequence, the prior art teaches that the humidity level at the beginning of the baking step 110 should be maintained relatively high, thus avoiding the rapid formation of the hard shell. In order to accomplish this, the prior art typically uses an oven during the baking step 110 that has three separate zones. The temperature in each zone is usually either approximately the same, such as about 550° F., or decreases as the piece proceeds through each zone. The humidity level in each zone goes from a high humidity level to a relatively low humidity level as the piece proceeds from zone one through zone three. To quantify this, it should be understood that the vast majority of ovens presently used in the hard pretzel industry are manufactured by Reading Bakery Systems of Robesonia, Pa. These ovens consist of at least two and typically three cooking zones and maintain a humidity level in each zone by adjusting a vent or exhaust setting on each zone by a certain percent, 0% being as closed as possible and 100% being as open as possible. The prior art teaches, and the manufacturer instructs, that the first zone should have a vent opening of about 10%-30%, the second zone having a vent opening of about 40-60%, and the third zone having a vent opening of 70%-100%. As a consequence, the humidity in the first zone is very high and the humidity in the third zone is very low. This arrangement allows for the slow formation of the hard shell on the pretzel without explosive disruption of the shell during the baking step 110. The total dwell time during the baking step 110 is typically between about 3 to about 10 minutes at a temperature of between 450° F. and 600° F. The product exits the baking step 110 at a moisture level of typically between 8 and 15%.
The prior art product next proceeds to a drying step 112 which typically takes place in a drying kiln. Dwell time in this kiln during the drying step 112 is typically between 10 and 60 minutes at a temperature of something less than 350° F. in accordance with the prior art. The pretzel product emerges from the drying step 112 at a moisture level typically of between 2% to 6%. The pretzel product can then be packaged once it exits the kiln at the drying step 112, but can alternatively be further seasoned at a seasoning step 114. In the prior art, the seasoning steps are limited to the application of water-based seasoning as previously discussed.
One of the goals of Applicants' invention is to provide a surface area along the length of each pretzel stick that can effectively absorb seasoning slurry. Stated another way, Applicants' invention produces pretzel sticks having a portion of the surface area that is not covered by the hard shell. The preferred method for doing this involves the proximal extrusion of three dough strands into a triad arrangement, such as is show in
In this preferred embodiment, Applicants' process promotes the formation of stress fractures between the boundaries of the three sticks. Skipping forward for a moment, these stress fractures are illustrated in
Because of the formation of these stress fractures 550, very little mechanical stress is required to break the three-strand elements 511, 512, 513 into their individual component pieces or sticks. Such an individual stick is illustrated in
In order to develop the stress fracturing discussed above, Applicants utilize several changes to the prior art process for making hard pretzels. What follows is a description of various process levers which may be used individually or in combination as a part of Applicants' invention in order to achieve the goals stated herein.
Referring again to
Again, with reference to
It is also possible to enhance the stress fracturing characteristics in the preferred three-rod arrangement (and others) by various modifications to the extrusion holes. These modifications are illustrated in
Referring to
A similar embodiment is reflected in
Similar arrangements can be seen in
Similar concepts are reflected as alternative embodiments shown in
All of the variations shown in
Regardless of the shape used, Applicants find that, for their preferred embodiment, it is best to cut the dough rope during the cutting step 106 of
Another lever used to promote the formation of the stress fracture between the rods is the reduction in the caustic concentration in the caustic bath 108 of
Another lever used by Applicants to promote the stress fracturing turns the prior art teaching regarding the baking step 110 on its head. As previously noted, the prior art requires that the baking step involve zones that become progressively less humid, with a first zone that is very humid, followed by an intermediate zone that is somewhat humid, and a final zone which is maintained at a low humidity. Referring again to the vent opening settings previously discussed, Applicants use a vent setting in the first zone of preferably between about 80% to about 100%, or more preferably about 90% open. The second zone in Applicants' baking step 10 is preferably maintained with a vent setting of about 60% to about 90% open, or more preferably about 80% open. Applicants maintain zone three at about 60% to about 90% open, or more preferably about 80% open. This creates a unique low humidity profile in the oven used for Applicants' baking step 110. Applicants also preferably use a temperature that is about 50° F. higher in the first zone than that used in the following two zones, or preferably about 575° F. to 525° F. in the first zone. However, temperature similar to those used in the prior art can also be used with Applicants' process.
Applicants use this unique humidity profile through the baking step 110 in order to form the hard shell as quickly as possible, which is a goal specifically avoided by the prior art. By forming this hard shell quickly during the baking step 110, Applicants promote the formation of the stress crack as between the individual rods. The rapid formation of the hard shell as well as the increased concentration gradient for moisture escaping the strands due to the low humidity environment promotes explosive rupturing at the intersection of the dough strands in Applicants' preferred triad arrangement.
Another lever used by Applicants to promote the stress crack formation is additional drying during the drying step 112. Prior art pretzel manufacturing involves drying the pretzel during the drying step 112 to a moisture level of typically between 2% and 6% by weight. Applicants, however, in a preferred embodiment, dry the pretzel rods to a moisture level of less than 2% by weight, or preferably about 1.8%. This is accomplished by using higher drying temperatures and/or longer dwell times in the drying step than is taught by the prior art. It is at this point, during the drying step 112 that breakage between the individual rods in the preferred triad arrangement begins to take place. It has been observed in product runs that it is not unusual for about one-third of the triad grouping to break apart during the drying step 112 such that at least one of the strands is separated from the group.
The remaining triad groupings are broken apart during the seasoning step 114 by placing the dried pretzel product into a seasoning tumbler, such as a spiral tumbler or other tumblers used in the field of snack food seasoning. The physical stresses imparted on a snack product placed in such seasoning tumblers is relatively gentle. However, due to the processing steps described above, such physical stresses are adequate to further propagate the stress cracks and separate the individual rods or sticks from the triad arrangement of Applicants' preferred embodiment. This separation, as previously described and in reference to
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.