Continuous curding process
OwnerEric Hsuinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A soy curding apparatus for continuously producing soy curd from soy milk including a pump for pumping soy milk and soy curd; a coagulator dispensing means positioned for adding a coagulant; an expansion chamber to produce a pre-soy curd mixture; a maturing means to allow further mixing and maturing of the soy curd; a whey separating means for separating the whey from the curd; a tower to remove residual whey to form a plug of soy curd of a desired consistency and moisture content and to cut a block from the soy plug; a conveyor means adapted to receive and transport the block from the tower.
Claims15
A soy curding apparatus for continuously producing soy curd from soy milk wherein the apparatus includes:
- a) a pump for continuously pumping soy milk and formed soy curd through the apparatus;
- b) a coagulator dispensing means positioned downstream of said pump for adding a coagulant to the soy milk;
- c) an expansion chamber positioned downstream of the coagulator dispensing means to allow the coagulant to mix with the soy milk to produce a pre-soy curd mixture;
- wherein the expansion chamber slows down the mixture to effect a drop in pressure to increase particulate size of the curd:
- d) a maturing means positioned downstream of the expansion chamber to allow further mixing of the pre-soy curd mixture and maturing of the pre soy curd mixture matures to form soy curd of a desired consistency and particular size;
- e) a whey separating means positioned downstream of the maturing means for separating the whey from the curd;
- f) a tower positioned downstream of the whey separating means to receive the formed curd, said tower adapted to remove residual whey from the soy curd to form a plug of soy curd in the tower of a desired consistency and moisture content and is adapted to cut the soy curd plug to form a block of soy curd at the downstream end of the tower;
- g) a conveyor means positioned at the downstream end, wherein said conveyor means is adapted to receive the block of soy curd as the soy curd block exits the tower and then transport a severed soy curd block from the tower.
A method of producing soy curd according to the apparatus hereinbefore described, where the method includes the steps of:
- a) continuously pumping soy milk through the pump to force the soy milk and the formed soy curd through the soy curd apparatus;
- b) adding a coagulant to the soy milk via the coagulator dispensing means downstream of said pump;
- c) allowing the soy milk coagulant mixture to mix in the expansion chamber positioned downstream of the coagulator dispensing means to from a pre-soy curd mixture;
- d) moving the pre soy mixture through the maturing means positioned downstream of the expansion chamber to further mix the pre-soy curd mixture to allow the pre soy mixture to mature to form soy curd of a desired consistency and particular size;
- e) passing the soy curd through the whey separating means positioned downstream of the maturing means to separate the whey from the soy curd;
- f) allowing the soy curd to enter the tower positioned downstream of the whey separating means wherein in the tower the soy curd is further compressed, typically under the soy curds own weight, and residual whey is removed from the soy curd, thus forming a plug of soy curd in the tower of a desired consistency and moisture content.
- g) allowing the soy curd to fall, typically under gravity, onto a conveyor means positioned at the downstream end of the tower, wherein said conveyor means receives the soy curd plus as the soy curd plus exits the tower and then the plug of soy curd is severed to form a block of soy curd which is then transported away from the tower by the conveyer means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.