US 4,790,996 AGranted

Process for preparing cereal products

AssigneeGeneral Foods Corporation

InventorsThomas M. Roush, Charles T. Stocker

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Abstract

The present invention is concerned with an apparatus and process for preparing different varieties of ready-to-eat cereal products utilizing substantially the same process comprising: an extruder and a hollow attachment connected at the discharge end of the extruder, said attachment being of sufficient area and length to sufficiently completely cook the food product in an enclosed environment; the food product being a farinaceous material which is fed to the extruder where it is mixed with sufficient moisture to form a dough and extruded for a time and at a temperature and pressure effective to commence the cooking process and wherein the heated dough passes into the hollow attachment connected at the discharge end of the extruder where the cooking is completed. The cooked dough exiting the extruder is cooled, shaped in its desired form and toasted to its desired final moisture content.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A process for preparing a food product comprising the steps of:

(a) feeding a farinaceous material containing protein into an extruder;
(b) adding sufficient moisture to the farinaceous material within the extruder to form a dough;
(c) heating the dough within the extruder for a time and at a temperature and pressure effective to raise the temperature of the dough to temperatures sufficiently high to initiate gelatinization of the starch and denaturation of the protein;
(d) discharging the heated farinaceous dough into a hollow attachment connected at the discharge end of the extruder for an effective time and at an effective temperature and pressure and said attachment being of sufficient area and length to completely gelatinize the starch, denature the protein and cook the farinaceous dough in an enclosed environment and wherein the internal surface of the hollow attachment is of sufficient smoothness to promote passage of the farinaceous dough therethrough;
(e) cooling the cooked dough after discharge from the hollow attachment;
(f) sizing the cooked, cooled farinaceous dough to a desired shape or form, and
(g) drying the shaped or formed farinaceous dough to a desired moisture content.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.