Freeze dried cheese and popcorn product
AssigneeNatureStar Foods, Inc.
InventorFrederic W. Plochman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for producing an improved food product comprising the steps of providing an unlayered, substantially-homogeneous mixture of previously popped popcorn and shredded cheese; heating the mixture to melt the cheese; cooling the mixture to form a cohesive mixture of cheese and popcorn; freezing the cohesive mixture to form a frozen mixture; and freeze-drying the frozen structure; and the resulting food product.
Claims25
A method for producing a crunchy freeze-dried food product to be consumed in its non-constituted state comprising the steps of:
- providing an unlayered, substantially homogeneous:
- mixture of popped popcorn and shredded cheese;
- heating said mixture to melt said shredded cheese;
- cooling said heated mixture thereby forming a cohesive mixture of cheese and popped popcorn;
- freezing said cohesive mixture to form a frozen mixture;
- and
- freeze-drying said frozen mixture to provide a crunchy freeze-dried food product to be consumed in its non-reconstituted state.
A method for producing a crunchy freeze-dried food product to be consumed in its non-reconstituted state comprising the steps of:
- providing an unlayered, substantially homogeneous mixture of popped popcorn and shredded cheese wherein the substantially homogeneous mixture is obtained by providing a substantially uniform substrate of popped popcorn and adding shredded cheese in the form of substantially flat strands approximately two to three inches long, approximately 150 inch to 3/16 inches wide and approximately 0.060 inches thick on top of and within the interstices of said popcorn substrate to form a substantially homogeneous mixture, and repeating said steps of providing a popped popcorn substrate and adding shredded cheese one or more times, wherein each new substrate is provided on top of said previously-formed substantially homogeneous mixture;
- heating said mixture in an impinger oven at approximately 250.degree. F. to melt said shredded cheese;
- cooling said heated mixture thereby forming a cohesive mixture of cheese and popped popcorn;
- freezing said cohesive mixture in a cryogenic CO.sub.2 freeze tunnel at approximately -50.degree. F. to approximately -75.degree. F. to form a frozen mixture;
- freeze-drying said frozen mixture until said product contains no more than 1 weight percent moisture to provide a crunchy freeze-dried food product;
- and
- fracturing said freeze-dried food product into substantially bite-sized pieces to be consumed in a non-reconstituted state.
A crunchy, freeze-dried food product to be consumed in its non-reconstituted state comprising an unlayered, substantially homogeneous freeze-dried cohesive mixture of popped popcorn and cheese wherein the cheese binds a plurality of kernels of popped popcorn to each other to form a cohesive mixture of cheese and popcorn.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.