'Southern Tangyuan, North Yuanxiao.' Tangyuan and Yuanxiao are the representative foods for the Lantern Festival of the North and South. The paintings are bounded by the world. But now, the dumplings have spread all over the country. The Lantern Festival has almost disappeared. This year's Lantern Festival, although three All-in-one companies have launched frozen yuyuan, but compared with dumplings, sales are still minimal.
The main reason is that the production process is simple, the machine utilization rate is higher, and the lower cost of the dumplings is poured into the market in large quantities. This has caused a huge impact on the Lantern, which has complicated processes and lacks specialized production equipment.
In view of this, after several years of research, Lu Zhigang, the person in charge of a certain equipment company, made reference to the process and method of hand-made Lantern, and carried out the pressing machine, cutting machine, sesame ball, and automatic packing production line on the market. A number of improvements have been made to realize the making of fillings made by the Lantern Festival, cutting the filling, and repeating the process of sizing and breading, and the continuous production of mechanized production.
Solved the "old" problem in the industrialization of Lantern Festival production, Yuan Zhen has the opportunity to use it to "turn the plate"?
Absence of production equipment, 'fake' rampage
The Lantern Market is lagging behind so many dumplings. The complexity of the process and the lack of production facilities are very important reasons. 'The current total output of Lantern is not large. There are some food factories specializing in the production of Lantern in Shandong, Shaanxi, and Northeast China. The longest starts are 6 Months, the shortest is only 1 month. Because the product profit is higher, the market demand concentrates the explosion, the manufacturer's demand for Lanterns equipment is still very urgent. ' Lu Zhigang said.
It is understood that the main equipment currently used in Lantern production is a chocolate polishing machine, which looks like an open roller that oscillates back and forth, imitating the constant shaking of hands. Other production processes, such as making fillings, cutting fillings, finished plate, etc. , Basic still need manual operation.
Lu Zhigang provided a video of using a chocolate polishing machine to produce lanterns. It can be seen that the filling and the dry powder are mixed by the shaking of the drum. The staff next to it is holding the water bottle to spray the water, holding the shovel in the end. The dry powder, two hands alternating 'sprinkling' and 'shovel dry powder' action. For a long time, repeated the process many times, labor intensity, efficiency is low, only one day can produce 100 to 200 kg of product.
Most of the Yuanxiao produced by these food processing plants was sold naked and could not be placed for a long time. In addition, the demand burst in the production period. In order to increase production capacity, individual food manufacturers even came up with a “smart method”, using four or six heads first. The glutinous rice dumpling made into a glutinous rice ball with a weight of about 10g is used as a filling for the filling. It is rolled with a chocolate polisher and the production efficiency is at least doubled.
However, the Yuanxiao produced by this method only looks like Yuan Zhen, and it is also the center of the dumplings. The insider can see at a glance that it is a “fake element” wrapped in two layers of skin. The actual taste is not as traditional. Yuan Hao.
Four major difficulties in equipment development
Lu Zhigang talked about an interesting phenomenon. In the past two to three years, at least 30 people have called him and invariably asked a question: Can we improve the production of dumplings to produce lanterns? He said: '' The glutinous rice dumplings are rolled, and the Yuan dynasty is baked. 'Actually, glutinous rice dumplings and oyster dumplings just look alike. The production principle is completely different, so you can't use equipment.'
He explained: The dumplings were first made by mixing glutinous rice flour with water to make a dough, and then filling the fillings. The traditional foods made by kneading and kneading were the biggest features. The Lantern was made by hand. After the glutinous rice flour is smashed, the dry powder is glued with the help of the traditional tool basket, and it is repeatedly circulated until the filling is full of glutinous rice noodles, and it is rolled into a round ball and it is done. The characteristics are reflected in the word 'roll'.
'Yuanyuan pays attention to the smooth and smooth surface; Lantern's epidermis emphasizes graininess. Tangyuan filling is a fluid; Yuanxiao fillings are relatively hard, and they have toughness and graininess when eaten. After the soup is boiled, it is broth; Yuanxiao is boiled after soup, soup. More concentrated. ' Lu Zhigang added.
He analyzed that the difficulties in research and development of Lantern devices are mainly in four areas:
The first is that the fillings in the Lanterns contain sugar, and the sugars are known as sugar syrups. After stirring, the stickiness is very large. It is easy to stick to the machine and the mechanism is difficult to fill.
The second is to make the cube's filling heart repeatedly through the addition of glutinous rice powder, rolling after adding water, and finally showing a spherical appearance, which requires certain skills, and can not be straight-line rolling;
The third is to ensure that the rolled glutinous rice flour is kept for a long time, frozen and transported over long distances without shelling, thick slurry water, and sticky glutinous rice flour are sticky.
The fourth reason is that because Lantern is a rolled product, the size of each element is not easy to grasp. The traditional production method is very testable to the proficiency and technical level of the producer. The machine must also ensure stable performance. The size of the Lantern produced is basically the same size. .
One by one, to achieve continuous, mechanized production
After several years of research, Lu Zhigang made a number of improvements to the pressing machine, cutting machine, sesame ball, and automatic wrapping production line on the market by referring to the method and process of hand-made Lantern. Stuffing, cutting the filling, continuous sizing and powdering, and continuous production, mechanized production, solves the problem of industrialization and production of "old".
The first is machine-made stuffing. Consistent with the assumptions of many food manufacturers, the R&D team started with glutinous rice dumplings, but found that the viscosity of the caramel is too high and sticky to the machine. After many thoughts, they thought that the hand-made fillings depended on the human hand. The force pressure is made into a type, so using the same principle of the pressure surface machine to try, found that the effect is good, after the parameters of the dough machine and the local structure adjustment, can achieve the process of filling cakes.
This is followed by segmentation of the filling cake. The R&D team changed the cutting machine into a finer, denser cutting knife. The pressed pie was passed through a cutting knife, and several dozen 1cm*1cm fillings can be cut at a time. heart.
The last and hardest thing is to add water to the filling and stick the glutinous rice flour powder, which is what Lu Zhigang called the 'slurry' process. Since the filling is dry powder, it only rolls once and the dry powder is particularly vulnerable to shelling. , R & D personnel often went to a hand-made, selling stalls to sell the Lantern where the observation and study, found that she repeated at least 6 times the rolling process.
However, industrial production also needs to take into account such factors as the workshop area and equipment costs. If it really repeats six times, the cost is too high, but it is certain that the process of adding water for multiple times cannot be omitted. After many experiments, Finally found a balance between ensuring the taste and simplifying the process. It was found that the rolling process needs to be repeated at least 3 times.
'Simply hand-made 6 times to 3 times, 1cm*1cm size, about 5g weight of filling made through 22 times the weight of 22g weight of the Lantern. In other words, 3 times 'powder + pulp' will increase The weight of about 17g, the weight of powdered pulp for 1 time is nearly 6g, and it can not affect the traditional taste, so we must increase the viscosity of the pulp. ' Lu Zhigang said that from the heart of the cube filling into a ball, rolling process In the middle of the jump, the amplitude is harder to grasp. The slurry is not lean, nor is it thick. It takes two months to adjust the thinness of the pulp.
Now, in three steps, the filling is made, the length of the cutting equipment is about 2 meters, the length of a device for 'slurry+powder' is 3 meters, and the number of repetitions is 9 meters. The fillings made by the Yuan-Yi are all added together. It is 11 meters long. Taking into account the actual conditions of the production hall of food companies, the industrialized production lanterns still have to make some concessions. 'If wrapped four times, five times, the effect will be better, the corresponding pulp will be thinner, and the sticky rice will be sticky each time. Less dry powder, closer to the taste of handmade lanterns'.
Lu Zhigang also disclosed the experience of several experiments. There are two types of glutinous rice flour that are added during the rolling season. One is a finished powder, and the other is a self-grinding powder.
The next step he considered was to use two sets of slurry equipment to reduce equipment investment and size requirements in advance to ensure the continuous production of Lantern.