Abstract A light puffed or expanded food product which has a core filled with an edible pastelike or creamy material. The apparatus for making this product includes an extruder capable of developing high pressures and elevated temperatures in a mass of edible material such as corn meal to which water and vegetable oil have been added. The material exits the extruder through an orifice, at which point the edible material expands significantly due to the vaporization of the water. through the orifice, a tube extends for the introduction of the core material into the center of the expanded material. The preferred but not essential length of the tube is more than 50 times its diameter, and its diameter increases progressively from the orifice toward the tube outlet. The filling material in the tube and the surrounding atmosphere cool and accelerate the hardening and maturing of the expanded material and eliminate vapor pockets in the core.
The method of claim 1 wherein said elongated hollow body is moved along an interiorly located elongated cooling zone of increasing diameter and said filling material is injected into the center of said hollow body through said elongated cooling zone, whereby said filling material receives some of the heat from said hollow body prior to injection into the center of said hollow body.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 2 in which the length of the cooling zone is at least 15 times the outside diameter of the hollow body passing from the cooling zone.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the center-filled hollow body is divided into segments and said segments are then baked.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
49 words
The method of claim 4 wherein the mass of edible material containing a liquid is a farinaceous material containing from about 10 to 25 percent by weight of water, up to 10 percent by weigHt of a liquid oil and up to 1 3/4 percent by weight of salt.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method of claim 4 wherein the farinaceous material is corn meal.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
37 words
The method of claim 4 wherein the mass of edible material is at a temperature of from about 100* to 150* C. and under a pressure of from about 3,000 to 4,000 p.s.i. at said annular orifice.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
99 words
The method of making a light, expanded, center-filled food product comprising the steps of: a. creating in a mass of food material containing a liquid, superatmospheric pressures and temperatures in excess of the boiling point of the liquid at a given lesser pressure; b. continuously passing said material to a zone of said lesser pressure, thereby expanding said material by vaporizing the liquid therein; c. moving said expanded material as an elongated hollow body through a cooling zone, thereby cooling said hollow body; and d. continuously introducing a filling material into the hollow portion of said cooled continuous body.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
14 words
The method of claim 8 wherein said filled continuous body is divided into segments.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
13 words
The method of claim 8 wherein said food material is a farinaceous material.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method of claim 10 wherein said farinaceous material is corn meal.