JP2922687B2 - How to ripen vanilla beans - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for ripening vanilla beans which is rich in mellowness and rich in ripening sensation, and has no palatability and no palatability, which is called a straw odor or a haze smell.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The aroma peculiar to vanilla flavor is formed after harvesting vanilla beans, drying, fermenting and aging the vanilla beans, which is called curing.
The vanilla extract is produced by extracting vanilla beans after such a curing treatment with a hydroalcohol or the like, and then storing and aging the resulting extract for a long period of time. However, the aroma is extremely subtle, and many factors such as the curing conditions of vanilla beans, the type and concentration of the extraction solvent, the extraction temperature and time affect each other, and the quality of the extract is rich and mellow. There is a disadvantage that it is very difficult to obtain a good quality and it takes a long time.

[0003] The applicant of the present invention has previously described a method of producing vanilla flavor by extracting vanilla beans after the curing process, in which the woody material is added and coexisted during or after the extraction process of the vanilla beans. A method of extracting vanilla flavor characterized by the following (JP-A-59-129298). It is also disclosed that a variety of vanilla extracts can be obtained by mixing at least two types of extracts obtained by extracting vanilla beans with different kinds of alcoholic beverages (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-1173).
No. 62).

[0004]

As described above, the conventional vanilla flavor is generally extracted by using a hydrous alcohol or the like. However, the flavor is monotonous and the reproducibility is difficult. In order to give a feeling, the extracted extract must be stored and aged for a long period of several months to one year or more. In addition, although the method of directly extracting vanilla beans with liquor requires a large amount of expensive liquor, the flavor of the obtained vanilla extract is not necessarily strong and is not always satisfactory for use as a flavoring agent. is not.

[0005] Furthermore, the most important issue is that, despite the fact that conventional vanilla extracts use many conditions such as vanilla beans, extraction solvent and extraction conditions, the resulting extracts have a common characteristic straw odor. In addition, it was inevitable that an unpleasant odor called "smell odor" or "sunny odor" was accompanied. Although the cause of the straw odor, the odor of the odor or the sun odor is still unknown, it has been an extremely difficult subject to completely remove it even by long-term aging treatment.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventors have intensively studied to solve these problems. As a result, aging treatment was performed in which ethanol was added to the cured vanilla beans, and the vanilla beans were held for a predetermined time in ethanol vapor obtained by heating until the entire amount of the added ethanol was vaporized. Later by solvent extraction,
A vanilla flavor full of moderate sweetness, color tone, richness and rich ripening can be manufactured with easy operation with good quality reproducibility, and almost no straw odor or odor, or sun odor, which has been the biggest problem in the past, almost disappears. I discovered that. Such a technical idea has a new effect which is not expected at all from a conventional method of preserving and aging an extract obtained by extracting vanilla beans with a solvent such as aqueous alcohol. That is, instead of immersing vanilla beans in an ethanol solution and aging, a new aging treatment method that ages in an atmosphere of saturated ethanol vapor produces a rich, rich and mature vanilla aroma, which is used as a solvent. The extracted vanilla extract provides a rich ripening feeling and several times the aroma and flavor intensity that cannot be achieved by the conventional method of extracting and preserving and aging vanilla beans with a solvent. A vanilla extract having excellent palatability can be obtained. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described more specifically.

[0007] As the vanilla beans after the curing treatment used in the present invention, any varieties easily available on the market can be used. Such vanilla beans include, for example, bourbon vanilla beans, Mexican vanilla beans, Java vanilla beans, Tahitian vanilla beans and the like.

The ethanol used in the present invention can be basically 95% ethanol.
If desired, lower concentrations of aqueous ethanol may be used. For example, the water-containing ethanol may have a water content of about 90% by weight or less, that is, an ethanol concentration of at least about 10% by weight or more. Further, if such a condition is satisfied, for example, brewed liquor and / or distilled liquor can be used instead of hydrous ethanol. Examples of such brewed or distilled liquors include brewed liquors such as sake, wine, apple liquor, melon liquor, and beer; Fruit drinks such as brandy, kirschwasser and rum;
Mention may be made of brewed and / or distilled liquors, such as nichu made from milk and mixtures thereof. In particular,
Preferred examples include distilled spirits having a high alcohol content, such as whiskey, brandy, and rum. Further, the brewed and / or distilled liquor has an ethanol concentration of at least about 1
When the amount is less than 0% by weight, ethanol can be added and mixed to adjust the alcohol concentration of the mixture to the above conditions.

In the present invention, a polyhydric alcohol or a sugar alcohol such as glycerin, propylene glycol, sorbit, or maltitol may be added, if desired, in addition to the ethanol or alcohol. The amount of the polyhydric alcohol or sugar alcohol to be added is not particularly limited, but is usually about 50% of the ethanol used.
It is used in the range of about weight% or less.

There are no particular restrictions on the conditions of the heating contact treatment between the vanilla beans and the saturated ethanol vapor, and the conditions can be arbitrarily selected. For example, the cured vanilla beans can be used as the pods or as the pods. From about 10 mm to about 20
Spray the ethanol on shredded pieces of about mm or dipped the vanilla beans in ethanol, and after draining if necessary, for example, housed in a closed container such as an autoclave and the temperature of 35 ° C or more, Preferably 40 ° C to 6
In a temperature range of 0 ° C., under an atmosphere of ethanol vapor in which ethanol is completely vaporized, a pressure of approximately 10
Ripening conditions are often employed, such as standing and ripening for days to about 6 months, preferably about 4 weeks to about 3 months.

Under the above contact treatment conditions, when the contact temperature is, for example, about 80 ° C. to about 120 ° C., ripening proceeds in a very short time, producing a sweet caramel-like scent in addition to the original scent of vanilla beans. I do. Such vanilla beans can be suitably used for use as a powerful modulator or a flavor for tobacco.

Further, instead of the method of bringing vanilla beans and ethanol into direct contact with each other as described above, vanilla beans are placed on, for example, a void or air-permeable open container or a shelf, and the vanilla beans are stored in a closed container. It is also possible to put ethanol in another open container capable of freely evaporating, store it in a closed container in a non-contact state, and ripen it with saturated ethanol vapor under conditions where ethanol does not come into contact with vanilla beans.

Therefore, the amount of ethanol used in the vanilla beans can be arbitrarily selected depending on the aging method to be used. For example, about 0 parts by weight of ethanol is added to 100 parts by weight of vanilla beans contained in a closed container having a volume of 1 liter. 0.5 to about 5.0 parts by weight, preferably about 2 to about 1 part
A range such as 0 parts by weight can be mentioned.

The thus obtained aged vanilla beans are extracted with water, ethanol, glycerin, propylene glycol and a mixture thereof by a conventional method, whereby a rich and rich aroma is obtained which is far superior to the conventional vanilla extract. It is possible to obtain a vanilla extract that has a flavor and is free of straw odor, odor and sun odor. The aged vanilla beans can be extracted with an organic solvent such as ethanol, acetone, or isopropyl alcohol by a conventional method, and then the solvent can be recovered and removed to obtain a concentrated vanilla oleoresin having an excellent aroma and flavor. Further, a concentrated vanilla flavor excellent in aroma and flavor can also be obtained by extracting with a solvent such as carbon dioxide in a liquefied, subcritical or supercritical state, or by steam distillation.

As a specific example of such an extraction method, for example, an aqueous solution of ethanol having a concentration of about 30 to about 50% by weight with respect to 1 part by weight of the shredded vanilla beans subjected to the aging treatment of the present invention is used for about 5 to about 5%. 10 parts by weight, about 30 ° C to about 60 ° C
For about 3 to about 24 hours under stirring or standing conditions.

The conditions for extraction with carbon dioxide in a subcritical or supercritical state include, for example, charging the heated and aged vanilla beans of the present invention into an extraction tank, for example, at a pressure of about 7
Extraction is performed using carbon dioxide at 0 to about 300 kg / cm 2 and at a temperature of about 20 ° C. to about 60 ° C., and the extracted gas is guided to a separation tank by a conventional method to separate and collect flavor components.

Compared with the conventional vanilla extract, the vanilla extract obtained by the method of the present invention has no unpleasant odor called straw odor or scent smell or sunny smell, and has a rich sweetness, richness and richness. A variety of foods and drinks, such as beverages, pastries, fermented milk, various desserts such as ice cream, cookies, candies, bakery products, snack foods, flavors for chocolate and tobacco, etc. It can be widely used for health and hygiene, medicine, cosmetics, etc. The addition amount of the vanilla extract of the present invention to such foods and drinks can be arbitrarily selected, but generally, the addition amount in the range of about 0.01 to about 1% by weight to these foods and drinks is preferred. Often employed. Hereinafter, several embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples.

【Example】

Example 1 Vanilla beans cut to about 1 cm (from Madagascar)
100 g was sprayed with 10 g of 95% by weight ethanol, placed in a 1-liter container with a lid, and aged at 40 ° C. for 4 weeks. 40% by weight in the obtained aged vanilla beans
Was added and stirred and extracted at 40 ° C. for 6 hours. After the extraction, solid-liquid separation was carried out with a silk cloth, and the separated liquid 450
g was obtained. 40% by weight of ethanol 5
Then, extraction and solid-liquid separation were performed under the same conditions to obtain 500 g of a separated liquid. These separated liquids were combined, mixed well, and The mixture was filtered through filter paper No. 2 to obtain 920 g of a clear vanilla extract (Product 1 of the present invention).

Example 2 Example 1 was repeated except that the same amount of brandy VSOP (Suntory) was used in place of 95% by weight ethanol of Example 1.
Extract with the same operation as in
0 g was obtained (Product 2 of the present invention).

Comparative Example 1 In Example 1, the aging treatment was omitted, and 100 g of shredded vanilla beans was added with 500 g of 40% by weight ethanol and extracted with stirring at 40 ° C. for 6 hours. The extraction residue was repeatedly extracted in the same manner, and the extracts were combined and filtered through a filter paper to obtain 920 g of a clear vanilla extract (Comparative product 1).

Comparative Example 2 100 g of shredded vanilla beans in Example 1 without adding 95% by weight of ethanol was placed in a 1-liter container with a lid, and left still at 40 ° C. for 4 weeks for aging treatment only for heating. Was done. To the obtained vanilla beans, 500 g of 40% by weight ethanol was added and extracted at 40 ° C. for 6 hours. The extraction residue was repeatedly extracted in the same manner, and the extracts were combined and filtered through a filter paper to obtain 910 g of a clear vanilla extract (Comparative product 2).

Example 3 The vanilla extract obtained in Example 1, Comparative Example 1 and Comparative Example 2 was added to ice cream dough having a milk fat content of 13% and a non-fat milk solid content of 10%, respectively, in an amount of 0.5% by weight. Vanilla ice cream was prepared by the usual addition method. The ice cream was subjected to a sensory evaluation by a 20 well-trained professional panel. Table 1 shows the results.

[0023]

[Table 1]

As is clear from the results in Table 1, the product 1 of the present invention
It was proved that in a short period of time, it became a very mellow, ripening, highly preferred and highly palatable flavor. In contrast, Comparative Products 1 and 2 were both determined to be significantly inferior.

Example 4 The vanilla extract of the product 2 of the present invention obtained in Example 2 was subjected to sensory evaluation in the same manner as in Example 3. Table 2 shows the results.
Shown in

[0026]

[Table 2]

As is clear from the results in Table 2, the product of the present invention 2
The vanilla extract has a rich aging feeling compared to the conventional product, and was evaluated as having extremely high palatability without a straw odor, a sheer odor, or a sun odor.

[0028]

According to the present invention, moderate sweetness, color tone and richness can be obtained by a simple means of extracting the vanilla beans obtained by aging the cured vanilla beans in a saturated ethanol vapor atmosphere with a solvent. It is possible to obtain a novel vanilla extract which is full of mellow sensation and does not have an unpleasant odor such as straw odor or odor or sun odor with easy operation and good quality reproducibility.

(56) References JP-A-59-129298 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A23L 1/22-1/237 A23L 1/24

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. Under a saturated ethanol vapor atmosphere obtained by adding ethanol to vanilla beans after the curing treatment and heating until the entire amount of the added ethanol evaporates,
A method for aging vanilla beans, comprising holding the vanilla beans for a predetermined time.