Content
PROSPECTS FOR APPLICATION OF NON-CONVENTIONAL VEGETABLE RAW MATERIALS IN THE CONFECTIONERY INDUSTRY
Flour confectionery products are mainly pastries with a high content of sugar, fat and eggs and a low moisture content. They have a pleasant taste and attractive appearance. Their assortment is very diverse.
However, there is a certain group of people for whom these delicacies are prohibited. Therefore, one of the main tasks facing food industry enterprises at the present time is the purposeful creation of a civilized market for medicinal, dietary, prophylactic products that meet the needs of specific groups of the population:
- people with various diseases (diabetes, etc.),
- overweight people
- people experiencing various physical activities.
Some of these problems can be solved by implementing the following areas:
- creation of technologies and new types of prophylactic products with increased nutritional and biological value;
- development of technologies and new types of sugar-free products, including diabetic ones.
The workers of the bakery and confectionery industry in Russia are also faced with the task of improving the structure of nutrition as a result of an increase in the share of mass consumption products of high nutritional value, including biological value. The feasibility of its solution is determined by the need to regulate the chemical composition of products in accordance with the modern requirements of nutritional science, as well as the efficiency of their production due to the saving of expensive raw materials.
In recent years, there has been a tendency to enrich food products with various biologically active substances of plant origin and reduce the sugar content of products also due to the use of plant raw materials.
Chicory is ideal for these purposes. In Russia, cultivated chicory has been grown as a food plant for a long time and on a large scale. For a long time, the production and processing of chicory in Russia was concentrated mainly in the Yaroslavl and Ivanovo regions, where about 16 thousand tons of chicory root crops were harvested annually. In recent years, industrial planting of chicory has also been carried out in Belgorod, Voronezh, Tambov and other regions of the Russian Federation.
This increased interest in chicory is primarily due to the fact that it is the second raw material after natural coffee for the production of coffee products. Chicory has established itself as a tasty and healthy product with healing properties. More than a hundred instant and insoluble coffee drinks are produced on the basis of chicory in many countries. It is used for the production of natural coffee (10-12%), coffee drinks (up to 70%). Chicory increases their nutritional value, imparts aroma, bitter pleasant taste, and coffee color (when roasting, inulin and fructose are partially caramelized, which ensures the color density of the “coffee” drink obtained from the powder). In Russia alone, the assortment of coffee products produced with the use of chicory has reached almost 50 items in recent years. The value of a plant as widespread in nature as chicory is due to its unique chemical composition.Chicory roots contain from 40% (in the wild) to 61% (in cultivated varieties) inulin, 4% protein; up to 15% sugar, 0.1-0.2% intibin glucoside, which gives the roots a characteristic bitter taste, 4.5-9.5% fructose, 10-20% levulose, 4.7-6.5% pentosans, and pectin, fats, resins, tannins and organic acids - ascorbic (15.8%;), chicory, malic, citric and tartaric.
According to the Paris Laboratory, chicory contains 33 mineral elements and vitamins: A, E, B1, B2, B12, PP. Studies on the content of mineral elements in pure chicory have shown that in terms of the composition of macro- and microelements, this product is characterized as follows (mg / 100g dry matter): potassium - 1667.4; calcium -91.5; magnesium -6.3; iron -3.0; copper -0.2; zinc -0.65; manganese -0.42.
In chicory, you can also find 17 amino acids: aspartic in the amount of 1.01-1.18 g / 100 g of raw material depending on the variety of chicory, threonine 0.31-0.50 g, serine-0.35-0.59 g, glutamic acid - 1.07-1.70, proline - 0.28-0.83g, glycine - 0.28-0.51g, alanine - 0.38-0.89g, valine - 0.21- 0.41g, isoleucine - 0.20-0.38g, leucine - 0.26-1.59g, tyrosine - 0.14-0.70g, phenylalanine - 0.11-0.52g, histidine - 0.00-0.77g, lysine - 0.00-0.97 g, arginine - 0.51-0.81 g, as well as traces of cystine and methionine. However, during storage, the content of most free amino acids, especially essential ones (threonine, valine, methionine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine and lysine), decreases markedly. Other components of chicory root crops - minerals, malic, citric, tartaric and oxalic acids, glucosides - intibin, lactucin, lactopicrin, taraxatol, proteins and lipids during the storage of raw materials practically remain unchanged.
It is known that carbohydrates play a very important technological role in the process of melanoidin formation (intense coloring of the crust of bakery and confectionery products), and chicory is the most natural source of the valuable polysaccharide inulin. Inulin is a high molecular weight fructosan, soluble in water, precipitated from aqueous solutions when alcohol is added. When hydrolyzing inulin with acids, it forms fructofuranose and a small amount of glucopyranose, and the content of free monosaccharides, fructose and glucose, increases approximately fourfold.
In plants, inulin is often accompanied by other fructosans (inulides), which have a lower molecular weight (10-12 fructose residues) and, therefore, better solubility in water. In terms of qualitative analysis, inulin and inulides are not stained with iodine. Inulin, found in chicory roots, is the most valuable sweetener in our country. It is also found in large quantities in the tubers of the earthen pear and dahlia, in the roots of dandelion, kok-sagiz, in artichokes, in the roots, leaves and stems of the rubber plant guayula. In these plants, inulin replaces starch. In terms of chemical structure, inulin is a fructose polymer of 35-60 monosaccharide residues linked by glycosidic bonds between the 1st and 2nd carbon atoms.
Inulin, used as a food additive to food, enriches them with dietary fiber, which stimulates the motor function of the intestine, prevents the absorption of cholesterol, and promotes the release of toxic elements from the body. In addition, inulin is low in calories. As a substitute for sugar, inulin is used in foods for patients with diabetes mellitus.
Plants (as well as molds and yeasts) contain a special enzyme - inulase, which hydrolyzes inulin to form fructose. Fructose of chicory makes it easier for the liver to remove toxins from the body, has a positive effect on the central nervous system, and eliminates insomnia. Having entered the bloodstream, fructose is more likely to enter into metabolic processes than glucose. Utilization of fructose does not require insulin, so it is, like inulin, useful for diabetic patients.Fructose has a great sweetness compared to other sugars.
The tannins contained in chicory have an astringent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect. Medicinal plants containing tannins are used to treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, burns, as well as in case of poisoning with alkaloids and severe methods, since they have the ability to form insoluble precipitates with these compounds.
There are optimal modes of the chicory roasting process, because at this stage there are significant changes in the physical and chemical properties of the product. From a chemical point of view, this is accompanied by the hydrolysis of inulin to fructose and glucose (their content increases fourfold); the content of free amino acids changes. The glycoside intibin, interacting with the compounds formed during frying, gives a bitter-aromatic complex - chicoriol;
just as it should be at high temperatures, melanoidins are formed - substances of a pleasant golden brown color.
Thus, roasted chicory contains on average 17.46% sugar, 25.58% nitrogen-free extractive substances, 7.35% nitrogenous substances, 2.48% fatty oil, and a total of 71.77% water-soluble substances (on dry matter ).
Since ancient times, such a valuable plant as chicory has been used in folk medicine to treat diseases of the stomach and intestines, especially in gastritis, enteritis, colitis; kidneys, and also as a tonic, blood-purifying agent, improving metabolism and enhancing cardiac activity. All this determines the use of chicory as a raw material with valuable therapeutic and prophylactic properties. The most convenient products for correcting nutrition are bakery and flour confectionery products. Flour confectionery products occupy a significant place in terms of production volumes of industries. Among all the variety of baked semi-finished products used for making cakes and pastries, biscuits are most widely used. An analysis of the recipes for biscuit semi-finished products showed that 1 part of protein accounts for 4 to 8 parts of carbohydrates, so their chemical composition can be brought in line with the requirements of a balanced diet by reducing the sugar content and increasing the amount of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals.
Therefore, for research, the control was selected biscuit semi-finished product prepared according to recipe No. 8 in the traditional way with the addition of 7% cocoa powder. The following products of processing of chicory root crops were introduced as fortifiers:
- chicory pasty fried;
- chicory dry fried;
- chicory dry, not fried.
The granulated sugar was replaced with chicory. The purpose of this study was to obtain products with increased nutritional and biological value, high advantages, with a therapeutic and prophylactic effect.
The use of unconventional raw materials, that is, by-products of chicory, can reduce the consumption of sugar - sand, and if chicory is introduced at the stage of beating the egg mass (or melange), then a decrease in the duration of beating is observed, which also leads to a decrease in the cost of finished products and an increase in the economic effect ... In addition, the experimental samples were characterized by better porosity (smaller and thinner pores) and an elastic crumb, which easily restored its original shape upon compression, in comparison with the control sample.
I also consider it necessary to note the positive, in my opinion, influence of the introduction of chicory into the dough on the orgonoleptic indicators of finished products - the acquisition of a pleasant chocolate-coffee taste and aroma. Research in this area is ongoing.But no one has any doubts about the expediency of widespread use of chicory and its processed products in the production of food products for mass consumption in order to expand the range of products with targeted therapeutic and prophylactic properties that improve human health.
Today, not all the space of the summer cottage is occupied by the usual vegetable and berry crops and gardens. All large areas are allocated for exotic cultures, flower beds, sports grounds, recreation areas. The latter are often formed in the form of green mowed lawns or Moorish lawns, blooming from spring to autumn. Among the field flowers of elegant lawns are always adorned with pale blue flowers of common chicory, or the Tatar color known in Russia, bitterness, scherbak, roadside grass, king-root. In the south of Russia and the CIS, chicory is better known as Petrov batog - the herb, with the stalks of which the Apostle Peter drove the sheep into the flock. It is believed that he threw the used chicory stalks along the sheep paths, where they germinated with grass with an unusual stem and peculiar flowers at the ends of the bare twigs-stems.
Common chicory (Cichorium intybus)
The origin and distribution of chicory
The place of origin of chicory is considered to be the Mediterranean. In the plant system Chicory (Cichorium) belongs to the Asteraceae or Compositae family. It is considered a plant of temperate latitudes and tropics. Currently, in the Russian Federation, it is distributed everywhere from the southern outskirts, the Caucasus to Western Siberia and Altai. Favorite habitats in natural conditions are forest edges, roadside, abandoned lands and other places with thickets of weeds.
Why grow chicory in the country?
Chicory has been grown in Russia for over 150 years. Currently, 2 types of chicory are grown in industrial quantities - lettuce (Endive) and ordinary, - for use in vegetable culture and collection of medicinal raw materials.
For lovers of unusual vegetable crops (and dishes from them), this exotic vegetable can be recommended for growing. From the leaves chicory salad (vegetable) prepare delicious vitamin salads, especially valuable for diabetics. Young shoots are baked in a dough, used for making snacks, side dishes for main courses, stewed, fried.
Root common chicory used to prepare a coffee drink, often more delicious than other types of coffee. Cycotic coffee does not contain caffeine and can be used by expectant mothers and children from 5 years old.
Endive, or Chicory salad (Cichorium endivia)
Useful substances of common chicory
Common chicory root contains B and C vitamins, organic resins, tannins, trace elements and other useful compounds. But its main wealth is inulin, the content of which in chicory roots exceeds 60%, and in dried roots - 70%. It is the beneficial bacteria of the intestine (bifidumbacteria) that use inulin for nutrition, which helps to normalize the digestive system and metabolism in general. Chicory preparations improve blood composition, remove toxins and toxins. Chicory is recommended for diabetics, and its herbal teas (instead of tea or with a mixture with tea) remove heartburn, relieve fatigue, increase tone (like coffee, but do not contain caffeine, which negatively affects health).
Chicory is rich in mineral salts, essential oils, organic acids. Chicory root contains up to 10% fructose, up to 20% levulose, choline, essential oils, pentosans. The biomass contains lactucin, triterpenes, vitamins and other substances necessary for the body, and the flowers contain coumarin glycoside chicorein and others.
Common chicory (Cichorium intybus)
Medicinal properties of chicory
In official and folk medicine, all parts of common chicory and milky juice are used as medicinal raw materials.
Among the people, decoctions from the aerial part of wild chicory are drunk during inflammatory processes, as antimicrobial and astringent for debilitating diarrhea, decoctions improve appetite. Decoctions of chicory seeds are an effective antipyretic agent, they have diaphoretic and analgesic properties. Flower infusions have a positive effect on the central nervous system and heart function.
In official medicine, chicory is the main component of many medicines. They are used for diseases associated with the work of the gallbladder, gastrointestinal tract, lesions of the mucous membranes of the mouth, conjunctivitis, pain and inflammation of the joints, bites of poisonous insects. In some diseases, chicory is contraindicated. Before using it, you should consult your doctor.
A brief botanical description of chicory
Common chicory is a herbaceous plant. In culture, it is two years old, in the wild, it is a perennial. Taproot, fusiform, up to 1.5 m in length, many-headed. At the root collar thickened.
Aboveground part of chicory is grayish-green, consists of 2 erect ribbed stems up to 50-70 cm in height. The stems are practically naked. Oblong leaves are collected in a basal rosette. Pubescent below. Stem leaves of 2 types. Along the stem, there are alternate sharp-toothed sessile ones along the edge, and the upper ones are lanceolate, solid along the edge.
Endive, or Chicory salad (Cichorium endivia)
Reed flowers are collected in loose baskets, bright or light blue, rarely pink, white. Chicory blooms in July and blooms until late autumn, especially in the southern regions.
Seeds are formed in the second year. Chicory is rich in seeds. One plant forms them from 3 to 20 thousand. The upper part and the fleshy root are harvested separately.
How to grow chicory in the country
To decorate Mauritanian lawns, they often buy a mixture of seeds, where chicory is indicated in the composition. 4 species grow in the wild in the Russian Federation. They are usually included in the seed.
For country cultivation, vegetable chicory (salad) and common chicory are used. The second is usually grown as a medicinal raw material.
Common chicory is unpretentious to soil conditions (it grows on any soil, like most weeds), but picky about lighting. In addition, chicory salad reacts to soil moisture and, with insufficient watering, may not form a root crop.
Planted chicory seedlings
In autumn or spring, the soil is shallowly dug up (10-15 cm). Under the digging, nitrophoska, kemira or other complex fertilizer is applied, 40-50 g / sq. m. Under the chicory, the soil is leveled, cut through 10-15 cm 3 cm grooves. Sowing seeds is carried out in moist soil. With dense sowing, seedlings are thinned to 5 cm.
Drought-resistant plants. Common chicory is watered while drying the top layer on 2 phalanges of the fingers. Under the chicory salad, the soil is kept constantly moist. Top dressing is not required.
Harvesting and storing chicory
Chicory seeds are harvested in late September - early October. Dried in a warm room. Roots are carefully pulled out of the soil, shaken off the ground, washed under running water, cut into small 1-2 cm slices and laid out to dry in any dryer heated to no more than + 50 ° C. The finished raw materials are stored in a linen container in a dry, ventilated room in the form of 1-2 cm slices or immediately ground in a coffee grinder. The ground chicory is stored in a hermetically sealed glass or ceramic container. Shelf life - up to 3 years.
During the flowering of chicory, the aboveground mass is harvested for the preparation of decoctions and infusions. Cut off the top 25-30 cm (leaves, stems, inflorescences). Lay out in the shade in a thin layer and dry in a draft. During drying, the mass is constantly agitated.
Chicory roots
How to make coffee with chicory
Fresh or dried chicory roots are fried in the oven at + 180 ° C until light brown. You do not need to overcook. From this, the drink only loses.Toasted wedges lose their bitterness and acquire a piquant roasted coffee bean aroma and dark brown color.
To prepare one portion (200-250 g) of a coffee drink, pour 2 teaspoons of ground chicory into hot water, bring to a boil and cook for 3-5 minutes over low heat. Pour into a cup through a fine strainer. You can add milk, sugar, honey to the drink.
Some lovers of cyclic coffee simply pour boiling water over a portion of ready-made ground roots, insist 3-5 minutes. The taste of a coffee drink does not differ from a natural one, but it is healthier, since it does not contain caffeine.
Dried and crushed chicory roots
To enhance the color scheme of natural coffee to a classic dark brown, almost black color, you can add 1-2 teaspoons of chicory to it. Moreover, the amount of natural coffee should be reduced by about half. If at the same time bitterness persists, then it is useful.
Adding milk to a cyclic drink improves the digestibility of milk by 4 times. You can make a cyclic drink using milk instead of water. Put 2 teaspoons of ground chicory in a portion of hot milk (200-250 g) and cook over very low heat for 2-3 minutes. The drink acquires an original nutty flavor.
We have already considered with you benefits of chicory drink compared to coffee, compared their benefits and harms... Definitely, drinking chicory is much healthier than coffee. And it's great that you can not only buy it in stores, but also grow it yourself, especially since there is nothing complicated about growing chicory on its own plot, no.
A hundred years ago, chicory was a very popular drink in Europe because coffee was in short supply. Nowadays coffee is drunk everywhere, but chicory is becoming more and more popular, because more and more people are beginning to take care of their health.
In addition to the roots, which are used to prepare an invigorating, aromatic and tasty drink, chicory grown on its own site can give you spicy greens for adding to salads.
Growing root chicory
Just do not confuse with salad chicory, this is not quite what you need. In the wild, chicory is very common in Russia and Ukraine.
Chicory, which grows in the wild, can also be harvested, and a drink can be prepared from its roots, but it is less troublesome to grow chicory on your site, especially if you have a cultivated root chicory a large root that will last for a long time.
In many countries, chicory root is grown purposefully and on an industrial scale. The most famous variety of root chicory in Russia is Yaroslavsky. Chicory has been cultivated in this area for over two centuries.
Chicory is a biennial plant. In the first year, a rosette of leaves forms, and a root is formed, thickened in the upper part, weighing 100-400 grams, and 10-45 cm long. Leaves can be eaten, they have a rather peculiar taste with bitterness. In the second year, chicory produces seeds.
Chicory is propagated by seeds and root shoots.
For chicory, you need a bright, sunny area. Any soil that is not too acidic is suitable, but of course, it is better to be well fertilized and structured. It is not recommended to plant chicory after root crops.
The seeds are sown in early spring. as soon as the soil is frozen. It is undesirable to sow in autumn before winter - there will be a lot of flowering plants.
Young seedlings withstand short-term frosts quite well. Seeds are planted to a depth of 1-1.5 cm, in rows, between which a distance of 40 cm is made. Seeds sprout at a temperature of 10 degrees in 8-10 days. When 2-3 true leaves appear on the plants, they are thinned out, leaving 10-15 cm between the plants in a row.
Chicory is a drought-resistant plant, but if you want to get a bigger crop, then of course you need to water it.
Harvested to constant frost. Chicory roots are well stored in the basement, at a minimum above zero temperature.
Plants left for seed in the second year can be left in the ground for the winter. They perfectly tolerate frosts down to -30 degrees. Chicory blooms in the second year in July. So that he does not get dusty with wild chicory, it is better to isolate the testes. A month after flowering, the seeds fall off easily, so collect them in time. Plants are cut at the root, collected in bunches, and hung out to dry in a dry ventilated room, with the testicles down. A cloth or paper is placed under the plants. Chicory seeds remain viable for 4-5 years.
Chicory coffee
For cooking chicory coffee the roots are cut into strips or cubes 6-20 mm wide, and dried at a temperature of 50-70 degrees. After that, it is fried, starting at a temperature of 50 degrees, and brought to 180 degrees, as when baking pies. When the chicory color turns golden, it is cooled and ground. Dried chicory can be stored for 2-3 years in a closed glass jar.
More detailed information can be found in the sections "All courses" and "Usefulness", which can be accessed through the top menu of the site. In these sections, articles are grouped by topic into blocks containing the most detailed (as far as possible) information on various topics.
You can also subscribe to the blog and learn about all new articles.
It does not take a lot of time. Just click the link below:
Subscribe to the blog: Road to Business for a Computer
Advantages:
Natural chicory is good for you
Flaws:
There are doubts about the naturalness of the specified product.
All shops are inundated with this chicory. And it seems to be selling very well. as prices rise: last summer I cost 45 rubles at Monetka, this one - 87. And I drank, knowing that chicory is a useful piece. But my husband, who has traveled almost all over the world (such was the job), asked me a simple question: “Tell me, have you seen the fields where this chicory is grown? Or do you think that it is collected from meadows and clearings, dug out by hand? "
Indeed, I also travel a lot, but have not seen such crops. And in order to get 100 g of chicory for brewing, you need to dig up (I tried to do this - it's a hassle, I'll tell you! ...) a lot of the root of this plant, clean it from dirt, dry it, then fry it and grind it.
Lean roots - you need a lot of raw materials, the yield of the final product is very small. And your chicory is noticeably different in taste from the store one.
| Usage time: | 3 months |
| Price: | RUB 87 |
| Year of release / purchase: | 2014 |
| Overall impression: | Is chicory growing in the store? |
| My mark: | |
| Recommend to friends: | NO |
