Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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The present invention relates to the production of a
hard sausage product which can be held in the hand and be eaten
particularly easily and conveniently in the manner of a snack,
for example by nibbling on the sausage product.
Customary hard sausage products are relatively diffi-
cult to eat while being held in the hand because they have a
casing which has to be pulled off before they can be eaten and - -
because, af-ter removing the casing, the sausage is greasy and
fat. Attempts have been made to put casingless, hard sausage
products on the market. However, the sausages were produced
with gut skins or other casings and processed in the customary
manner and then the casing was removed. The process was cumber-
some and the resulting sausage product was not as dry as desired
and was not free of surface grease and so that it was not suit-
able to be held in the hand without protecting the hand from the
greasy sausage surface.
In contrast, the present invention provides a smoked
and dried, durable hard sausage product suitably produced from
a salami-iike sausage mass without using a separate casing and
using instead a sausage skin produced by dry heat action. The
resulting sausage product has an outside completely dry and
greasefree touch and a thin bar shape can be easily and con-
veniently eaten by being held in the hand, just as one would eat
other bar-shaped snack type articles such as salted sticks, etc.
The thickness of the little sausage bar is about 6 to 15 r~ and
preferably about 10 mm.
According to the present invention there is provided
in a process for producing a casingless dried and hard sausage
product comprising the steps of cutting to length narrow casing-
less sausage strands extruded from a sausage mass and treatingand drying said strands with hot air having a temperature higher
than 40C and with smoke in a hot-air chamber while they form a
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skin, the improvement in which the strands are severed into
sections having a length which is a Multiple of the length of
-the sausage product to be produced, these sections are put into
the hot-air chamber and subjected to a temperature which initially
does not exceed 40C and gradually increases up to and exceeding
approximately 100C, they are subjected -to a further drying
treatment with air at a -temperature of approximately 20 to 25C
outside the hot-air chamber while the sections are restrained
against longitudinal retraction by clamping their ends during
the further drying treatment and they are cut into their final
sausage lens~th only after completion of said further drying
treatment.
For the production of the sausage product, the process
involves the extrusion of a sausage mass in the form of a strand,
smoked with dry hot air and smoke and then dried. The sausage
mass is desirably composed of a maximum of 40~ and preferably
less than 35% by weight bacon. In the process, one or more
strands of the sausage mass are extruded directly onto a conveyor
grill that conveys the strands in the direction of the extrusion,
smoking the sausage strands without any wrapping at an increasing
temperature from an initial level desirably of not more than 50C,
and drying the smoke sausage strands while they are kept under
longitudinal tension.
It is possible, by using a small amount of fat and
bacon in the sausage mass, and by extruding extremely thin
strands of the sausage mass and by using a low initial smoking
temperature, of producing strands of sausage on a continuous
basis without the use of a gut or other type of casing and yet
without the strands of sausage spreading apart from heat as
wouid be the case in customary sausage production processes.
Also, by maintaining the sausage strands in tension during drying,
any shrinking and bending of the casingless strands will be
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avoided and a desired straight, small, barlike product is
obtained.
The present invention also provides an apparatus for
producing a casingless dried hard- sausage product comprising
an extruder unit, a smoking uni-t with a smoking tunnel and a
dryiny unit, the extruder unit having an extruder head with a
plurality of extrusion nozzles disposed in a horitonzal row and
connected to the outlet of a sausage filling machine, a conveyer
belt disposed below the extruder head at a spacing therefrom
and provided with wire grills and a cutter for cutting the
strands on the wire grills to the length of said wire grills,
the smoking tunnel including carts for conveying a plurality
of wire grills covered with the extruded strands through the
tunnel and devices for maintalning a temperature gradlen-t from
approximately 40C to above lOO~C between the entrance and the
exit ends of the wire grills on passage through the tunnel and
the drying unit having means for holding and restraining a
plurality of strands removed from the grills against longitudinal
retraction. The cutter is preferably arranged above the conveyer
belt for transversely cutting the extruded strands of sausage
supported on the wire grills. ~-
The process and apparatus according to a preferred
embodiment of the present invention will be illustrated with
reference to the accompanying drawings in which the single
figure is a schematic presentation showing the sausage process
and apparatus according to the present invention with the
relative disposition and measurements of the individual stations
and parts of the apparatus being presented not as a true scale
but merely to serve for schematically illustrating the pxocess
and apparatus.
Meat, especially beef having a maximum fat content of
5~ is ground in a frozen state by a meat grinder 1 and then
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processed together with bacon and spices and other additives in
a cutter 2 without the addition of water or ice. The portion of
bacon in the mix-ture is 40% maximum and preferably at about 25%
by weight. A typical charge for the cutter 2 consists for
example of 60 kg of
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beef with a maximum of 5% fat and 24 kg of ~acon and additives.
In the cutter 2, the mass is mixed and emulsified.
The resulting emulsified sausage mass is then discharg-
ed into a suitable sausage filling machine 3 of conventional
construction haviny an inlet funnel tube and an internal
extrusion worm (not shown). An extrusion head 5 is connected
to the mouthpiece 4 of the sausage filling machine 3, and has a
plurality of for example ten extrusion nozzles 6 disposed in a
row in spaced side-by-side relationship in a horizontal plane.
Each extrusion nozzle 6 has an extrusion diameter of about 6 to
15 mm, preferably about 10 mm, and is connected with the mouth-
piece 4 of the sausage filling machine 3 by a pipe or hose
conduit 7 and whereby the inlet ends of the conduits 7 are
distributed for example evenly around the circular front of the
mouthpiece 4.
The sausage mass is extruded by the sausage filling
machine 3 at a temperature of approximately 2 to 8C and emerges
from the extrusion nozzles 6 in the form of thin approximately
10 mm thick parallel strands 8. The sausage strands 8 are
deposited side by side on wire grills 9 which are placed in
uninterrupted sequence on a driven conveyer belt 10 to travel
below the extrusion head 5 and in the direction of the extrusion
at a speed corresponding to the extrusion speed. Additional
wire grills are continuously placed on the upstream end of the
conveyor belt 10, at the left end of the conveyor as seen in
the drawing, and a suitable cutter 11 is disposed above the
conveyer belt 10 at a distance downstream of the extrusion head
5 to transversely cut the extruded strands of sausage mass at
the joints or intervals between the grills to provide a bank of
individual parallel strand sections on each grill. The length
of the severed strand sections and thus the length of the grills
correspond to a multiple of the length of the hard sausage
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product to be produced. Preferably, the severed strand sections
are about 80 cm, but according to circumstances of the produc-
tion installation, they can for example be established arbitrar-
ily between 0.5 andl.5 meters or more. Each grill on which the
extruded and properly cut strands are located in side-by-side
relationship is removed from the conveyer belt lO at the down-
stream end of the conveyer and is then inserted into a smoking
cart 12 having suitable rails, etc., for receiving a multiplic-
ity of grills 9 in layers with the severed sausage strands 8
thereon.
The smoking carts 12 which are transported by rollers
on the floor or by rails are moved in succession into a smoke
chamber or tunnel 13 after they have been fully loaded with
grills. The smoke chamber or tunnel 13 is sealed closed with
sliding doors 14 and 15 at the entry and exit ends of the tunnel
13 through which the smoking carts enter into and exit from the
smoke chamber. There are a number of for example five to ten
smoking carts (four carts bèing shown) in alignment in the smoke
tunnel 13 at one time so that when an additional cart is moved
through the entry end into the smoke tunnel 13, the foremost cart
in the tunnel is forced through the exit end of the smoke tunnel
13 and the remaining carts move up one space. The length of the
smoke tunnel 13 and therefore the number of aligned smoking carts
12 which it can hold and the speed of extrusion of the sausage
are related so that the entire timeinterval whicheach cartremains
in the smoke tunnel is about two hours.
Dry hot air mixed with smoke at a temperature of llO
to 120C and supplied by a suitable hot air producer, not shown,
is blown through suitably distributed inlets 16, for example in
the floor, ceiling, lateral walls and/or door of the tunnel 13
near the exit end of the tunnel 13. The hot air and smoke mix-
ture flows through the tunnel so that it flows around the strands
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of sausage resting on the grills to suitable outlets 17
disposed near the entry end of the smoke tunnel 13. As a result
of the heat transfer to the sausage material, grills, smoking
carts and walls of the tunnel 13, the hot air and smoke
- mixture becomes cooler. A state of equilibrium is reached in
which the temperature of the strands of sausage a-t the entry end
of the tunnel 13 is about 40C at the center of the tunnel is
about 70C and the exit end of the tunnel 13 is about 100C.
A skin is formed on the strands of sausage shortly
after they enter into the smoke tunnel 13 as a result of the
action of the heat and the coagulation of protein caused thereby,
and the skin so formed provides for holding the strands of
sausage intact as they are subsequently heated to higher temper-
atures and for preventing the sausage strands from unduly
expanding as would be the case when using customary thick cross
sections of sausage and/or using sausage material having a
greater fat and moisture content and/or initially heating -the
sausage material to a higher temperature. When each smoking
cart with its grill supported strands of sausage exits from the
smoke tunnel 13, the strands of sausage have been cured and are
thereby made preservable and good tasting. The strands of
sausage while they are still resting on the supporting grill ~ -
are mounted in rows in spaced parallel arrangement on needles
18, 19 by piercing the needles transversely through the strands
of sausage near their ends, for example a-t a distance of 1 cm
from each end. A bank of strands of sausage are then removed
together from the grill and suspended vertically by one needle
18. In this position with the entire surface of each strand of
sausage completely accessible without hindrance from the grill,
the strands of sausage are sprayed with moist steam to clean
them of any adherlng particles of fat, etc. For this purpose
there is shown provlded a steam nozzle 20 having a steam conduit
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21, but of course, several suitably distributed steam nozzles
or a closed steam chamber could be provided for spraying the
strands oE sausage.
Subsequently, the needle supported strands of sausage
are mounted in rows on drying racks or carts 24 f~r being
-transported through a drying chamber 23 having two opposite
doors 28. For holding the needle supported strands in the
drying chamber 23, the needles are placed to extend between
parallel longitudinally extending rails or sides 25 of the drying
racks or carts 24. The rails or sides have a height and spac-
ing so that the protruding ends of the upper needle 18 axe
supported on the upper edges of the sides 25 and the protruding
ends of the lower needle 19 extend below the lower edges of the
sides 25 a distance of a few millimeters sufficient to permit
easily hooking the lower needle 19 below the lower edge of the
sides 25. Also, notches can be provided at suitable intervals
along the upper edges of the rails for receiving the ends of
the upper needle 18. In that manner, a number of banks of
strands of sausage strung in rows on needles are mounted on a
drying cart 24. The drying in the drying chamber 23 is provided
by dry air blown in through inlets, not shown, and adjusted to
a temperature of about 20 to 25C (depending in addition to
other factors on the outside temperature). The drying time is -
about 36 to 48 hours. As soon as the strands of sausage begin
to shrink under the action of the hot dry air, the upper and
lower needles are held by the sides 25 to prevent the strands f
sausage from bending and shrinking in a longitudinal direction.
At the completion of the drying process, the strands of sausage ~
will be thin, dried sections stretched straight and having a ;
skin-like surface which is not greasy.
The dried strands of sausage merely have to be cut up
into pieces 26 of the desired length (for example approximately
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20 cm long) and can be cut up either individually or in groups
before withdrawing the needles The pieces 26 are then packaged
with customary packaging apparatus either individually or several
together for example in a shrink foil package 27 or metal foil.
Thereaf-ter, upon opening the package, the sausage product will
have a hearty tas-te of smoked hard sausage and can be held in the
hand and eaten in the manner of a snack.
Deviations from the foregoing described embodiment of
the present invention are possible without departing from the
scope of the present invention. Thus, the step of reloading the
grills 9 onto the smoking carts 12 can be omitted by having the
grills conveyed through the smoke chamber on a conveyor. For
that purpose, the conveyor 10 can be extended to carry the grills
through the smoke chamber 13 or through a shorter smoke tunnel,
or the grills can be delivered by the conveyer 10 to another con-
veyer for example a roller track conveyor for being conveyed
through the smoke tunnel. The drying chamber 23 can also be
formed as a tunnel and the banks of sausage strands strung on the
needles can be guided through such a drying tunnel by a suitable
conveyer, for example an overhead conveyer having spaces for
maintaining the upper and lower needles an appropriate distance
apart.
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