Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Batter and breading
The basic system is a simple wheat fl our based adhesion batter followed by a
dried breadcrumb or more complex mixes of breadcrumb, wheat fl our, starches,
salt and fl avour together with decorative ingredients such as rubbed herbs and
cracked spices or cereal pieces such as rice fl akes. These systems are generally
either fully fried to cook or are at least par-fried as above, so whatever ingredients
are added into the breading must be selected so as not to blacken too much during
the frying step. Dried breadcrumb is widely available in either its uncoloured
form or in versions coloured using combinations of ground and extracted paprika
and turmeric to produce orange and yellow shades. Natural dried breadcrumbs are
manufactured industrially by closely following the breadmaking process and are
completed by drying to a low moisture content (below 12%) and then granulating.
The typical ingredient declaration is wheat fl our, salt and yeast. Different varieties
of breadcrumb are available varying from fl aky to spherical in shape, hard-bite to
melt-in-the-mouth texture and fi ne-to-coarse granulations. The more delicate
breadcrumbs have been developed to mimic the original
Panko
breadcrumb that
originated in Japan (Panko is Japanese for breadcrumb) (Fabricant 1998).
It is technically possible to add fl avouring into the breadcrumbs although this
is not a common practice on an industrial scale owing to commercial constraints
on plant clean downs to prevent cross-contamination.
Adhesion to the substrate, which can be vegetable, fi sh or chicken for example
in either whole muscle or reformed form, is often substantially improved by the
application to the substrate of a wheat fl our and/or native starch based predust
prior to the adhesion batter. This works by sticking to the substrate due to its
natural adhesive qualities and then providing a surface for the batter to adhere to
that is more easily wetted by the aqueous batter than is the substrate and hence
better adhesion is attained.
More complex and volatile savoury fl avour systems can be achieved with these
coating systems and the general rule is that a fl avour will be better protected from
the harsh heat treatment by including it as far from the outer surface as is possible.
Thus the best place to add fl avour is in the predust where it is less subject to the fryer
heat. Next favoured is in the batter and least favoured is in the outer breading. The
type of fl avour can be anything that is demanded by the consumer. More volatile
complex fl avours can be achieved as spray-dried natural fl avours can be used if
included in the predust or batter. A typical product composition would be 60%
substrate and 40% coating, made up from 3% predust, 12% batter and 25% breading.
Variations on the batter and breading type of product include using extra layers
of batter and breading layers to build up a thicker, more substantial coating layer
on a product to provide a shell-like coating that will protect both substrate and
fl avouring from the frying heat. Such a system might be found on a lemon and
pepper breaded cheese stick as follows:
•
Predust - including fl avour system, for example, salt (10%), black pepper (1%)
and lemon oil (0.5%)
•
Thin adhesion batter - including native starch and milk protein
•
Fine intermediate breadcrumb based breading
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