Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a cheese product, a method of manufacturing a cheese product, a method of manufacturing a stuffed crust pizza comprising such a cheese product and a stuffed crust pizza comprising the cheese product.

Background to the Invention

Stuffed crust pizzas, in which a filling is formed in the crust of a pizza, are well known. The most common filling is cheese. Currently, to form a stuffed crust pizza, a rope of semi-hard cheese, normally a processed semi-hard cheese, is placed around the circumference of a pizza near the edge, but leaving sufficient excess bread such that the edge can be folded/rolled over the rope of cheese to encapsulate it. Typically, this semihard cheese rope collapses somewhat during cooking creating a cavity within the crust.

These semi-hard cheese ropes suffer certain disadvantages, in particular, in comparison to soft cheeses (including cream cheeses), they can collapse during cooking, the mouthfeel is less desirable, can be bland in taste and provide a less suitable vehicle to carry flavours. However, owing to their soft nature, soft cheeses are not suitable for the handling operations required to introduce them into the crust of a pizza, e.g. a rope of soft cheese cannot be formed and picked up by hand. Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cheese product comprising soft cheese (including cream cheese) encapsulated in a tubular casing.

Those skilled in the art will be familiar with the expression "soft cheese", which is used to describe a product which is cream cheese or any cheese with a moisture content which exceeds 50%.

Providing a soft cheese encapsulated in a casing allows the soft cheese to be handled much more easily both by hand and machine, accordingly, a pizzaiolo (or pizzaiola), can pick up and place the cheese product around the circumference of a pizza and easily roll the edge of the bread over the cheese product to encase it in the crust. The casing thus both allows manipulation and maintains the form of the soft cheese as the crust is folded over. It is not possible to use soft cheese in this manner without the innovation of encapsulation within casing.

The casing may contain at least 90% soft cheese, preferably at least 95% soft cheese, more preferably at least 99% soft cheese and most preferably only soft cheese.

The cheese product may consist of soft cheese encapsulated by a casing.

The soft cheese may be heat-stable. Those skilled in the art will understand the term heat stable to mean a cheese (either coated or used as a filling) capable of withstanding cooking temperatures through frying, deep frying, baking or grilling, without the fats and moistures separating and running off. The soft cheese may be heat stable at a temperature of at least 150 degrees C, preferably at least 200 degrees C, more preferably at least 250 degrees C and most preferably at least 300 degrees C. Whilst pizza ovens may operate at up to 350 degrees C, or more, the cheese itself is typically shielded from the heat, so being stable to at least 220 degrees C is normally suitable, but higher is preferred.

The soft cheese may be cream cheese. That is to say cream cheese is classified as a soft cheese and is especially suitable to carrying flavours and has an excellent mouthfeel.

In one particular embodiment, the cream cheese may be a cheese as defined by the US Food and Drugs Administration Code of Federal Regulations (annual edition) - April 1, 1996 Edition, Title 21, Chapter I, Subchapter B, Part 133, Subpart B, Sec. 133.133, as a cream cheese.

However, it is noted that the expression "cream cheese" is to be understood as broader than that defined by the USFDA and in particular includes cheese with a moisture content of greater than 55%, as exemplified by Dairygold ® American style soft cheese (Set) (10225179) (available from Dairygold ® Food Ingredients of Cork, which has a moisture content of 60.5% and a fat content of 29.2%.

The soft cheese may comprise a cheese defined as a soft ripened cheese by the US Food and Drugs Administration Code of Federal Regulations April 1 2014 revision, TITLE 21, CHAPTER I, SUBCHAPTER B, PART 133, Subpart B Sec. 133.182 Soft ripened cheeses. The casing may be a vegetable casing. Collagen, skin and other casings may be useful, but vegetable casing is preferred, especially because of its suitability for vegetarians.

The casing may break down and disintegrate at elevated temperatures. For example the casing may disintegrate at a temperature of 220 degrees C, preferably at a temperature of 150 degrees C and more preferably at a temperature of 100 degrees C. Whereas many casings are intended for use in sausages, or sausage-like products, where maintaining their structure at elevated temperature is preferable, in this invention, it is preferable that the casing disintegrates as the temperature rises, in order that the casing is not a barrier between the inside of the crust and the cheese within.

The cheese product may be in the form of a rope, that is to say, a product that is substantially longer than it is wide. Accordingly, the casing may have a length of at least twice its diameter, preferably at least four times its diameter, more preferably at least 5 times its diameter and most preferably at least 10 times its diameter. Suitably the diameter of the tubular casing is between 6mm and 30mm, e.g. between 10mm and 30mm. Suitably the length is at least 50mm, preferably at least 100mm, more preferably at least 300mm and most preferably between 400 and 600mm. The length may be up to 1 metre, e.g. between 800 and 1200mm, or as little as 10-30mm. Around 50 cm is ideal for two cheese products to be placed end-to-end around the circumference of an 11 inch (28cm) pizza. Even longer cheese products, e.g. about 100 cm could be used, so that only one such product is required to encase an entire 11 inch pizza, and of course cheese products of more than 100cm could be used for larger pizzas.

The casing may be comprised in a pizza base. The casing may be comprised in the pizza base of a pizza.

In a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of forming a cheese product comprising pumping soft cheese into a tubular casing to form the cheese product of the first aspect of the invention. According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method of forming a cheese product according to the first aspect of the invention comprising pumping soft cheese through a liquid coating material such that the coating material forms a tubular casing around the cheese. The coating material may be vegetable fat, and may for example be alginate. The coating/casing may be cured in-situ, e.g. by running the coated product into a further bath containing a curing agent, such as chloride. The optional and preferred features of the first aspect of the invention apply equally to the second and third aspects of the invention.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of forming a stuffed-crust pizza comprising providing a pizza base; providing a cheese product comprising soft cheese encapsulated in a casing; and encasing the cheese product in the pizza base.

The method may further comprise applying toppings to the pizza base and baking it in an oven, such as a pizza oven.

The method may comprise applying the cheese product around the circumference of the pizza base and folding over the edges of the pizza base to encase the product.

The method may comprise providing at least two cheese products at different regions of the circumference of the pizza. The at least two cheese products may comprise soft cheeses having different flavours.

Aside from use in pizzas, the cheese products of the invention, with the encapsulation in vegetable casing, may be placed in other food products, such as bakery products, such as bagels or croissants, meat/poultry products, e.g. chicken breast, to form stuffed chicken breast, steaks, to form stuffed steak products, or inside sausages such as chorizo.

Detailed Description of the Invention

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood an embodiment thereof will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:

Figure 1 shows a lateral cross section through the cheese product of the invention;

Figure 2 shows a plan view of the cheese product of figure 1;

Figure 3 shows a perspective view of a part formed pizza base including the cheese product of figures 1 and 2.

Referring to figures 1 and 2, a cheese product 1, consists of a casing 3 (shown at a much exaggerated thickness in figure 1), which encapsulates a heat-stable soft cheese 2.

The casing 3 is an edible vegetable based casing, such as the Ascona (RTM) NutraCasing (RTM), formed from natural water soluble polysaccharides. The casing 3 is tubular, and is sealed at both ends in order to fully encapsulate the soft cheese 2. Known sausage-stuffing machines (not shown) may be used to form the cheese product 1, by placing the soft cheese 2 in a hopper (not shown), and pumping it though a nozzle (not shown) into a long tube of casing 3. In order to produce the long tubular cheese product, the casing is closed, by twisting, or other sealing means, such as heat- sealing, only after filling a significant length of the casing. In this exemplary embodiment, the length is 50cm and the casing is of 17mm diameter.

Alternatively, the cheese product may be produced by placing the soft cheese 2 in a hopper (not shown), and pumping it through a ball (not shown) containing coating material, such as vegetable fat, e.g. alginate, so as to form a coating layer of alginate on the outer surface of the cheese product. The product may then pass into a second bath containing a curing agent, for example, chloride, to cure the alginate coating to form the casing. In this example, the cheese product can be cut into lengths (e.g. of about 50cm) as it leaves the nozzle, such that the coating coats the ends to close the casing. Suitable machines to carry out this method are the Handtmann VF628 and VF620, although other machines could equally be used.

Having formed the cheese product 1, it is used to form a stuffed crust pizza. Thus, with reference to figure 3, a circular pizza base 4 of, in this embodiment, a 35cm diameter is provided on a surface and two 50cm long cheese products 1, are placed end to end around the circumference of the pizza base on its upper surface 6, to form a circle, approximately 5cm inwards of the edge 5 of the base 4. The edge 5 is then folded inwards over the cheese products 1 Γ to encapsulate them and form a stuffed crust. Toppings are then applied to the upper surface 6 of the pizza base and it is baked in a pizza oven (at e.g. 350 degrees C) to form a pizza. During baking, the casing 3 will reach a temperature of at least 150 degrees C at which point it will disintegrate, whilst the soft cheese 2 within will remain stable.

Example

In one example of the invention, a heat stable soft cheese, in particular a cream cheese, was formed by the following method for a 72kg batch:

Ingredients: 33% (23.76Kg Ireland/UK) Full Fat Soft Cheese, 14% (10.08Kg Ireland/UK) Fresh Curd, 11% (7.92Kg Ireland/UK) Low Fat Soft Cheese, 11% (7.92Kg Ireland/UK) Mild Cheddar, 11% (7.92Kg Ireland/UK) Mature Cheddar, 10% (7.2Kg Ireland) Water, 6% (4.32Kg Ireland) Natural Cheese Flavour, 2% (1.44Kg / Thailand) Starch, 1.9% (1.37Kg Germany) Stabilisers (E331, E339, E452), <0.1% (<0.072/Kg China) Potassium Sorbate (E202), <0.1% (<0.072/Kg Belgium) Lactic Acid (E270).

All cheese ingredients are placed in a Stephan ® Cooker UMSK80and blended with direct steam heat injection to 40°C. The Stephan ® Cooker UMSK80 is reopened and all remaining ingredients added. The mix is further blended with direct steam heat injection to 78°C. Direct steam is shut off at this point and product held for 1 minute at this temperature. The contents of the Stephan ® Cooker UMSK80are then pumped directly to a stainless steel holding vessel. The product is then chilled and allowed to cool fully to <5°C.

The cooled heat stable soft cheese was then introduced into a vegetable casing of 17 mm diameter, product code SCDA 1710, Nutra Casing (RTM) produced by ASCONA Foods Group Ltd of Mississauga, Ontario (Canada) using a Handtmann VF608FPL Vacuum Filling Machine.. The tubes of heat-stable soft cheese were then closed and separated automatically by twisting at 50cm intervals, along the 10m length of the vegetable casing, in order to form a plurality of cheese products, in the form of ropes consisting of long lengths (50cm) of tubular casing containing soft cheese.

The product of the example was then manually handled and placed on a pizza base - the product could be picked up with ease and would even suffer a degree of squeezing without breaking or collapsing, in a manner completely impossible prior to encapsulation. The base was folded to enclose the product in the crust (as described in relation to the embodiment above), and baked in an oven at 350 degrees C for 10 minutes. When the cooked pizza base was cut, the casing had completely disintegrated, leaving no visible residue and in view of its heat stability, the soft cheese did not leak out of the crust, nor collapse considerably during cooking to form a cavity within the crust. The mouthfeel and flavour of the cheese in the crust was excellent.

The above embodiment and example is described by way of example only. Many variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. For example, shorter cheese products may be placed into bakery products such as bagels or croissants prior to cooking, or meat/poultry products such as chicken breast, steaks and so forth may be sliced (by hand or machine) and stuffed with the cheese products of the invention (by hand or machine). Sausages, such as chorizo, could even be formed around these cheese products, to provide a soft cheese stuffing.