Ingredients and Methods
The Science Behind it All
The product is made up of two different types of cheeses; cheddar and mozzarella. With two different types of cheeses, comes two different melting points and this caused the cooking times to be longer than the average cheese stick. As well as having two types of cheese, chicken is also a part of the interior of the product. Since all of the chicken had wooden breast myopathy, it was important to ensure that the texture was pleasing to the consumer. In order to maintain a good texture, the chicken was ground in a food processor to break up the muscle fibers. Salt was then added to help keep moisture in the chicken, so it did not dry out during cooking. Chicken being a large part of the product presented a unique challenge, seeing as if raw chicken was used in the product it would not be fully cooked within an acceptable cooking time. Also, when the product would be cooked at home the free water contained in the chicken would flow out of the chicken and compromise the integrity of the product causing it to be soggy and unappealing. Therefore, the chicken is pre-cooked before being mixed with the cheese to ensure that most if not all free water is extracted from the chicken as well as it being fully cooked. Potato starch was also added to help with adhesion of the different ingredients and with it being a more natural ingredient, it increases consumer acceptability.
Ingredients and Methods
The core ingredients of the product are the ground chicken breast and the cheese blend.At the early stages of development, the cheese was first melted before coming into contact with the chicken. However, through experimentation it was found that the easiest and most effective way was to put the chicken and cheese into a food processor and mixing them into a uniform blend. With this stage of the product complete, it came down to how best to make the product into the standard cylindrical cheese stick shape. With two options tested, hand rolling and extruding, it was found that using an extruder was more cost effective and made a more uniform product. The cooking time of the product was affected by each change in the amount of each ingredient and method used. It was decided to par fry the product before packaging so that all product integrity was not lost before a consumer cooked the product. The product can be either baked or fried by the consumer before consumption. When formulating and creating a food product a lot of science goes into the making sure the final product comes together in the desired way.
