Pasta, a general term for food made from flour. Pasta can be divided into several categories from the cooking methods such as steaming, boiling, branding, frying, baking, deep-frying, stewing and so on. The different methods of production also vary in nutrient loss. Pasta production techniques generally have three steps.
One is stirring, mixing. A few special terms and actions for mixing include:
1. Foaming: solid fats are stirred with the ingredients to produce foam, and mixing should be stopped when the mixture begins to soften or decrease in volume. The amount of air that can be introduced into the fat during mixing is called the foaming value of the fat, and the size of the foaming value will affect the volume and quality of the cake.
2. Stirring: Mixing various ingredients, you can use the mixer to make bubbles, the purpose is to make the air into the dough and expand the gluten.
3. Folding: The mixing action of turning the bottom layer to the top layer, which can be done with a rubber knife, to make the ingredients mix evenly and cause the gluten to expand.
4. Kneading: Mix the ingredients by hand or with a mixing hook, depending on the degree of gluten expansion. The purpose of dough mixing is to accelerate the flour to absorb water to form gluten through the back and forth of the stirring to destroy the tough film on the surface of the flour, so that the water evenly moistened with flour, the degree of dough stirring in addition to the hand feel and eye observation, there is no other good way to determine the length of time. Generally, the beating process is divided into 6 stages: (1). Rising stage, (2). Rolling phase, (3). Gluten expansion phase, (4). Finishing phase, (5). Stirring process, (6). Gluten interruption.
The second is fermentation and shaping. During the time after the beating, the yeast can ferment to produce carbon dioxide, and this released carbon dioxide is limited by the gluten mesh structure to form air holes, so that the dough volume rises. After the basic fermentation, the dough is cut into fixed sizes and rolled. After cutting, the dough loses some of its carbon dioxide, which makes it less pliable, so it is better to shape the dough directly and roll it out, so that the carbon dioxide in the fermentation will also disappear. The purpose of rounding is to form a skin on the surface of the dough to prevent gas from escaping and to make the dough look good. After rounding and intermediate fermentation, the dough is shaped. By shaping, the gas in the dough is pressed out, and the internal organization is evened out. After shaping, most of the gas is lost and the gluten loses its softness, so it is necessary to regenerate the gas in the dough to increase the softness of the gluten, so there is a final fermentation step.
Third, making. This is the final step, in which the pasta is boiled, steamed, fried, baked, or simmered. Due to the role of heat so that the batter or dough becomes fluffy and easy to digest, while starch, protein heat chemical changes, microorganisms and enzymes are also destroyed and stop the action, in addition to the skin to produce new compounds, giving the baked goods a special color and aroma.