New or Improved Alimentary Product, made from Edible Nuts, and Process of Producing the same.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 17th May, 1898-Accepted, 9th July, 1898
New or Improved Alimentary Product, made from Edible Nuts,
and Process of Producing the same.
A communication by JOHN HARVEY HELLOGG, of Battle Creek, in the State of
Michigan, United States of America, Physician.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.L.M.E., of the Agency of Foreign Patent
Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both in the
County of Lancaster, 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, and
322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This new and improved product is made from edible nuts, preferably peanuts, and
such other nuts as can be easily blanched or freed from skins, and is a semi-solid,
having about the same consistence as hard butter or soft cheese.
The preliminary steps of the preferred process or method are the following:
The shells of the nuts being removed, the kernels are first blanched by removing
the skins; and this may be effected by any of the ordinary methods by soaking the
kernels in cold or warm water a short time and then passing them through a blanching
machine by which the skins are rubbed off.
The next step consists in thoroughly cooking the blanched kernels, which is best
done by either boiling them for several hours, say four to six, in water in crocks, or
vessels, set over a fire, or placed in an oven, whereby the oil contained in the kernels
is fixed and the starch hydrated and in part converted into dextrine. Instead of
boiling the kernels, they may be roasted.
The cooked product is then ground or passed between rollers and thereby reduced
to a pulpy mass. Water is added to the nut paste, preferably in the proportion of
one part of the former to two of the latter, by weight, and the two are then thoroughly
mixed, thus producing a thick creamy emulsion, or soft pasty mass.
Such emulsified product is placed in tin cans, which are then sealed hermetically
and placed in a retort and subjected for a considerable time to heat between 213°
and 240° Fahrenheit, the preferred range being 215° to 230°. The preferred mode
of applying heat and pressure is by means of steam. But in this regard, the process
is not restricted, since it is practicable to obtain substantially the same result by
other methods. Thus the sealed cans may be submerged and heated to a solution of
chloride of calcium or sodium, whose specific gravity raises its boiling point
above 212° and whose pressure on the can counteracts, within certain limits, the
internal pressure and bursting tendency due to vaporization and consequent expansion
of the water contained in them.
Heat might also be applied by means of heated atmospheric air under compression.
The cans should be thus treated from one to four hours, to effect the desired change
in the nut product. The time will be varied, chiefly according to the size of the
cans.
That
By mixing the water as described, and exposing it to a high temperature for the
time named, the product is so modified as to render it a practically new one.
is to say, the nuts are thoroughly cooked before being converted into paste, and the
subsequent treatment at 2130 or above is not applied to the paste for the purpose

page_text: of cooking it, in the usual sense of the term, but to develop special qualities which
are not obtainable by the ordinary cooking. In other words, it is chiefly to develop
special flavors in the article, which involves a change in consistency or density in a
marked degree, so that it becomes a product different in many ways from the ordinary
paste. At 212° F. the product is not hardened, but remains quite soft and pasty, and
is not agreeable to the taste. While slightly above 240° it develops an acrid quality
which impairs its value as a food. After many experiments, it has been found that
an intermediate temperature, between 215° and 230°, is necessary to the best result,
it being that at which the product solidifies, changes in color, volume and taste, and
becomes very palatable and easily digestible. The product shrinks sufficiently to
enable it to be easily removed from the can by cutting out the head and inverting the
latter. It is also rendered agreeable in flavor and easily digestible. For greater
definiteness of description, it inay be further stated that the product is a semi-solid
or solid, having a good degree of tenacity, and in consistence ranging ordinarily
between soft cheese and hard cheese, or dried beef, as well as being slightly brown in
color. The product may be cut up in thin or thick slices like cheese, and served as
desired. It has a decidedly meaty flavor, and with a little salt added is a very agreeable
article of food, which is highly nutritious and may be readily digested by persons
who cannot eat nuts in their natural state. It may be used as a substitute for meat
or ordinary butter, and utilized in various other ways as a new article of food. Being
thoroughly sterilized, it will keep indefinitely.
The process or method before described may be varied by omitting the preliminary
cooking of the blanched nut kernels; that is to say, by blanching, grinding and thus
reducing to a fine pulpy mass, then adding water and cooking as in the first place.
The cooking needs also to be continued longer than in the first case. The product
obtained differs from the other mainly in color, it being lighter. The proportion
of water may be slightly increased or diminished.
Various fruits and farinaceous products may be combined with the ground nut mass
and cooked along with the same, in the sealed cans, thereby making various wholesome,
nutritious, and palatable combinations.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is
1. The process of producing an improved alimentary product, which consists in
blanching and thoroughly cooking nut kernels, and reducing them to a pulp, then
adding water, and sealing the pasty mass in cans, and subjecting such cans to the
action of steam at a temperature ranging between 213° and 240° F. for a considerable
period, that is to say, until the mass becomes changed or modified, as specified.
2. The process of producing an improved alimentary product, which consists in
blanching and thoroughly cooking nut kernels, and reducing them to a pulp, then
adding water, and sealing the pasty mass in cans, and subjecting such cans to the
action of simultaneous pressure and heat ranging between 213° and 230° F. for a
considerable period; that is to say, until the mass becomes changed or modified, as
specified.
3. The process of producing the improved alimentary product described, the same
consisting in the following steps: (1) blanching the nut kernels; (2) thoroughly
cooking them; (3) reducing them to a pulp; (4) adding water in the proportion of
about one to two; (5) sealing the soft, pasty and emulsified mass in the tin cans;
and (6) in subjecting such cans to the action of steam at a temperature ranging from
213° to 240° F. for a period varying from one to four hours, whereby the mass
becomes converted into a product having the characteristics specified.
Dated this 16th day of M... 1000