1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to or food products which comprise encapsulated meat soup or juice. These foods with meat soup capsules can be usefully applied to the production of a variety of foods such as jiaozi (Chinese meat dumplings), shaomai (steamed meat dumplings), wonton (Chinese Meat-stuffed dumplings served in soup), shaoronpo (steamed dumplings stuffed with meat and soup), hamburger, sausage, meat-filled buns, or the like, thereby improving their taste.
2. Prior Art
Hitherto, chopped or minced meat has been used as a raw material in the production of foods such as jiaozi, shaomai, wonton, shaoronpo, hamburger, sausage, meat-filled buns and similar foods. The above-listed foods are generally produced by mixing and kneading the chopped meat with other raw materials such as vegetables and the like. The mixture is then used as an ingredient and wrapped with a film or dough of wheat flour or, alternatively, the mixture is molded into any desired shape. After wrapping or molding, the product is roasted on a frying pan, fried in an edible oil, boiled or steamed.
The above-described type of foods, however, have an important drawback which is a loss of their specific flavor and hence their reduced taste. This drawback is believed to result caused by the fact that when the food are heated in any subsequent step, meat juice of the chipped meat flows out from the foods and thus only a flesh structure of the meat having no extract component remains in the foods. In addition, for the meat-filled buns, they suffer from a tendency of rupture of their outer covering, because the dough of the wheat flour forming the covering is excessively expanded in the presence of the meat juice flowed out from the meat.
Recently, food products utilizing capsules having incorporated therein many different materials have been suggested. As an example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 56-42536 suggests to encapsulate additives such as fruit jam, honey, butter or the like. The encapsulated additives are then incorporated into breads or confectioneries. However, it does not teach to utilize such encapsulization technique in the production of jiaozi, shaomai, wonton, shaoronpo, hamburger, sausage, bun with meat filling or similar foods for the purpose of improving their taste. In fact, none of the prior arts discloses the use of the capsules in the production of these specified foods in order to improve their taste.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to retain the meat soup or juice in the jiaozi, shaomai, wonton, shaoronpo, hamburger, sausage, meat-filled buns or similar food products and, as a result, to improve their taste.