Amber Almond Processing Methods and Technical Key Points

(1) Process flow

Raw materials → selection → soaking → sugar boiling → cooling and draining → frying → cooling → oil spinning → packaging

(2) Technical key points

Use a vibrating screen to select almonds of uniform size, and pick out insect-eaten, moldy almonds and other impurities.

Soak in warm water at 60°C for more than 5 days, changing the water every day, and prevent the almond skins from falling off during soaking. Drain off the soaking water, drain well, and pick out the almonds whose skins have fallen off.

Put the almonds into a sugar liquid with a concentration of 75%, and boil for 15-20 minutes. When removed from the heat, the sugar liquid concentration should be above 75%. The sugar liquid is prepared from 55 kg white granulated sugar, 30 kg maltose, and 25 kg water; the amount of water added should be determined according to the moisture content of the maltose.

Scoop out the almonds, drain off part of the sugar liquid, spread them out and cool to 20-30°C, then fry. Put the almonds into a basket, and place the almonds together with the basket into an oil pot at a temperature of 150-160°C, so that the almonds are evenly fried through without burning or scorching, and become amber-colored with a uniform glossy appearance. The fried almonds should be cooled quickly to 60°C and turned a few times to prevent sticking. After cooling to below 50°C, spin off the oil.

The fried and cooled almonds are centrifugally spun for 2-3 minutes to remove part of the surface oil. After weighing, pack them into screw-top jars.

Precautions

Strictly control the frying temperature to prevent it from being too high or too low. Keep the oil pot clean, replace with new oil each time, and add an antioxidant to the oil, such as propyl gallate, adding about 0.5 g per kg of oil. After frying, canning and sealing must be completed within 50 minutes. After sugar boiling, it should be cooled to room temperature before frying; otherwise, the sugar easily dissolves in the oil. If the cooling temperature is too low, it is also easy to clump. In preparing the sugar liquid, reducing sugars should account for more than 50% of the total sugar. After frying, the product must be cooled to 60-70°C before it can be turned, to prevent graining.