Hydratherm
Industrial Continuous Cooking System
The HydraTherm is the first, truly industrial continuous cooking system for full absorption rice/grain/pasta that can produce authentic, high value-added products and flavoured rice/grain dishes such as Asian ‘sticky’ rice, Spanish rice, flavoured rice pilaf and similar grain products where precision control of hydration is crucial to cooked rice quality.
The full absorption cooking method meters sufficient hot water onto the product to achieve a customer-defined hydration level. This essentially eliminates starch-laden effluent, a costly by-product of conventional excess water cooking systems. The HydraTherm mixes as it conveys, so you can prepare flavoured rice/grain products with liquid and particulate ingredient additions without dilution. Furthermore, full absorption cooking is the only way to prepare authentic Asian ‘sticky’ rice for sushi and bento meal products.
The HydraTherm is completely automated so a single operator is able to manage the entire system. The PLC controlled intermeshing agitators convey the product forward through the cooker at an application-specific rate while gently mixing the rice so that all kernels are evenly heated by low pressure direct steam through the trough and hydrated by dosing of hot cook water from the zoned manifold mounted above the moving bed of product. The PLC-based recipe program precisely controls the rate of water addition to achieve a wide range of user-defined hydration levels.
The patented HydraTherm defines state-of-the-art performance for the continuous production of a wide array of rice/grain/pasta products. The modular system can include bulk raw product transfer, rotary washers, soak tanks, metered dosing of liquid and particulate flavouring ingredients, de-clumping systems to separate cooked product, post-cook equilibration belts and cooling/chilling systems that utilize forced air to cool the freshly cooked product to the desired final temperature.
Range of Products & Applications
The HydraTherm will cook raw and parboiled rice and rice dishes including, but not limited to risotto, pilaf, biryani, flavoured rice and short-grain glutinous (sticky) rice for sushi and bento box applications. Specialty grains such as quinoa, couscous and pasta of varying geometries can also be processed on the HydraTherm.
Proven Modes of Operation
- Blending
- Cooking
- Automated Ingredient Addition
Technical Highlights
- Full absorption cooking method is energy efficient, thus driving down operating costs after initial capital investment.
- Special agitator design helps keep product free-flowing once starches have bloomed toward the end of the cook process.
- Proprietary HydraTherm Automated PLC platform allows the system to operate with a high level of independence and minimal staff.
- 360⁰ radial spray pattern of hot water above product bed allows even distribution of hydration water.
- Multi-zone temperature control to allow precise process control at various stages during the cooking process, resulting in high quality finished product.
- Hot water heating system allows precise control of hydration water temperature.
- Variable frequency drive adds another layer of control to dial-in the exact conditions necessary to attain high product quality standards.
System Integration
- Integration of solid and liquid ingredient systems.
- Integration of weight management systems on ingredient addition systems.
- Integration of flow meters on steam and water manifolds for utility monitoring.
- Integration of soak tanks, rotary washers, feed systems, post-cook equilibration belts, de-clumpers, cooling/chilling belts etc.
- Custom PLC programming.
- ID Development
Working Capacities
Each HydraTherm system is customised to suit the specific rice(s) to be processed. Production rates range from 300 lb/hr (136 kg/hr) to 5,000 lb/hr (2,267 kg/hr), depending on the variety of rice and hydration level required.
Other continuous cooking systems in this range include:
Continuous Cooking System – The Blentech Continutherm
This food processing equipment is part of the Blentech range of machines for whom Paragon Processing Solutions are the UK and Ireland agent.
Applications: Rice, grains, pasta of various geometries, Flavoured delicate rices and Asian “sticky” rice,
