Right oven for Frozen Foods?

[Nipun]

Hi,

 

I'd like to provide an array of meals that are frozen and can be quickly heated and served.

 

I'd like your viewpoint on 3 types of ovens

 

1) Steam Combi - e.g. Rational selfcookingcentre

 

2) Convection+Impingement- e.g. MerryChef E2S

 

3) convection + Microvave e.g. Menumaster

 

While I think 2&3 are more suited than 1, but would like your feedback. The menu would consist of 

Lasagna

Pasta

Rice

Noodles

Curries

 

Thanks,

Nipun

[liuzhou]

You want to cook frozen noodles? In an oven?

 

 

[JeanneCake]

Are you looking for recommendations for commercial equipment or for home use?  What kind of institution (school, elderly home?)? Are you looking to just reheat previously cooked meals that are delivered frozen to you?  Or are you preparing these meals, freezing them and then delivering them to places that have to cook them?

[Nipun]

Hello,

 

Let me provide some more details. There is a central kitchen where the food is 'cooked' and then using blast freeing it its stored in Frozen State. The Type of Meals include Mexican Rice, Indian Biryani, Pastas, Noodles, Stir-Fry Sauces etc.

 

From this central kitchen, the frozen goods are supplied to different points where they are stores in Frozen State. 

 

Now as and when an order is received (say for Arrabbiata Pasta), one needs to pull out 2 Frozen Packs --

a) Boiled pasta with Olive oil & sauteed Veggies

b) Arrabbiata Pasta Sauce 

 

These will have to be 'heated up' (without thawing) using a particular kind of oven, mixed and served.

 

What I need to understand is the right kind of oven for this. My understanding so far is that:

- A MerryChef has no steam but it is faster as it provides Impingement + Convection

- A Retional Oven has Steam + Convection - but could be slower

 

 

The requirement is Commercial. Approx 100 Orders per Day

 

Thanks!

 

[pastrygirl]

Why heat directly from frozen?

 

If you’re serving 100 of these assorted frozen meals per day, wouldn’t it be easier to keep say 10 of each thawed but refrigerated for faster, more even heating?  

[teonzo]

Ask to your supplier of frozen foods, they are required to give you these infos. Usually they have an agreement with an oven producer, so you can get a nice discount / lease / whatever.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[liuzhou]

32 minutes ago, teonzo said:

Ask to your supplier of frozen foods, they are required to give you these infos. Usually they have an agreement with an oven producer, so you can get a nice discount / lease / whatever.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

From what (s)he says, (s)he is the supplier!

[cdh]

Why an oven rather than a sous vide bath?  Nothing you've mentioned needs to be crisp.

[teonzo]

7 hours ago, liuzhou said:

From what (s)he says, (s)he is the supplier!

 

If that's the case and (s)he does not know how to deal with this Frozen Food, well, then good luck!

 

 

 

Teo

 

[MSRadell]

On 6/1/2019 at 10:15 AM, cdh said:

Why an oven rather than a sous vide bath?  Nothing you've mentioned needs to be crisp.

I'm guessing that it's a time factor. They only want to pull the items and he them when a customer wants it. It would take too long to heat something up using Sous vide

[liuzhou]

I'm just wondering what kind of commercial catering operation sells reheated frozen pasta!

[Nipun]

Hi,

 

To Clarify we're building a model wherein the food is centrally cooked and can be served at multiple location / mutiple cities --- just by heating it up. The person heating the food us would NOT be an experienced chef at all. 

-- Frozen is the chosen medium because the shelf life is highest and can be transported easily. 

-- I'll read up about Sous Vide -- Thanks for this opinion.

 

 

What I as trying to essentially understand is reheating Frozen Food

with Steam (like a rational oven) or with Convection/microwave combi - Pros & Cons

and of course time factor - which I'll figure out by doing food trial.

 

Thanks,

 

 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Nipun said:

-- Frozen is the chosen medium because the shelf life is highest and can be transported easily. 

 

... but possibly the worst way to deal with pasta. As for frozen stir fries! Totally defeats the point.

 

There may be a niche for preparing food this way, but it seems to me you have chosen inappropriate types of food.

Edited June 4, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[teonzo]

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I'm just wondering what kind of commercial catering operation sells reheated frozen pasta!

 

Crappy ones for sure, which are the majority here in Italy. Almost all bars ("bar" as is used in Italy) that offer quick lunches use frozen pasta. A high percentage of trattorie and cheap restaurants follow the same route. Some of them are in the middle: they produce their own condiments, but use frozen raw pasta (blast freezed after it's been boiled, zero condiments). This way customers are served after 5 minutes instead of 15. And they are really happy for this.

There are many industrial producers for frozen primi piatti. You are right to think that re-heated pasta sucks, but there is risotto too, which is much worse if possible. Those crappy eateries just need to sign a contract with those industries, so they get all the needed equipment to do this food abomination.

It's a plague here in the land of pasta, so go figure.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[teonzo]

5 hours ago, Nipun said:

To Clarify we're building a model wherein the food is centrally cooked and can be served at multiple location / mutiple cities --- just by heating it up. The person heating the food us would NOT be an experienced chef at all. 

-- Frozen is the chosen medium because the shelf life is highest and can be transported easily. 

-- I'll read up about Sous Vide -- Thanks for this opinion.

 

 

What I as trying to essentially understand is reheating Frozen Food

with Steam (like a rational oven) or with Convection/microwave combi - Pros & Cons

and of course time factor - which I'll figure out by doing food trial.

 

Building such an operation takes a good amount of money (in the millions I would say).

Knowing how to re-heat your frozen food is simply one of the most crucial aspects in such an operation, all of your business is based on that.

You are spending big money, yet you are trying to ask for free suggestions here to save spending on a consultant. With this attitude, I doubt you will find someone willing to help, sorry.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[liuzhou]

29 minutes ago, teonzo said:

but use frozen raw pasta (blast freezed after it's been boiled

 

I'm confused. It's raw after being boiled?

Anyway, sounds dire.

[teonzo]

20 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

I'm confused. It's raw after being boiled?

 

Sorry, my English is not perfect. I mean boiled pasta with no condiments, just drained out of the boiler. Raw in the sense "nothing added", not in the sense "not cooked".

 

 

 

23 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Anyway, sounds dire.

 

Definetely.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Nipun]

Anyways, thanks for the help gentlemen.

 

[Smithy]

11 hours ago, Nipun said:

Hi,

 

To Clarify we're building a model wherein the food is centrally cooked and can be served at multiple location / mutiple cities --- just by heating it up. The person heating the food us would NOT be an experienced chef at all. 

-- Frozen is the chosen medium because the shelf life is highest and can be transported easily. 

-- I'll read up about Sous Vide -- Thanks for this opinion.

 

 

What I as trying to essentially understand is reheating Frozen Food

with Steam (like a rational oven) or with Convection/microwave combi - Pros & Cons

and of course time factor - which I'll figure out by doing food trial.

 

Thanks,

 

 

 

In the United States we have a lot of "convenience foods" packaged in the grocery store freezers. They're ready to take home and cook, either in a conventional oven or in a microwave oven. Some packages also include instructions for cooking in a "toaster oven" which is considerably smaller than a conventional oven. I've never seen any come with steam oven instructions, but since I don't buy these things my casual survey may have missed a new option. I think steam ovens are still relatively rare for the home cook in this country, although this topic will show that they're catching on!

 

Is this the sort of thing you mean?

 

 

You'd have to work out a cost-effective way of producing them, and I hope you'd also find a reusable package. The waste from these is one reason I don't buy them. (Another is that I tend to cook from scratch, as do the other participants in this topic so far.)