I've gathered some information for you about saltines, and about the
manufacture of crackers in general. For reasons of copyright, I'm
posting just links and brief excerpts here; just click the links to be
taken to the original online sources.
You can make saltines in your own kitchen. I've experimented with this
myself, and although the results were interesting and edible, my
homemade saltines were never as crispy and tender as the ones from
commercial bakeries. Many commercial saltines are made from dough
which has undergone a complicated fermentation process that cannot
feasibly be done at home, so it isn't likely that your homemade
saltines will be duplicates of the store-bought ones. But it's fun to
try! My best tips: use lard instead of butter or shortening. Roll the
dough very, very thin (this takes practice). Be sure to pierce the
dough well, so that it won't puff up too much in the oven. Be careful
not to overbake; you don't want the saltines to be golden-brown like
cookies.
Here you'll find some recipes for saltines (small batches for the home cook):
Recipezaar: Crackers Just Like Saltines Recipe
http://www.recipezaar.com/56886
Astray Recipes: Saltines & family
http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=Saltines%20%26%20family
Cooks.com: Homemade Saltines
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,164,151185-248196,00.html
Recipe Circus: Homemade Saltines
http://recipecircus.com/recipes/Buny/Snacks/Homemade_Saltines.html
The Ingredient Store: Homemade Saltine Crackers
http://www.theingredientstore.com/joesplace/swap1.pl?read=7292
FoodDownUnder: Marion Cunningham's Saltines
http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=159131
Here are excerpts from some articles about the commercial manufacture
of saltines and other crackers. Note that the snack that is called a
cracker in the US is usually called a biscuit in the UK.
"Saltines are normally produced using a sponge and dough process with
a long bacterial fermentation. The bacteria can be contributed by the
yeast, flour, recycled dough, and held-back sponge. The held-back
sponge is also referred to as a 'mother' or 'buffer.'
The sponge contains 60 to 70 percent of the flour and is allowed to
ferment in troughs at 78° to 84°F (25° to 29°C) for 16 to 19 hours.
During this time, acids are produced by the bacteria, and the pH drops
from about 6 to 4. Flour contains a proteolytic enzyme with an optimum
pH of about 4.1. The action of this protease during fermentation is
believed to modify the dough properties, making the dough more
extensible, less elastic, and thus easier to sheet. The fermentation
also contributes to a desirable taste and flavor.
After fermentation, the sponge is added to the remaining ingredients
and mixed for 3 to 7 minutes. Sodium bicarbonate is added to produce
carbon dioxide and to raise the dough pH to 7 to 8.
After mixing, the dough again ferments in troughs for 3 to 6 hours.
The high pH inhibits additional acid production by the bacteria but
allows yeast fermentation to continue.
The fermented dough is sheeted and laminated into 7 or 8 layers with a
combined thickness of about 0.1 inches (2 mm). The laminated dough is
scored partway through to form the individual crackers without
separating them. The dough is also docked, or stamped with pins, to
form the pattern of holes that hold the laminations together and
prevent the finished cracker from separating into layers. Salting is
the last step before baking.
Baking takes place at about 450° to 600°F (230° to 315°C) for 2.5 to 6
minutes. The high temperature produces steam that expands the volume
of the cracker, and the crackers move through the oven on wire mesh
that allows moisture to escape from both sides."
Lallemand, Inc: Cracker Production
http://www.lallemand.com/BakerYeastNA/eng/PDFs/LBU%20PDF%20FILES/2_16CRKR.PDF
"In a large biscuit factory several hundred different kinds of
biscuits are made, ranging from plain water biscuits to the daintiest
fancy biscuits glistening in sugar and piping. The storage required
for such an establishment is extensive, but lifts serve to handle both
raw material and finished products with a minimum of labor. The flour
used by a firm which has a reputation to maintain is sifted as a
precaution against the presence of bits of string or other foreign.
bodies which will make their way into flour sacked by the most careful
of millers, and like the butter, sugar and other raw materials, is
carefully inspected and tested before being accepted. After blending
it is run through a shoot or sleeve to the mixers, which may be of any
type used in bakehouses...
From the mixers or kneaders the dough is delivered on a flat table, or
it may go direct to a pair of rolls. These consist of iron rollers
with a reversing motion, between which the dough is rolled backwards
and forwards into sheets of uniform thickness. The next stage is the
feeding of portions of this slab of dough to a cutting and panning
machine. In details this apparatus differs as supplied by different
makers, but the broad principle is the same in every case. The dough,
after first passing through a pair of gauging rollers, which still
further thin out the sheet and are capable of regulating its thickness
with the utmost nicety, is received by an endless conveyor-band of
webbing or similar material. By this band it is carried forward by
intermittent motion to a set of punches or stamps which descend on it
in quick succession, and serve to mould the surface and cut the edges
to the required pattern. This operation completed, the moulded dough
passes forward on the same endless band. The dough has now been cut
into two distinct divisions, the moulded biscuits and the unworked
portion which forms a continuous sheet of a sort of scrap. The latter
is separated from the moulded dough, and is carried upwards by another
band, which delivers it on a tray or box whence it is returned to the
rollers to be reworked. The moulded dough intended for the oven is
carried along by the first band and is gently deposited on trays of
sheet iron or woven wire. These trays are taken from the Inachine by
boys and placed on the travelling-chains at the oven, or the trays may
be automatically moved forward by a travelling-band and placed on the
oven. The oven used for biscuit-baking is quite unlike any bread oven.
It is much longer and is provided with sets of endless chains moving
in parallel lines, and travelling over sprocket-wheel terminals and
intermediate supports. The chains have special attachments on which
the trays of biscuits are rested, and thus pass them through the oven,
and discharge them at the opposite end. Some ovens are provided with a
sort of endless belt of iron plates on which the biscuits are placed.
These travelling bands are used chiefly for ship and also for dog
biscuits, but the most usual type is the oven in which trays are moved
on the travelling chains already described. The exact rate of travel,
or the time during which the biscuits are in the oven, can be easily
adjusted by means of countershafts and leather belts running on cone
pulleys fitted at the discharging end. The heat of the oven as well as
the rate of travel is varied according to the kind of biscuit, some
varieties requiring a gentle heat and a comparatively long sojourn in
the oven, while others must be exposed to a fierce heat, but only for
a few minutes. The ovens, fired by coke, maybe 38 to 50 ft. in length.
Their temperature is not generally raised above 500 degrees, but the
speed of travel of the trays ranges between 31/8 and 25 minutes. The
whole process of biscuit-making is thtis rapid and continuous."
LoveToKnow Encyclopedia
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/B/BI/BISCUIT.htm
"In contrast to cookies, crackers contain little or no sugar. They are
formulated with higher-protein flours, often a mixture of hard and
soft wheats. Crackers contain somewhat high levels of fat (10% to 20%)
and low levels of water (20% to 30%) compared to bread. Both
yeast-fermented and chemically leavened varieties are common.
Fermented crackers use a sponge-and-dough process in which sponge
fermentation takes about 12 to 18 hours. Once the sponge is ripe, it
is mixed with the remaining flour and other ingredients, and sodium
bicarbonate is added to bring the acidic dough back to pH 7.0. Unlike
cookies, gluten development is important in a cracker to create the
right dough rheology and finished texture. After 2 to 5 hours, the
dough is processed by coarsely rolling, lapping and layering it, then
reducing the layers through sheeting rolls. Chemically leavened
crackers skip the fermentation time and have a relatively short lay
time prior to rolling.
The remaining processes are the same for both fermented and chemically
leavened crackers. Before baking, the dough sheet is continuously cut
into crackers and rolled with docking pins. The docking pins press the
dough together to facilitate steam release from the crackers and help
keep the layers from separating. The high-temperature, short-time bake
puffs the thin dough sheets into crackers by vaporizing internal
water. Salting is done prior to baking. If oil is sprayed or seasoning
applied to the crackers, this occurs after the bake. Low moisture
content in the finished product is important for preserving the crisp
and brittle, but tender, cracker texture. Most crackers contain
approximately 2% moisture."
Food Product Design: Inside Cookies and Crackers
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/1999/0799de.html
For someone who is seriously interested in going into the
cracker-baking business, a series of manuals from Woodhead Publishing
should be useful. If you are registered at Amazon.com, you can use the
"Search Inside the Book" feature to read portions of these books:
Biscuit, Cracker, and Cookie Recipes for the Food Industry
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0849312205
Biscuit, Cookie, and Cracker Manufacturing,
Manual 1: Ingredients
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1855732920
Biscuit, Cookie, and Cracker Manufacturing,
Manual 2: Doughs
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1855732939
Biscuit, Cookie, and Cracker Manufacturing,
Manual 3: Piece Forming
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1855732947
Biscuit, Cookies, and Cracker Manufacturing,
Manual 4: Baking and Cooling
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1855732955
Biscuit, Cookie, and Cracker Manufacturing,
Manual 5: Secondary Proceedings
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1855732963
Biscuit, Cookie, and Cracker Manufacturing,
Manual 6: Packaging & Storing
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1855732971
My Google search strategy:
Google Web Search: recipe saltine OR saltines
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=recipe+saltine+OR+saltines
Google Web Search: saltines OR crackers factory oven dough
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=saltines+OR+crackers+factory+oven+dough
I hope this is helpful! If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |
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