Sights: Dairy Processing Plant

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These are not exactly equipment to process the SCM featured in my previous post. AkiraSabine's intention here is just to briefly share typical sights in a dairy processing plant. Yes, let A.S bring you wandering not to another country but to the dairy processing plant. Becareful, do not touch everything you see! Surfaces could be as high as above 100++ degree Celcius. Or else, to save you, what she could do is direct you to a cold surface.

The sugar dissolving system comes with a heating element - Tubular Heat Exchanger(THE), pumps and monitoring instruments.

Respective utility supply pipings and product pipings both in-coming and out-going, as well as monitoring and control instruments.

The dry powder handling area where milk powder from each silos(upper powder holding tanks) are transferred and weighed according to formulations at the weighing hopper(lower tank).

These are Retort Sterilizers which operate in batches. Bottled/ Canned milk are stacked in crates before being pushed in for high temperature, high pressure processing to extend the shelf life of the milk. 

To a layman like AkiraSabine, she used to think the gigantic equipment/ tanks were moved into the factory on the ground. She sure was wrong. It went through the roof! Less obstruction.

The Processing of Sweetened Condensed Milk (SCM)

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Flow diagram: The processing of SCM (click pic to magnify)

How is the SCM processed which makes the Malaysian Teh Tarik so tasty?

AkiraSabine shall explain it as simple as possible in layman terms...

Powder Handling 

The different types of milk powder (SMP, SWP & SBMP) are weighed according to formulation and mixed before finally arriving at the final hopper. 

Dissolving, Hydration & Mixing

Water is then added to dissolve the powder batch at a certain temperature before the mixed batch was transferred into the hydration tanks(HT). Each hydration tank fills one hydration batch to ensure continuous supply to the downstream processing. From the hydration tank, the hydration batch makes a loop and return to the same tank. In the loop, the milk is preheated, in-line mixing of liquid ingredients which are the palm oil, sugar syrup and liquid maltodextrine takes place and the mixture passes through the in-line turbo mixer in order to mix them well. 

Evaporation

Before the evaporation, the milk is first homogenized. Homogenization is a mechanized high pressure forcing of the mixture through micro gaps in order to disperse the oil molecules. As a result of it, the miscibility of oil in water is more stabilized to avoid separation due to the density gap between both liquids. Pasteurization (at a high temperature but short time) is meant to kill most of the bacteria without compromising on the quality of the milk. Last but not least, the milk then passes through the falling film evaporator. This stage at 55 deg C and vacuum condition, water is sucked out of the milk to yield a more viscous product as it passes through the calandria portion of the falling film evaporator.

Cooling

It is then cooled down with a Plate Heat Exchanger(PHE). Lactose powder is added to ensure crystallization of uniform sugar granules in the end product to avoid grainy texture.

Crystallization

Allocation of 1 hour for the sugar to crystallize properly at 23 degr C in the super huge (60Tonne) crystallization tanks.

Rework

As the name implies, the earlier crystallization batch which was not up to expected standards is returned and added to reprocess the milk together with the current batch.

Filling

The ready product in the crystallization tank is transferred to be filled at the filler into 505 g tin cans.

UP NEXT on this topic...

AkiraSabine shall share real pictures of these gigantic processing equipments.

Stay tuned!

Guitar Playing: LUCKY by Jason Mraz ft Colbie Caillat

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AkiraSabine is putting effort in mastering how to play this song properly. Wish her luck, LOTS OF IT!!! She'd feel very much accomplished finally being able to play and sing along at the same time till the very end. It may not sound pro, but it is hoped to cheat sounding as one.

The hard work - 30 minutes of practice, once every 2 days if not daily...

First and foremost, she'd need to get the lyrics at her fingertips.

Secondly, she'd need to know the strumming chords, the rhythm and getting the best strum effect.

Thirdly, she'd need to combine both and practice, PracTISE and PRACTISE!!!

Last but not least, she'd entertain herself over and over again and only upon special request, cheat as a pro to her family and friends.

Baking Attempt: Cotton Sponge Cake Again

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Given name: Cotton Sponge Cake

Source of recipe: From a blog A.S is a follower of

Attempt: Second, this was the first

Overall sponge cake attempt: Countless

Satisfactory level: 99.9999%

Reason being: No layers of separation at all between the egg white and yolk portion! It was unbelievably uniform with the taste SO GOOD, MOIST and SOFT, just like baked cheesecake! The AMAZING thing is that there WASN'T any cheese in it AT ALL!!!

Things done differently compared to last:

1. The 'clever' reduction of liquid which was milk and oil in this recipe. YEA, what a genius when adherence to measurements is so crucial in cake baking!

2. The egg white portion was beaten to the extent that when the bowl was turned up-side down, it DIDN'T FALL off. 

3. The total sugar content was divided and added into both the egg white mixture and yolk mixture respectively. Therefore, if and only if separation occured, the cake wouldn't have a sweet layer of egg white on top and non-sweet yolk layer at the bottom.

4. Flour was added to the yolk mechanically instead of manually folded in for even distribution as well as to avoid getting flour lumps.

5. Quarter of the flour was last mixed in during the combination of the egg white + egg yolk mixture so as to reduce the density of the egg yolk mixture. In another word, the density gap between the 2 mixtures was reduced. Again, this was an effort to avoid separation.

6. The oven was preheated to 180 degree Celcius(not even a celcius less) and not worry about getting the surface burnt from the oven upper coil. It's critical to get the mixture cooked and set before it has time to separate.

AP in USA: Entrepreneur Teens

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B: Can I mow your lawn for 10 Dollars?

A: OK, come and do it once every 2 weeks. Do you have your own mower?

B: No

A: Alright, you can use mine. Make sure to gather and get rid of the grass and clean the mower after use.

Over the phone...

A: Have you got time tomorrow morning at 11am?

C: Yes, what's up?

A: I'm having my house painted and I need my furniture relocated to the basement. Can you come over to help me out? Bring your brother with you.

C: OK.

Over the phone...

A:  I have a new bed delivered tomorrow at 3pm. Will you be home from school?

C: Yes. What can I help?

A: Can you please set the bed up for me? I also have new window blinds I'd need your help to install.

C: OK.

One evening as A was moving some old furnitures out from the house, D came over from the house across the street.

D: Hey A, you need any help?

A: It's OK.

D: You're painting your house, eh? That's quite a bit of a job. Would you like me to do it for you? I'd do a great job!

Some descriptions about the characters above:-

A: a woman in her 40's 

B: a 4th grader boy at 10 years old

C: a high school boy at 16 years old

D: an elementary school boy at 13 years old

and they all lived in the same neighbourhood

An additional note...

In fact, D distributed flyers around offering his service around the neighbourhood as a do-it-all serviceman.

One could even see his flyers posted up on the mall's community board as well as at the community club house down at the beach of Lake Washington.

This is not the first post AkiraSabine shares her observations on the USA. Click here to read more...