5 Seamless Steps to Cook, Chill, and Freeze – The Deepchill® Way
Deepchilling allows you to get more premium quality cooked lobster and crab when you follow the Deepchill® process. Powered by Deepchill’s advanced slurry ice machine technology, this process ensures rapid and uniform cooling for seafood and other perishable products. With its unparalleled cooling power and automated process, Deepchill® improves your plant efficiency and bottom line. Read on to see what this means for your operation.
Why Deepchill®?
In this process, crab and lobster are cooked to perfection, chilled rapidly, brine-frozen and processed effortlessly, and then packaged for distribution.
Deepchill® cold-shocks the shellfish in the chilling step, which dramatically cuts the natural drip loss, helps separate the shell from the meat, and results in less labour and lower waste.
Cutting the drip losses means you can generate at least 1% more yield than before. That’s 10,000 lbs. more from a 1,000,000 lbs./year operation. With a pre-cooked product going for $20/lb., that equates to an approximate increase of about $200,000 in revenue per million pounds you process.
Deepchill® can be used in tandem with various chilling apparatus whether it be in batches or in a continuous process.
The system takes up less space, chills faster than any other conventional chilling technologies and gives you the most out of your valuable product. Unlike conventional flake ice systems, the slurry ice machine design of Deepchill® maintains a consistent cooling temperature and improves yield and product texture. Read how slurry ice compares with flake ice: Flake Ice vs Slurry Ice.
Let’s review this process step by step and see how Deepchill® adds value.
The 5 Step Deepchill® Process
1. Cook
Cook the whole or butchered crab or lobster in batches or in a continuous operation.
Occasionally, over-cooking happens. Deepchill® solves this by “cold-shocking” and halting the cooking process of the crab and lobster to deliver a higher-quality product.
2. Rapid Deepchilling
Cooked crab or lobster enters the chilling tanks, either in batches or in conveyor-based tanks, where Deepchill® is automatically dispersed to rapidly chill the crustaceans.
This diagram illustrates the cooling curve of butchered Dungeness crab (average weight of 2lbs.) in a lab test. The temperature of butchered crab legs reached 0°C after 6 minutes. In a similar test on whole crabs, Deepchilling time of 13 minutes was achieved.
Deepchill® can be integrated into existing tanks and processes to significantly improve your current operation. Chilling faster means you can increase your throughput with no additional equipment.
Deepchill® systems are hygienic and, unlike chillers, do not require water recirculation. In this way, the cooked product is handled in a safe and hygienic condition. This efficient ice chiller system delivers continuous slurry ice production, ideal for seafood processors needing faster throughput and higher hygiene standards.
3. Processing
Within minutes, the Deepchilled shellfish are ready for meat extraction.
The quick chill from Deepchill® technology causes the meat to fully separate from the shell. This makes extractions exceptionally easy and saves processing time while improving product appearance.
Thanks to its power of rapid cooling, Deepchill® can cut the weight loss associated with conventional cook & chill methods and retain the product moisture.
Deepchilling cooked crab or lobster reduces dehydration and shrinkage, cutting drip losses by up to 3-4 times compared to water and ice mix, which increases your highly valuable product’s yield. Translating into thousands of dollars in earnings!
4. Cyro-Deepchill
It’s a 2-in-1 deal with Deepchill®! Whether it be chilling or brine freezing your product, you can do both without additional investments in multiple chilling and freezing equipment!
Now you can brine freeze with Cyro-Deepchill®, which enables you to get better quality and tastier products using less power than conventional freezing equipment.
The entire process of cooking, chilling and freezing whole Dungeness crab is illustrated below in a graph. With Cyro-Deepchill at -20°C it took only 8 minutes to freeze whole crabs (average weight of 2lbs.).
The combination of a slurry ice machine and freezing capability delivers superior product quality compared to standard ice systems or traditional chillers.
5. Packing & Distribution
The deliciously, pre-cooked crab and lobster is ready to be packaged and distributed to your consumers.
The Deepchill® Benefits
In summary, here are the benefits of using a Deepchill® solution to chill and freeze your pre-cooked crab and lobster:
- Higher product yield
- Easy separation of meat and shell
- Rapid chilling with the fastest cooling rate
- Improve processing capacity and throughput
- Environmentally-friendly with lower power consumption
- 2-in-1 chilling and [optional] Cryo-Deepchill® ability
- Results in a better-quality meat texture with great taste
What’s the Deepchill® Advantage for Crabs?
Introduction to Deepchill® Lobsters
Deepchill’s ice chiller solutions are redefining how processors handle seafood, fish, poultry, and even produce with efficiency and sustainability. Call (905) 856-0400 or email us at [email protected] to discuss your cook, chill & freeze needs and see how Deepchill® industrial slurry ice systems can improve your operation.