Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Collapsible – expansible or sectional support
Patent
1994-10-12
1995-08-01
Dority, Carroll B.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Collapsible, expansible or sectional support
126 41R, 99445, A47J 2700
Patent
active
054372216
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a bipartite, telescoping grate for a grill having a plurality of bars defining an upper grate plane for taking up food to be grilled.
In its simplest form a grate comprises a plurality of round metal bars welded together parallel a certain distance apart. Such a grate is disposed in a frame a certain distance above a charcoal fireplace. Such a simple grill is sufficient for many purposes. However a frequently undesirable concomitant phenomenon in grilling proves to be the dripping of fat from the food into the fire between the bars of the grate. With certain foods, for example fish, dripping fat leads to a bad smell that should be avoided particularly in densely built-up residential areas.
For this purpose it has been proposed to replace the spaced round bars by profile bars, for example bars of S-shaped cross section, disposed in partly overlapping fashion. The bars define an upper grate plane on which the food to be grilled is located. Fat dripping or running down from this plane collects in the grooves formed by the S-shaped profile of the bars (see e.g. DE 37 15 621 A1; DE 34 22 314 A1).
The staggered, substantially S-shaped bars are suitable for catching fat from the food being grilled, but the radiant heat from the glowing charcoal reaches the food only indirectly, i.e. after being reflected once or twice on the walls of the bars, whereas the food is directly exposed to the radiant heat in the simple grate with staggered round bars.
Furthermore the document U.S.-A-4 553 523 discloses a bipartite, telescoping grate provided with two units each comprising a number of parallel round bars that are displaceable relative to each other for the purpose of changing or adjusting the size of the resulting grate. But regardless of the extent to which the particular bars of the two grate units are pushed together, this known grate also involves the disadvantage that fat can drip from the food to be grilled through the gaps between two adjacent round bars of the resulting assembled grate into the charcoal fire below the grate, which can lead to the detrimental effects explained above.
The document U.S.-A-2 549 709 likewise discloses a bipartite grate, in particular grate for a grill, wherein two substantially identical grate portions with parallel round bars can be put together, with telescoping connecting rods provided on the outer sides of the two units.
An essential aspect for a grate is the possibility of cleaning. For hygienic and esthetic reasons the grate should be thoroughly cleaned after each use to remove fatty residues, dirt, soot and the like. Cleaning is all the more difficult the closer together the bars are. With profile bars, for example S-shaped bars, some parts of the bars are inaccessible to mechanical cleaning means (brushes). This is very serious particularly in view of carcinogenic residues on the grate.
The invention is based on the problem of providing an improved bipartite and telescoping grate that prevents fat from dripping through it, on the one hand, but also has its individual bars well accessible for purposes of cleaning, on the other hand. This problem is solved in a grate of the abovementioned type by the combination of features stated in the characterizing part of claim 1. This seemingly simple measure permits the bars to be disposed relatively close together, virtually preventing fat from dripping through, while the gap between two adjacent bars can be increased by pulling apart the two parts of the grate so that the individual bars of the two groups are readily accessible and can be effortlessly cleaned.
A further aspect in this connection is the variation in the supply of energy to the food being grilled. When the two groups of bars are pushed together forming a virtually closed surface the food to be grilled is heated more or less indirectly, with very little radiant heat passing directly from the charcoal to the food to be grilled. When the two groups of bars are pulled apart, however, larger gaps arise in one group of bars. Through these gaps
REFERENCES:
patent: 2549709 (1951-04-01), Potts et al.
patent: 4553523 (1985-11-01), Stohrer
patent: 4936202 (1990-06-01), Lin
patent: 5347978 (1994-09-01), Zuran
patent: 5355868 (1994-10-01), Haen
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