Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Heat treatment of food material by contact with glyceridic...
Reissue Patent
1999-06-03
2001-04-24
Yeung, George C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Heat treatment of food material by contact with glyceridic...
C426S523000
Reissue Patent
active
RE037147
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to wire racks for supporting food, and more particularly to an improved wire rack for supporting food such as fried chicken in a pressure fryer and subsequently supporting
and
or
displaying that food in a single rack bun pan or a double rack
bunn
bun
pan.
In the fried chicken industry, as in many other food service industries, the food is prepared in several stages including a frying stage and a display stage. In the frying stage, pieces of chicken are placed on wire racks which are subsequently placed in high pressure fryers. One of the most popular fryers used in the industry is the pressure fryer made by Henny Penny. In the display stage, the rack supporting the fried chicken is removed from the pressure fryer and taken to the display area, where customers are able to view the fried chicken. Ideally, the rack supporting the fried chicken is placed directly into a single rack
bunn
bun
pan or double rack
bunn
bun
pan. However, this is often not possible because the racks required for the popular Henny Penny pressure fryer do not fit in all
bunn
bun
pans. Although the racks required for Henny Penny fryers (hereinafter Henny Penny racks) are capable of fitting side by side in a double rack
bunn
bun
pan, a Henny Penny rack will not fit into a single
bunn
rack bun
pan.
The incompatibility of the Henny Penny rack with the single
bunn
rack bun
pan creates several problems. For example, businesses using the popular Henny Penny fryer system must stock an additional inventory of racks just for
subsequently supporting or
displaying chicken in the single
bunn
bun
pans, which results in increased inventory costs. Furthermore, instead of placing the Henny Penny rack loaded with fried chicken directly into the
bunn
bun
pan, a production crew member must transfer each piece of chicken from the Henny Penny rack to the separate
support or
display rack. This added step of transferring chicken from one rack to another results in increased labor time, which may be significant when one considers the volume of chicken being prepared.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a rack that may be used in the Henny Penny fryer system as well as
in
both a single rack
bunn
bun
pan and double rack
bunn
bun
pan.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved wire rack capable of fitting into the Henny Penny or similar fryer system.
It is a further object of the invention that the same improved wire rack fit into both a single rack
bunn
bun
pan and a double rack
bunn
bun
pan.
To these ends, an improved wire rack is provided. The rack has a rectangular frame comprising a lower border rod and an upper border rod, with the lower rod defining a lower rectangular peripheral edge and the upper border rod defining an upper rectangular peripheral edge. The upper rectangular peripheral edge has a larger circumference than the lower rectangular peripheral edge, with means defining tapered side walls between the upper rectangular peripheral edge and the lower rectangular peripheral edge. In the preferred wire rack, the side walls are defined by means comprised of detents which are formed in the upper border rod and extend downwardly to contact with the lower border rod.
The support surface for the food is created largely by a plurality of support members in the form of a plurality of parallel straight wires extending between and attached to opposite sides of the lower border rod.
In order to elevate the support surface, the improved rack further includes legs extending downward from the lower border rod. The legs may be created and positioned in several different ways. For example, in one form of the invention, the legs comprise detents formed in the lengthwise sections of the lower border rod. In another embodiment, the improved rack may have an additional plurality of parallel wires running the length of the rack and extending between and attached to opposed sides of the lower border rod. In this case, the legs are created by forming detents in these additional parallel wires.
One of the advantages of the improved wire rack is that it may be used in the Henny Penny or a similar fryer system as well as both a single rack
bunn
bun
pan and double rack
bunn
bun
pan. The improved rack may be used in all three environments largely because the lower border rod has a slightly decreased width and length relative to the upper border rod. Because of this slightly decreased width and length, the lower border rod is able to fit into the single rack
bunn
bun
pan.
Another advantage of the improved rack is that it is capable of holding essentially the same amount of food as the prior art racks despite the slightly reduced width and length of the lower border rod. This advantage is achieved by having tapered side walls formed between the upper border rod and lower border rod, with the
upper border rod having essentially the same width and length as the border rods used in the prior art.
These and other objectives and advantages will become apparent to one skilled in the art from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment and from the drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3484252 (1969-12-01), Popeil
patent: 3939980 (1976-02-01), King
patent: 3979856 (1976-09-01), Belcher
patent: 4300686 (1981-11-01), Leclerc et al.
patent: 5243898 (1993-09-01), Sakuma
patent: 5635234 (1997-06-01), Svensson
Falcon Fabricators Inc.
Wood Herron & Evans LLP
Yeung George C.
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