Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – With heat distributor
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-07
2003-11-04
Alexander, Reginald L. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
With heat distributor
C099S422000, C099S401000, C099S343000, C099S339000, C099S482000, C126S273500, C426S523000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06640695
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to accessories for enhanced cooking, and with particularly regard to accessories used in an outdoor barbeque grill
25
.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cooking accessories have been devised for use with barbeque grills. One of these is U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,741 issued to Plumley et al. This device is similar to the instant invention in that it is used in conjunction with a barbeque grill. However, Plumley's device has its own lid
61
and is not intended to be covered by a lid of the barbeque grill. Furthermore, Plumley's lid acts as a means for catching drips from the perforated lower surface of the pan of Plumley. Plumley has a perforated surface on which food is placed. This surface lies directly on the rack of the barbeque grill. As such there is no space between the barbeque grill and the surface on which food rests. The exception would be when the lid of Plumley is used as an additional layer between the cooking surface and the grill. In this arrangement juices from the food are caught in the underlying lid as can be seen in FIG.
7
. The deep pan and shape and perforated surface on which food is to lie as shown at
40
in
FIG. 7
, make clear that Plumley's device is not intended for bread type foods. Furthermore, the rim around the cooking surface of Plumley would make it difficult to place pizzas on and to remove pizzas from the pan of Plumley. Plumley also has no tile used in conjunction with her device.
Another reference that has an accessory to be used with a barbeque grill
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is U.S. Pat. No. 6,187,359 issued to Zuccarini. Zuccarini similarly has a deep pan structure. Zuccarini's device also has vents or holes in the bottom of the pan. This pan lies directly on the grill of the barbeque and is designed to allow hot gases and smoke to penetrate through the vents in the bottom of the pan. While Zuccarini's device is configured to be enclosed by the lid of the barbeque as is the instant invention, Zuccarini's device is configured to have a portion of the device removed from the barbeque grill by means of a handle in order to access the cooked food as shown in FIG.
6
. Furthermore, Zuccarini does not have a tile. In fact it appears that a tile would limit Zuccarini's device from working properly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,833 issued to Chen is a device that is arranged to rest on a stovetop. As such it is different from the instant invention. One similarity is that Chen's device incorporates a tile and has the specific purpose of cooking pizzas. However, Chen's device is not intended to be fully enclosed in a barbeque. Furthermore, Chen's device does not have the legs and the other structure that properly directs the heat for a topless insert like the instant invention. Instead Chen's device has its own lid, which helps to guide the hot gases directly from a flame to surround the pizza.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,265 issued to Romo has an insert for converting a conventional home oven into a pizza oven. As such, the invention of Romo is limited with regard to its use in a barbeque application. As can be seen in
FIG. 1
a downwardly protruding lip on one edge is designed specifically for an indoor oven. Furthermore, the tiles
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of Romo are not spaced above the rack of the oven as is the instant invention's tile spaced above the grill of a barbeque. While this feature may not be critical in using Romo's device in an indoor oven, it would be critical were the device of Romo to be used in conjunction with an outdoor barbeque. This is so because it has been found with the instant invention that spacing the insert above the grill is important to prevent burning of the bottom of the pizza.
A reference to U.S. Pat. No. 3,035,568 issued to Dama et al. discloses a portable baking device. While column 2, line 44 discloses that this device can be used with an outdoor charcoal fired grill it does not appear that this device would fair well being enclosed in a modern gas grill, or even enclosed in the charcoal grills. Particularly, the thermometer
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and other features of the device do not appear that they would stand up under the high heat that is encountered in an enclosed barbeque grills. Dama also lacks the tile, the spacing, and the legs, which were lacking in the references discussed above.
It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide a pizza insert for a barbeque grill that can be enclosed in a gas or other type of outdoor oven or barbeque grill.
It is a primary object of the instant invention to provide this insert such that an upper surface or a cooking surface of the insert is spaced above the grill of an outdoor barbeque.
It is further an object of the instant invention to provide a cooking surface of a tile, which may be ceramic or stone. A related object of the invention is to provide even heat on the cooking surface. Another feature of this invention is to provide a balanced heat that is not conducted directly from the grill to the food but is distributed in the tile.
Another object of the invention is to provide a configuration that inhibits hot gases as they rise from a grill and yet permits the hot gases to escape around the sides of the insert.
It is another object of the invention to provide an insert that has an open top to permit an outdoor barbeque to perform the function of the baking that occurs from above as well as below.
It is a further object of the instant invention to provide a tile stay with at least one opening therein to permit hot gases to contact a lower surface of the tile. The tile stay may be in the form of a flat metal having a plurality of apertures to help distribute heat along a bottom surface of the tile, or it may be in the form of peripheral angle brackets.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The instant invention fulfils the objects set forth above in that it comprises at least one tile that rests on a rack that is spaced above a barbeque grill by a support structure that is connected to the rack and extends downwardly there from. The pizza insert of the instant invention also has a rim that extends upwardly from the rack and substantially prevents the tile from moving in horizontal directions. However the rim extends away from the rack a distance less than the thickness of the tile so that the rim does not obstruct access to the pizza placed on the tile. In one embodiment of the invention a gap is left along one edge of the tile to permit food remnants to be scraped off of the cooking surface. This is achieved by a standoff bracket between the rim and the tile on one edge of the tile.
It is contemplated that the support structure may be in the form of a single panel having a plurality of arched cutouts forming legs between respective arched cutouts. In this embodiment an upper edge of the panel forms the rim around the perimeter of the pizza insert. An intermediate portion of the panel forms a part of the tile stay and supports an angled bracket to provide the remainder of the tile stay. Alternatively, the panel supports an apertured flat metal plate that acts as the tile stay together with a portion of the panel that surrounds the tile. In this embodiment the apertured flat metal plate helps to distribute the heat as it rises from the barbeque and contacts the pizza insert.
Another feature of the invention is that a thermometer may be selectively attached to the pizza insert in a position that provides for easy viewing by a user.
Another aspect of the invention is that there is provided a woodchip tray in conjunction with pizza insert. The woodchip tray may be placed in the barbeque together with the insert. The woodchip tray contains woodchips that are burned to provide a smoke flavor to the pizza.
Another feature of the invention is that a backsplash is provided in addition to or as an extension of the rim along an edge. This edge is intended to be the back edge, and thus the backsplash prevents the pizza from sliding off the back of the insert. This backsplash may extend solely
Alexander Reginald L.
Dawes Daniel L.
Myers Dawes Andras & Sherman LLP
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