Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Treatment with aqueous material – e.g. – hydration – etc.
Patent
1991-04-30
1993-05-11
Yeung, George
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Treatment with aqueous material, e.g., hydration, etc.
99330, 99339, 99468, 219401, 426511, 426523, A23L 100, F24D 100
Patent
active
052099415
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a process for preparing meals and to a device for carrying out this process.
When a number--or even a large number--of people have to be served with meals within a short space of time, it is quite usual for the meals to be prepared in advance, deep-frozen or chilled in individual-sized portions, and only regenerated immediately before serving. In such situations it is important that the food can be regenerated in the shortest time possible. Steam can be used for the regeneration process, since it contains a great amount of thermal energy. The frozen or chilled food is, however, enclosed in sealed containers so that the steam cannot penetrate to the food itself. The times required for the regeneration by means of steam are too long in terms of the given situation.
The object of the present invention is to indicate a process which eliminates the stated disadvantage.
According to the invention, the stated object is achieved in the process of the generic type mentioned in the introduction as is defined in the defining clause of claim 1.
A device suitable for carrying out this process is defined in the defining part of claim 7.
Embodiment possibilities of the present invention are explained in greater detail below with reference to the attached drawing, in which:
FIG. 1 shows the main part of the present device in a front view,
FIG. 2 shows as a diagram and in a vertical section a container, representing a further component of the present invention and
FIG. 3 shows in horizontal projection the container according to FIG. 2.
The part of the present device for preparing meals represented in FIG. 1 has an oven. This oven includes a virtually parallelepiped casing or shell 2, which delimits a cooking space for the food to be prepared. One of the walls of the casing 2 is manufactured as a door; in the model shown this is the front wall 3. The casing 2 also includes four lateral walls 4, 5, 6 and 7, as well as a rear wall 8.
The walls 3-8 of the casing have an outer envelope and an inner envelope (not shown), which are made of an impact resistant material, e.g. metal. Between these layers is a thermally insulating material of known type. The walls of the casing 2 are consequently relatively thick, as can be seen from the lateral walls 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the casing 2 in the drawing.
The door 3 allows access to the cooking space so that the food to be prepared can be loaded and unloaded. The door is constructed in such a way that it can be hermetically or pressure sealed. This is especially important in the present case since there is considerable overpressure in the cooking space at certain times while the oven is working. In order to make it possible to vacuum seal the cooking space, a self-contained strip 9 of a flexible material is attached to the inside of the door 3 and projects from the inside surface of the door. This sealing strip 9 is fixed to that part of the inside of the door 3 opposite the surface already mentioned of the lateral walls 4-7. When the door 3 is closed the sealing strip 9 lies tight against the surface of the lateral walls 4-7 of the casing 2.
Hinges are fixed in the region of one of the vertically running lateral walls 7 of the casing 2. These hinges are basically in the form of material strips attached to the surface of the horizontal casing walls 4 and 6, for instance by means of screws. These hinges 11 and 12 are close to the outside edge, respectively to the outer envelope, of the casing wall 4 or 6 respectively and are relatively narrow. The hinges 11 and 12 have an eyelet-shaped section 13, respectively 14, which projects from the outside of the vertical lateral wall. The eyelet sections 13 and 14 can be bent out of the plane of the surface of the lateral walls 4 -7 in order to be able to compensate for the thickness of the sealing strip 9.
The height of the door 3 is less than the height of the vertical walls 5 and 7 of the casing by at least twice the width of the strip-shaped hinges 11 and 12. There is thus room for one of the vertical borders of the
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patent: 3808963 (1974-05-01), Ludena
patent: 4058635 (1977-11-01), Durth
patent: 4585661 (1986-04-01), Brummett
patent: 4700685 (1987-10-01), Miller
patent: 4835368 (1989-05-01), Fortmann et al.
Menu System Wuest & Co.
Yeung George
LandOfFree
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