Butchering – Mollusk – Bivalve opener
Patent
1997-08-14
1998-08-04
Little, Willis
Butchering
Mollusk
Bivalve opener
452 6, A22C 2904
Patent
active
057885621
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has for its object a process for preparing to open bivalves, particularly oysters, and the device permitting performing it.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Opening oysters and other bivalves is conventionally carried out by means of an oyster knife which can be electrical or not.
In practice, the knife is introduced forcibly between the two valves so as partially to open the shell and to cut the adductor muscle, which requires skill and physical force, and is often the cause of accidents, such that the difficulty of opening oysters and other bivalves constitutes a substantial obstacle to the increase in their consumption.
There has also been proposed (JP-A-1.291.744) cutting the adductor muscle by means of a cutting tool and gripping the two shells by suitable means so that the oyster remains closed. This known process has the same drawback as the preceding one.
There has also been proposed (JP-1.291.744) cutting the adductor muscle by means of a cutting tool and gripping the two shells by suitable means so that the oyster remains closed. This known process has the same drawback as the preceding one.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has for its object to overcome this drawback by providing a process for preparing to open oysters and other bivalves, permitting easy and risk-free opening, requiring no particular skill.
The process of the present invention consists in partially opening the bivalve in the course of its culture, and then encircling the adductor muscle by means of a ring or the like, prolonged by gripping means which remain outside the bivalve, so as to permit eventually, even though the bivalve is closed, cutting the adductor muscle by pulling on said gripping means.
According to the invention, opening the bivalve to permit encircling the adductor muscle is carried out by immersing the bivalve in a solution of about 40% fresh water and 60% seawater, with the addition of about 5% by weight of magnesium chloride.
In practice, bivalves are immersed, after washing and sizing, in such a solution, the immersion time being preferably of the order of six hours.
The magnesium chloride causes a relaxation of the adductor muscle which permits partially opening the bivalve so as to carry out the encircling.
The encircling of the adductor muscle may be carried out outside the solution, after immersion, or preferably in the latter.
After the encircling operation, the bivalves are immersed in seawater so as to eliminate naturally the magnesium chloride, which takes place rapidly.
The device for practicing the process according to the invention comprises, according to a first embodiment, a metallic wire shaped in a loop to which is secured gripping means adapted to be introduced into said loop after the latter has passed about the adductor muscle of the bivalve, the filament passing twice about the adductor muscle whilst the gripping means remains outside the bivalve.
To open the bivalve at the time of its consumption, it suffices to pull on the gripping means, which has the effect of tightening the encircling member about the adductor muscle and cutting this latter.
According to a second embodiment, the device permitting the practice of the process according to the invention comprises a flat blade in the arc of a circle whose concave edge is sharpened, and whose ends are each introduced, with the possibility of securement, into one of the ends of a rigid sleeve in the form of a segment of a torus, so as to form a ring adapted to be placed about the adductor muscle whilst retracting said blade in said sleeve, said cutting edge being covered by a removable envelope connected to a filament passing through said sleeve and leaving by an opening provided in the latter in its region diametrically opposed to the blade, a pull on said filament permitting removing said envelope for cutting said adductor muscle by the blade.
The advantages and characteristics of the present invention will become more apparent from the description which follows and which relat
REFERENCES:
patent: 5145448 (1992-09-01), Ebisuzaki
patent: 5197918 (1993-03-01), Klaassen
patent: 5405290 (1995-04-01), Chuang
Delvigne Michel
Renaut Yves
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