Refrigerated breading and batter table

Details Refrigerated breading and batter table Refrigerated breading and batter table

2001-08-09

2003-01-14

Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)

Foods and beverages: apparatus

Means to treat food

By stuffing or applying particulate material

C062S063000, C062S381000, C099S450100, C099S516000, C118S016000, C118S018000, C118S024000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06505547

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a mobile table structure to facilitate batter dipping and breading food products such as chicken pieces, shrimp, fish pieces and other food products prior to cooking such products as by deep frying. The table structure includes a batter pan and a breading pan oriented adjacent to each other and supported in a table top. A refrigeration system is provided in the interior of a cabinet which underlies and supports the table top to cool the batter pan, the breading pan and to chill water in a refrigerated water reservoir supported within the cabinet which supplies prechilled water to the batter pan to enable the formation of chilled batter in the batter pan. The refrigeration system maintains the batter material and breading material at a lowered temperature, preferably below 42° F., to retard or substantially reduce bacteria growth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many food products are coated with batter and breading prior to cooking. The food products are usually dipped into a generally liquid batter and then covered with a breading material by rolling the batter covered food product in the breading material. The coated food product is then cooked such as by deep frying or the like. Efforts have been made to more efficiently coat food products by providing a batter dip pan and a breading pan supported in a table structure at a convenient height to enable food processing personnel to dip food products into the batter and subsequently roll or otherwise apply breading material such as flour or the like to the food products and then manually placing the coated food products in a deep frying cooker.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,227 discloses a table-like structure having a batter pan and breading pan for manual batter dipping and breading of food products. In addition, the following U.S. patents disclose structures relating to the application of coating to food products:
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,520,277 4,862,824 5,020,427 4,182,260 4,898,664 5,226,354 4,458,586 4,936,246 5,265,525 4,550,677 4,952,309
While the above patents disclose related devices, none of them discloses a mobile breading and batter table including a self-contained refrigeration system which includes a cooling coil in a water reservoir to supply prechilled water for forming a chilled batter dip material and maintaining a low temperature of the batter dip material and breading material. Further, none of the prior patents discloses a mobile breading and batter table which includes a cooling coil associated with the batter dip pan and breading pan to reduce the pan temperatures so as to satisfy temperature recommendations or guidelines provided by health departments and the like, in order to retard or materially reduce bacteria growth in food products as they are being coated prior to cooking.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Cooking food products by deep fat frying is a well known procedure used by cooks at home and at restaurants and is especially efficient in large volume cooking such as used in carry-out restaurants, fast food restaurants and the like. Food products, such as chicken pieces, shrimp, fish pieces, meat products and the like are usually dipped in a generally liquid batter material and then rolled in flour or other breading material prior to placement in a deep fat fryer. The handling of the food products during the batter dipping and breading process exposes the food products to ambient temperatures which can, in some instances, permit the growth of bacteria in the food products. Such bacteria in the food product can result in potential food poisoning of persons consuming the cooked food product. Various government regulatory agencies, such as health departments and the like, frequently recommend temperature guidelines for various food products to be used by the food preparation industry during food preparation. The temperature standards seek to reduce the temperature of the food products to a level which will serve to reduce or retard the growth of bacteria in the food products during the handling procedure.
In order to satisfy the recommendations or guidelines provided by health departments or similar agencies for handling and processing food products, the present invention provides a mobile breading and batter table having a self-contained refrigeration system supported therein. The table includes a generally rectangular table top and a cabinet structure below the top. The bottom of the cabinet is supported preferably at its corners with four conventional type wheels or rollers which allow the table to be moved and positioned where desired. The table includes a pan for receiving batter material and a pan for receiving breading material in order to coat food products placed first in the batter material and then into the breading material. Both pans have a cooling coil on their exterior surfaces positioned within the cabinet underneath the table top. The cooling coils are incorporated as part of the self-contained refrigeration system.
The batter pan is communicated with a prechilled water supply tank which has a cooling coil incorporated therein, also as part of the refrigeration system. This enables the formation of chilled batter material. The refrigeration system maintains desired lower temperatures in the breading and batter materials during the coating procedure. Both pans also include an opening in their bottom wall to permit removal of the material from each pan. The batter pan discharges batter material into a drain line to a floor drain, and the breading pan discharges used breading material into a sifter which separates agglomerated dough balls from the breading material to recover reusable breading material which can be placed back into the breading pan.
An object of the present invention is to provide a mobile table structure for batter dipping and breading food products that incorporates a self-contained refrigeration system including a cooling coil in a water reservoir to supply chilled water for use in preparing a chilled batter dip material. The self-contained refrigeration system also provides a cooling coil associated with the batter dip pan and a cooling coil associated with the breading pan to maintain the temperature of the batter dip and breading at a sufficiently low temperature during the entire batter dipping and breading procedure. The low temperature generated by the refrigeration system within the batter pan and breading pan is sufficiently low to reduce or retard bacteria growth in the batter material and breading material thereby assuring that the batter and breaded cooked food product satisfies all standard guidelines and recommendations regarding temperatures of the food products during the various process steps.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile, self-contained table structure for batter dipping and breading food products in accordance with the preceding object in which the breading pan has a discharge into a removable sifter positioned in the interior of the table below the breading pan. The sifter receives the breading material from the breading pan when the moisture absorbed by the breading material causes some of the breading material to agglomerate to form dough balls thereby materially reducing the efficiency of the breading process. The sifter separates the dough balls from the breading material that is still usable to enable the reusable breading material to be placed back into the breading pan and the dough balls to be discarded.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a batter dipping and breading table for consumable food products such as chicken pieces, shrimp, fish pieces and the like in which a reservoir of prechilled water is communicated with a faucet having a discharge oriented above the batter dip pan to supply prechilled water to the batter dip pan. The prechilled water enables the batter dip to be originally produced at a low temperature when the prechilled water is used to form the batter dip.
Still another object of the present

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Refrigerated breading and batter table does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Refrigerated breading and batter table, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Refrigerated breading and batter table will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3066893