Butchering – Support – Smoke stick
Patent
1994-11-08
1995-09-26
Little, Willis
Butchering
Support
Smoke stick
452 51, 211113, A22C 1500
Patent
active
054530466
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a rotatable linking and hanging device for foodstuffs of the kind comprising a tubular casing with a food filling. The casing may, for example, be a collagen casing, a plastic casing, a casing of animal gut or any other generally tubular food casing. The food filling may, for example, be sausage-meat or hamburger meat or may be a non-meat filling such as a vegetarian filling or a cheese based filing or any other food filling. The casing may be prefilled with the food filling or formed by coextrusion with the food filling.
An object of the invention is to provide a new and improved device which hangs a length of tubular casing with a food filling and renders it suitable for cooking or smoking in an oven or smoke-house. Devices of this type are already known as hanging sticks and are used in a smoke oven to support an array of linked sausages, for example, in a smoke-filled atmosphere. A typical known form of hanging stick is a bar or rod of stainless steel of length about 1 meter and having a three-point-star cross-section.
According to the present invention there is provided a rotatable linking and hanging device in the form of a hanging stick comprising an array of notches or grooves extending along the length of the stick adjacent the perimeter of the stick, the arrangement being such that as the stick is rotated about its longitudinal axis an unlinked length or strand of tubular casing with a food filling is automatically wound around the stick and the grooves or notches acts to simultaneously grip the strand and form or neck the strand into links which extend between the notches or grooves.
Thus the device, according to the invention, simultaneously links and hangs a length of cased sausage meat or other foodstuff without imparting a twist to the strand and it differs from other linking and hanging devices in that the component which allows the linking and hanging to take place is the hanging stick itself. When the hanging stick loaded with its linked strand is subjected to the effects of a smoke house or smoke oven the encased food filling becomes formed or set in shape (which may be due to partial or complete cooking) and can thereafter be dismounted from the hanging stick without loss of its linked configuration.
Preferably the hanging stick has at least two spaced series of said grooves or notches extending on either side of the axis of rotation of the stick and adjustably arranged so that the spaced series of grooves may be moved closer together or further apart relative to said axis of rotation, whereby when they are moved closer together the formed links become curved.
By use of the adjustable feature, the device can be employed to manufacture curved sausage (for example) from a straight strand of sausage.
In one particular form the stick comprises a pair of elongate members formed with saw teeth to act as the notches or grooves and facing outwardly away from the longitudinal axis of rotation of the stick, the elongate members being jointed by cross members and capable of being attached to a shaft or handle which may be used to rotate the stick either by hand or by use of a motor. The saw tooth form is preferably an arrangement of V-slots, most preferably with each slot terminating at its trough in straight or parallel sides and a curved bottom.
In another particular form the stick comprises one or more lengths of profiled wire held at intervals along their lengths for example by radially extending outrigger members, each wire being of generally circular or oval cross-section and the profiling being such as to define the array of notches or grooves.
The notches or grooves need not extend radially but may extend part radially and part circumferentially. For example where each notch is generally a V-shape but terminating at its trough in straight or parallel sides interconnected by a curved bottom, that part of the notch which has mutually inclined sides may extend circumferentially whilst the trough portion may extend radially.
The notches or grooves preferably extend in
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Brink Frederikus J.
Brown Robin
Frame Gordon
Devro Limited
Little Willis
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