Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Automatic control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-25
2001-06-12
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Automatic control
C099S332000, C099S335000, C099S348000, C099S352000, C099S355000, C099S373000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244164
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a method and corresponding machines for making pre-cooked and semi-pre-cooked meals.
The sector involved in this patent's technique is that of making ready-to-serve food.
Statement of the prior state of the art. The industry making ready-to-serve food is well known and increasingly well-developed. Apart from this the ready-to-serve meals trade is also increasingly well-developed. Both businesses form a partnership in towns and cities to solve the cooking problem at homes at which all the members are at work or otherwise busy.
ES2116236 consists of a procedure for pre-cooking ingredients for a rice patella, in which a conventional pre-cooking process is carried out in a container and the contents and its container are inserted into a bag in which a vacuum is formed. This is sterilised, stored and distributed.
ES2121692 is a process for pre-cooking rice paellas, which, as compared with the one described in the previous case, adds the fact that the paella dish is cooled prior to fully removing its contents, to be inserted in the bar.
ES2096530 is a procedure for preparing pre-cooked paellas, which consists in preparing a lightly-fried base in which to fry the ingredients of the paella except for the rice, which is deep-frozen and supplied in solid form with the contents frozen.
ES2032704 covers a procedure for preparing a rice-based pre-cooked meal, which includes the preparation of the lightly fried base in large quantities and separately frying all the ingredients with parts of said fried base, being deep frozen and served ready to eat except for cooking the rice.
ES2048112 is a procedure for preparing a pre-cooked rice-based meal, which includes a large capacity container in which a lightly fried base is prepared, which is then put into separate smaller pans in which the rest of the food is prepared, and then frozen to be marketed.
ES2035769 covers a procedure for preparing frozen cooked paella, in which a flat container is used to prepare a meal based on rice and water with an oil-fried base, tomato, chicken and rabbit pieces, saffron, salt, greens and optionally snails, in which these items are cooked except for rice, which is added one hour afterwards, later being cooled for 2-4 hours and the container wrapped in shrink-wrap plastic and deep-frozen.
Nevertheless, these are types of pre-cooked food which can only be made by experts, or have been considered as such. This is in particular the problem with paella. The paella, a meal which originated in Valencia and has spread widely all over the world, nevertheless involves the problem of its home-made style of cooking. It is not enough to supply the ingredients, but the way this is cooked has such a great influence on the results that, even with the same content, two dishes can be enormously different if these are made by different cooks. This problem is heightened when this is cooked in so-called industrial containers containing hundreds or thousands of portions. Furthermore the presence of an individual paella, or pan of paella, just as this has been cooked, has a much better appearance than a portion of the same dish served on a plate, since the Valencian tradition is to eat from the paella cooking pan itself without transferring this to an individual plate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention puts forward a method and corresponding machines for making pre-cooked and semi-pre-cooked meals, whose basic characteristic is to allow the possibility of developing an industry based on producing ready-to-serve meals made one by one in individual portions.
In accordance with a preferential embodiment a method is described for making pre-cooked dishes in a cooking container, in which the respective ingredients are added, preferably automatically, in the pre-set cooking stage, as well as being turned over, to simulate a home-made cooking process.
To make rice paellas, and more specifically the Valencian paella, a lightly fried base has to be made in which certain ingredients are gradually added, depending on how far the cooking process has gone, these ingredients being basically chicken and rabbit, greens and tomato, all of this in an oil base. The method described thus involves automatically turning over the meat and greens, in order to be cooked on both sides for the pre-set times, adding the liquid base for cooking (preferably water, but also stock), also rice, and cooking the rice in the stock produced by the other ingredients.
A second form of embodiment, as compared with the previous method, involves partially cooking the rice, by removing the liquid base, for this to be separately provided so that in the last cooking stage this is again combined in order to be completely cooked with only a few minutes' exposure to a heat source. Said method allows completing the cooking at a time and in a place other than those in which it was prepared, but whilst keeping the characteristics of a “recently made” meal.
According to either of the previous embodiments, the cooked or partially cooked product can be frozen or cooled for its distribution, and heated up or its cooking completed after mixing the solid or liquid parts at the place where this is to be consumed.
Furthermore the machines which carry out this process mean that pre-cooked or semi-pre-cooked paellas can be made profitably, either ready to eat or ready to be finished, without requiring any expertise to do so.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1010887 (1911-12-01), French
patent: 2033178 (1936-03-01), Brand et al.
patent: 3073704 (1963-01-01), Rivoche
patent: 3340793 (1967-09-01), Nilsen
patent: 3753737 (1973-08-01), Latham et al.
Hernandis Marco Adrián
Perez Gonzalvo José
Bonapaella S.L.
Goldberg Richard M.
Simone Timothy F.
LandOfFree
Process and corresponding machines for the preparation of... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Process and corresponding machines for the preparation of..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Process and corresponding machines for the preparation of... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2456248