The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 18, 1990
Filed:
Sep. 02, 1988
John T Buckley, Fairfield, CT (US);
Other;
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for the preparation of what is commonly known as 'fast foods' such as french fried potatoes. The method of the present invention pre-cooks food in a non-fat environment such as a microwave oven. Thereafter, the food is transported by a conveyor system through different cooking stations, at least one of which sprays the pre-cooked food with closely monitored quantities and concentrations of heated oil. The sprayed oil may be mixed with water or air and sprayed under pressure at elevated temperatures. In this manner, the prepared food has the appearance, taste and texture as though it were cooked in the traditional way, but is not saturated with oil as it would be if it were immersed in a heated vat. In other aspects of the invention, the conveyor system may provide an oscillating or lateral movement to the food that it is transporting to uniformly distribute the sprayed oil over the surface of the food, and to shake excess oil from the food. The conveyor system includes a wire mesh food support so that the sprayed oil may penetrate the under surface of the food and any excess sprayed oil may drip from the conveyor system to avoid over-saturation of the sprayed food.