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:
Jul. 01, 1997
Filed:
Jan. 13, 1992
William Douglas Henson, Duncanville, TX (US);
William Roman Slovak, Arlington, TX (US);
Constantine Trifon Dalson, Irving, TX (US);
Brenda Dee Slay, Dallas, TX (US);
Recot, Inc., Plano, TX (US);
Abstract
Potato chips having hardbite texture and flavor characteristics of kettle-fried potato chips are produced in an apparatus comprising a fry kettle with cooking oil circulation and heat transfer means. Production efficiency is greatly increased over conventional batch preparation of kettle-style chips; batch size is significantly increased and total fry time is advantageously decreased. In certain embodiments the batchwise preparation process includes the step of selecting texture-setting potato slice dehydration rate conditions for at least a segment of the frying time, which ends before the moisture content of the slices is reduced to about 45% by weight or less. Selecting appropriate dehydration rate conditions enables the production of potato chips of a variety of textural characteristics over varying cooking oil time/temperature profiles. After introducing a batch of potato slices into a kettle of frying oil, the potato slices are fried during the texture-setting time segment while controlling the frying to achieve the selected dehydration rate conditions. After the texture-setting time segment, the moisture content of the slices is further reduced by continuing to fry the slices in the oil to achieve a moisture content in the slices of about 2% by weight or less. Temperature may be controlled via a programmable control system.