DESCRIPTION

The present invention is directed to a flouring or breading unit with removable sieve.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The cooking of food by frying is performed with the use of boiling oils or fats. In order to limit the absorption of the frying oils and/or frying fats into the food and to make the cooking of fried food uniform, it is the norm to coat the food, before its immersion in the boiling oil or fat, with flour or breaded matter. The flouring or breading ensures a palatable result. Using this method, food will be cooked by conduction (when the food meets the sides of the pan) and by convection (due to the floating of the products in the cooking fat). The latter is the most important in frying as the hot fat distributes the heat evenly across the surface of the food, preventing it from sticking and accentuating the flavor. Frying can reach much higher temperatures than boiling, even close to 200°C, causing a tissue contraction reaction and a caramelization process, forming a crust that prevents the juices of the food from escaping.

Flouring or breading is done by covering and mixing the food to be floured or breaded with a generous amount of flour or breaded matter to cover the outer surface of the food in all its parts with flour and breaded matter.

Normally the food is placed on a baking container, preferably of stainless-steel material, of sufficient size to contain the food and the flour or breaded matter, the latter in quantities two or three times greater in volume than the volume of the food to be coated to ensure after mixing the food is uniformly coated with flour or breaded matter.

Once the stirring phase is complete, the excess flour or breaded matter must be removed. An excess of the flouring or breading element would change the characteristic flavor of the food to be coated in flour.

The flouring or breading matter is removed by manual separation of the breaded food from the flouring or breading matter, flour or breaded matter, either by visual selection or by the use of sieves which allow by a small mechanical action, such as gentle agitation of the sieve, to achieve this separation. If with the first method of selection the separation of the flouring or breading matter from the food is slow and can leave remains of food in the flour or bread, which would jeopardise the subsequent use of the remaining flour for a subsequent food breading, even of a different type, the use of sieves for the separation of the flouring or breading matter from the breaded matter involves the difficulty of retaining the flouring or breading waste during said separation in hygienically protected containers.

Fig. la shows a round stainless-steel flouring or breading unit with sieve, also called fish flouring or breading machine because it is used in the kitchen to flour fish, especially small fish for the preparation of mixed fried food.

During the phase of separation with sieves, the flouring or breading matter falls by gravity and spreads on the underlying surface.

The flouring or breading machine of fig. lb partly solves this problem, an upper container with a perforated bottom or with a sieve fits on a lower container with a closed bottom. Flour and foodstuffs to be coated with flour are placed in the upper container and mixed. Excess flour is recovered in the lower container; in order to achieve a good level of flouring, this operation must be repeated several times; during the emptying of the flour collected in the lower container, part of it may be scattered on the worktable.

A collection container that is large in relation to the sieve separation area, larger by a factor of at least four, and the skill of the operator can limit the amount of matter that cannot be recycled as it falls outside the collection container. For obvious hygienic reasons, this flouring or breading matter which falls outside the collection container cannot be recycled, with a clear increase in costs, as it is polluted by bacteriological elements which can be found on the worktables where flouring or breading takes place in a professional kitchen.

One way of solving this problem is with flouring or breading units according to fig. 2a and fig. 2b. The flouring or breading devices according to fig. 2a, normally made of stainless-steel, consist of a rectangular container with side walls on three sides which are very pronounced with respect to the fourth side of lower height, normally between 50% and 30% of the sides of higher height. A stainless-steel sieve is placed on rails inside the container.

The container has, on the two right and left sides, with respect to the side wall of lower height as described above, two protuberances placed at a height with respect to the bottom of the container equal to the height of the front wall. The sieve placed inside this container shall normally have a quadratic dimension with one side slightly smaller than the dimension of the opening side of the container. The dimension must be such that the sieve lies inside the container on these rails. The sieve-container assembly has the appearance of Fig. 2a.

The opening constituted by the container and sieve on the side of the lower side of said container allows the operator to put his hands inside the volume generated by the lower surface of the sieve and the inner surface of the container to recycle the flouring or breading matter that is not secured on the surface of the food to be breaded and that is collected in the container below. In use, the breading/flouring matter is placed at the bottom of the container, the food to be breaded is placed within the sieve arranged in use inside the container and kept at a height H from the bottom of the container by rails located on the side surfaces relative to the shortest side of the container. The rails are located at a height H to keep the sieve suspended with respect to the inner surface of the container and to create with the front side of the container of a height lower than the three further sides an inlet for the operator's hands to easily reach the flouring or breading matter placed under the sieve and retrieve it for redistributing it over the food to be floured. Once the flouring or breading matter has been placed on top of the food to be floured, the operator only has to mix the food with the flouring or breading matter. The excess will fall to the bottom and be collected from the container. At this point, the operator decides whether to repeat the flouring or breading operation as described above, inserting his hands through the access opening, recovering the flouring or breading matter in the container's tray and returning it with his hands to the food, which has already been partially floured, in order to achieve the correct degree of flouring or breading by repeating these cycles.

The flouring or breading units according to figure 2b, also made of stainless-steel, are constituted by a container having a base of rectangular shape with side walls, unlike the one 2a, of equal heights on the four sides. A stainless-steel sieve is placed on rails inside this container.

The sieve placed inside this container shall normally have a quadratic dimension with one side slightly smaller than the dimension of the opening side of the vessel. The size must be such that the sieve rests inside the container on these rails. The sieve-container assembly has the appearance of Fig. 2b.

The opening constituted by the container and sieve on the side of the lower side of said container allows the operator to put his hands inside the volume generated by the lower surface of the sieve and the inner surface of the container to recycle the flouring or breading matter that has not fixed on the surface of the food to be breaded and that has collected in the container below.

In use, the breading/flouring matter is placed at the bottom of the container, the food to be breaded is placed within the sieve arranged in use inside the container and kept at a height H from the bottom of the container by rails located on the side surfaces relative to the shortest side of the container. The rails are located at a height H to keep the sieve suspended with respect to the inner surface of the container and to create with the front side of the container of a height lower than the three further sides an inlet for the operator's hands to easily reach the flouring or breading matter placed under the sieve and retrieve it for redistributing it over the food to be floured. Once the flouring or breading matter has been placed on top of the food to be floured, the operator only has to mix the food with the flouring or breading matter. The excess will fall to the bottom and be collected from the container. At this point, the operator will decide whether to repeat the flouring or breading operation as described above by inserting his hands through the access opening, retrieving the flouring or breading matter in the container tray and returning it with his hands to the already partially floured food, in order to achieve correct flouring or breading by repeating these cycles. Although the last two types of flouring or breading units described above are already on the market and represent a solution to the collection without dispersion of the flouring or breading matter, further problems arise mainly due to the fact that the first stirring of the food with the flouring or breading matter takes place by mixing the food and the flouring or breading matter on the sieve. This stirring operation on the sieve causes the breading/flouring matter to fall by gravity into the collection container below before the food is completely coated. To solve this problem of insufficient breading, the operator must intervene to obtain proper flouring or breading by recycling the flouring or breading matter that has collected in the container below. The operator must therefore place his hands in the opening formed by the collection container and the sieve, collect the flouring or breading matter with his hands, place it back on the partially breaded food and stir the food and the breaded matter together. The flouring or breading matter will partly stick on the food and partly fall back into the container below. In general, this operation of recycling the breaded matter must be repeated two or three times to ensure perfect flouring or breading of the food by the breading/flouring matter with a minimum use of breading/flouring matter, an operation which is essential for the perfect cooking of breaded food with vegetable oils or animal fats.

US2009/184031 discloses a sieve which includes a rectangular reservoir that has a screen bottom.

The sieve also includes a first side flange that is positioned on one side of the reservoir and a second side flange that is positioned on the opposite side of the reservoir. The reservoir is adapted to fit within a container where the two side flanges extend over and rest on opposite sides of the container. The reservoir is movable within the container, whereby, when the powdered substance is inserted into the sieve, the sieve sifts the reusable powdered substance from the non-reusable powdered substance.

US5575848 discloses an apparatus for applying coatings to food. The apparatus including two hollow generally cylindrical containers open at one end and closed at the other end, and a generally hollow cylindrical coupling member open at both ends, each end being adapted to receive the open end of each of said cylindrical containers, the coupling member having a perforated platform therein which divides the coupling member into two cylindrical sections. The method including placing batter in one of the two containers, placing food in one of the two containers, connecting the coupling member to the container having batter therein, connecting the other container to the coupling member, and shaking the assembled coupling member and two containers to cause batter to coat the food. KR20200128814 relates to a slidable tray and, more specifically, to a slidable tray which configures a tray used to separate foreign substances mixed with various agricultural products at homes, businesses or the like to be slidable to easily remove the foreign substances, thereby easily and efficiently separating the foreign substances and shortening working time. EP1159908 discloses a tool for food flouring or breading made up of a rectangular box with airtight lid, internally provided with a horizontal grid that covers the entire box section at a certain height from the bottom.

SUMMARY

The invention according to the invention allows to solve these technical problems.

According to a main embodiment, the invention comprises a system for flouring or breading food comprising at least two containers VI and V 2 consisting of a quadrilateral bottom F' and F". Said containers have a perimeter P flour' and P", respectively, and are formed by walls in the four sides of height h' and h". Said bottom has dimensions such that the first container VI with perimeter P' is contained in the second container V 2 with perimeter P" and that P'<P". The larger container V 2 has on the side of greater dimensions a" a rim (4) with a rise (8) placed on the upper rim of height h". The bottom of the container VI is at least partially made up of a sieve of a suitable size to allow, in use, the separation of the excess flouring or breading matter from the floured foodstuff by placing the container VI inside the container V 2, placing the foodstuff to be floured inside the container VI, pouring the flour or breading matter over the foodstuff to be floured inside the container VI in an amount proportionate to the foodstuff to be floured or breaded; intimate stirring of the food and flour, maintaining the configuration of container VI inside V2; lifting and 90° rotating the VI container containing the pre-breaded food; positioning of the VI container on the raised side edge of the V 2 container so that the bottom F' fitted with the sieve is raised by a distance h" from the bottom F" of the V 2 container; stirring of the pre-breaded food from the previous stage; excess flour or breaded matter falls through the sieve (3) into the V 2 container onto the bottom F" of the same container; and separation of the floured or breaded food and recirculation of the excess flour or breaded matter collected on the bottom F" of the container V 2. .

According to a further preferred embodiment said quadrilateral bottom of said containers has a rectangular shape with dimensions of the sides of the container VI of perimeter P' lower than a' and b', and of the sides of the container V 2 of perimeter P" higher than a' and b". The dimensions of said sides of each are such that a' < a" and b' < b", and the ratios a'/a" and b'/b" are between 90 and 50%. Preferably the dimensions of side a' is between 220 and 280 mm and the dimensions of side a" is between 290 and 400 mm. More preferably the walls in the four sides are of height h" > h' and the sieve placed on the bottom F' of the container VI covers the surface of the bottom F' between 95% and 100%.

According to a further preferred embodiment, the container V 2 of larger size has on its larger side A" a raised edge, said edge can be cantilevered either inwardly or outwardly and constitutes a support base of the base of the container VI on its smaller side B'.

According to a preferred embodiment method in the system according to the invention, the container VI is covered by a third container V3 of similar dimensions. Said container V3 fits on the upper edge of the container VI and has a bottom formed by a sieve having a size 30% larger than the size of the sieve of the container VI. Preferably, the size of said sieve of the container V3 is between 60 - 120 % of the size of the sieve of the container VI.

Further preferred ways of implementing the system according to the invention are claimed in the appended claims 2-5.

The invention is also directed to a method for flouring or breading a food using a system according to the invention. According to this method, there is provided positioning of the container VI inside the container V 2, arranging the food to be breaded inside the container VI, pouring the flour or breading matter over the food to be breaded inside the container VI in an amount proportionate to the food to be breaded or breaded; intimately stirring the food and flour, maintaining the configuration of the container VI inside the V2; lifting and 90° rotation of the container VI containing the pre-breaded food; positioning the container VI on the raised side edge of the container V 2 so that the bottom F' fitted with the sieve is raised by a distance h" from the bottom F" of the container V2; stirring of the pre-floured food from the previous stage, excess flour or breaded matter falls through the sieve (3) into the container V2 onto the bottom F" of the same container; and separation of the floured or breaded food and recirculation of the excess flour or breaded matter collected on the bottom F" of the container V 2.

According to a preferred embodiment the method for flouring or breading a food using a system according to the invention in which the first container VI is covered by a third container V3. The method comprises positioning the containers assembly V1+V3 inside the container V 2, arranging the food to be coated inside the container V3 placed superiorly to the container VI, pouring the flour or breading matter over the food to be coated inside the container V3 in an amount proportionate to the food to be coated or breaded, and intimately stirring the food and flour or breaded matter while maintaining the configuration of the container assembly V1+V3 inside the container V 2. Again according to this preferred method of implementation, the method envisages lifting and rotating the container assembly V1-V3 containing the pre-breaded food by 90°, positioning the container assembly V1+V3 on the side edge (4) provided with a riser (8) of the container V 2 so that the bottom F' provided with a sieve (3) is raised by a distance h" from the bottom F" of the container V2, mixing in container V3 of the pre-floured food of the previous stage, excess flour or breaded matter falling through the sieve of container V3 into container VI; the separation of the floured or breaded food placed inside the container V3; and finally the stirring of the flour or breaded matter fallen in the stage "o" inside the container VI, and the recirculation of the excess flour or breaded matter collected at the bottom F" of the container V 2 through the sieve (3) of the container VI towards a new flouring or breading process according to the previous stages and the discarding of the remaining flour or breading matter left inside the container VI.

Further preferred embodiments of the method according to the invention are claimed in the appended claims 7-10.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure la is an isometric view of a stainless-steel fish flouring or breading unit and stainless-steel mesh sieve according to the prior art;

Figure lb is an isometric view of a stainless-steel fish flouring or breading unit with a stainless-steel perimeter interlocking lower catch container according to the prior art;

Figure 2a is an isometric view of a flouring or breading unit with square section with interlocking collecting base and of rectangular section in stainless-steel according to the prior art;

Figure 2b is an isometric view of a flouring or breading unit having a square cross-section with an interlocking collecting base and a stainless-steel rectangular cross-section according to the prior art and similar to that shown in Fig. 2a;

Figure 3a is an isometric view of a flouring or breading unit and respective collection base both having a rectangular cross-section in stainless-steel according to the invention, the flouring or breading unit being positioned transversely with respect to the collection base and resting on supports raised with respect to the bottom of the collection base;

Figure 3b is an isometric view of a flouring or breading unit and respective collection base both having a rectangular cross-section in stainless-steel according to the invention, the flouring or breading unit base is placed on the bottom of the container VI;

Figure 4 is a plan view of the flouring or breading container VI, and two views in section C-C perpendicular to the longest side and section B-B perpendicular to the shortest side.;

Figure 5 is a plan view of the catch container V 2, and two views in section D-D perpendicular to the longest side and section A-A perpendicular to the shortest side;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figures 3a and 3b show the system for flouring or breading food according to the invention comprising two receptacles (1) and (2) or containers VI and V 2 respectively. According to a preferred embodiment, the system according to the invention comprises a container VI covered by a further container V3 (not shown in the figures) of similar dimensions to the container VI, said container V3 being embedded in the upper edge of the container VI.

Figure 4 shows orthogonal views of the vessel (1) consisting of a container VI with a quadrilateral bottom F' and walls (5) and (6), possibly of equal heights h' and made of stainless-steel, although the use of other materials such as wood, plastic and metals normally used in the kitchen is not excluded. The bottom F' of the container VI consists at least partially of a sieve (3) of a suitable size to allow in use the separation of the excess floury matter from the floured food. Preferably the sieve (3) covers the whole surface of the bottom F'. The shape of the container is quadrilateral where a' is the length of the two larger sides and b' is the length of the two smaller sides. Preferably the size of said side a' is between 220 and 280 mm and the size of said side a" is between 290 and 400 mm.

According to the preferred embodiment in which VI is covered by a further container V3 (not shown in the figures) of similar dimensions to the container VI and which is embedded in the upper edge of the container VI, said container V3 has a bottom formed by a sieve having dimensions 30% larger than the dimensions of the sieve of the container VI; preferably the dimensions of said sieve of the container V3 are between 60 - 120 % of the dimensions of the sieve of the container VI.

Figure 5 shows orthogonal views of the vessel (2) consisting of a vessel V 2 which is formed by a quadrilateral bottom F" and walls (8) and (9), possibly of equal heights h" and made of stainless- steel, although the use of other materials such as wood, plastic and metals normally used in cooking is not excluded. The heights of the walls (8) and (9) are similar to or slightly higher than the height of the vessel (1), although the opposite is not excluded. The bottom F" of vessel V 2 consists of a quadrangular surface (7) welded or continuous to the walls of the vessel to allow in use the collection of excess flouring or breading matter from the floured food. The shape of the container is quadrilateral where a" is the length of the two longer sides and b" is the length of the two shorter sides.

According to a preferred embodiment, the container V 2, which is larger than the container VI, or the set of containers VI with the container V3 fitted on the upper edge, - has on its larger side a" a rim (4) with a raised edge (8), which can be cantilevered either inwards or outwards and forms a base for the base of the container VI, or of the set V1+V3, on its smaller side b'. Preferably, the overhang of said edge has a dimension S is outward and the dimension of the larger side of the container VI a' is such that b' < a' < (b" +2S) and length c" = a". In this way the container V 2 constitutes an effective low point to the container VI, or of the whole V1+V2, when the latter is arranged orthogonally according to its length on the container V 2.

The elevation (8) of the edge (4) ensures that when the two containers VI, or of the set V1+V2, and V 2 are arranged orthogonally to each other, the container VI, or of the set V1+V2, is kept raised by the edges (4) with respect to the bottom (7) of the container V2 and is prevented from moving sideways perpendicular to the axis of the container 2. The ratio between the dimensions of the sides a' and b', and a" and b" of the respective containers VI and V 2 allows the container VI to be contained inside the container V 2 and to have the bottom F' equipped with sieve (3) in direct contact with the bottom F' of the container V 2.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the system is constituted by two container s (VI and V2) with a quadrilateral bottom F' and F" with perimeter P' = (2*a' + 2*b') and P"= (2*a" + 2*b") and with walls in the four sides of height h' and h", according to a preferred embodiment h' < h". Said bottom has dimensions such that a first container VI of lower perimeter P' is contained in the second container V 2 of upper perimeter P", said container VI having a bottom constituted at least partially by a sieve (3) of suitable dimensions to allow in use the separation of the excess floury matter from the floured food.

Preferably, said quadrilateral bottoms F' and F" have a rectangular shape with dimensions of the sides of the container VI of perimeter P' less than a' and b', and of the sides of the container V2 of perimeter P" greater than a' and b".

In particular, the dimensions of said sides are such that a' < a" and b' < b", and the ratios a'/a" and b'/b" are between 90% and 50%.

Preferably, the system according to the invention has the larger-sized container V 2 having on its larger-sized side a" an edge (4) with an overhang ((8), said edge can be cantilevered either inwardly or outwardly and forms a base for supporting the base of the container VI on its smaller-sized side b'. The overhang of said edge of dimension S is outwards and the dimension of the larger side of the smaller pool VI a' is such that b" < a' < (b" +2S).

In the following, we will illustrate the method of using the flouring or breading unit and the obvious advantages that this type of flouring or breading unit has over flouring or breading units known in the art, as well as the advantages inherent in using a system according to the invention to properly flour foods with a minimum expenditure of flouring or breading matter.

Let us refer to figure 3b. In this figure, the container V(l) is shown, which is provided with a sieve (3) placed on the bottom F'. The sieve (3) covers the surface of the bottom F' almost 100%.

The container (VI) is placed inside the bottom F" of the container V 2 because the dimensions of VI are smaller than the dimensions of V 2. The sieve (3) on the bottom F' is in direct contact with the bottom F" of the container V 2.

The food to be coated with flour or breaded matter is placed inside the container VI, flour or breading matter is poured over the food to be coated inside the container VI in an amount proportionate to the food to be coated or floured. The food and flour or breaded matter are mixed intimately maintaining this configuration of containers VI and V 2. If it is judged that a further quantity of flour or breaded matter needs to be added this can be done at a later time followed by further mixing.

When the ideal flouring or breading level has been reached, lift the VI container containing the pre breaded food and turn it by 90°, placing the VI container on the side edge (4) of the V 2 container, which is provided with a rise (8). The bottom F' with the sieve (3) will be raised by a distance h" from the bottom F" of the container V 2.

The next stage involves the remixing of the pre-floured or breaded food from the previous stage, the excess flour or breaded matter falling through the sieve (3) into the bottom F' of container V 2.

At this point the food has been optimally floured or breaded, the excess flour or breaded matter falling to the bottom F" of the container V 2.

According to a preferred embodiment method for flouring or breading a food using a system according to the invention in which the first container VI is covered by a third container V3 and comprises placing the container assembly V1+V3 inside the container V 2, arranging the food to be floured or breaded inside the container V3 placed above the container VI and pouring the flour or breading material over the food to be breaded inside the container V3 in an amount proportionate to the food to be breaded or floured. Next, the operator intimately mixes the food and flour or breaded matter in the upper container V3, maintaining the configuration of the assembly container V1+V3 inside the container V 2. The operator then lifts and rotates the V1+V3 container assembly containing the pre-blended food by 90° and positions the V1+V3 container assembly on the side edge (4) of the V 2 container , fitted with a riser (8), so that the bottom F' of the VI container fitted with the sieve (3) is raised by a distance h" from the bottom F" of the V 2 container . At this point the operator performs the operation of mixing in container V3 the pre-floured or breaded food of the previous stage, flour or breaded matter in excess fall through the sieve of container V3 into container VI. The floured or breaded food placed in container V3 is now ready for cooking according to the chosen cooking system; therefore, container V3 is detached from container VI, which maintains its position on container V 2, and the floured or breaded food started to cook. The flouring or breading material has collected in the VI container, partly in lumps. These lumps are not suitable for a subsequent flouring or breading operation and must therefore be separated and discarded from the part still usable for a subsequent flouring or breading cycle. This process of separating the flouring or breading matter from the lumps formed in the previous stage of flouring or breading is done by stirring the flour or breading matter which fell in the previous stage inside the container VI, and recirculating the excess flour or breading matter collected at the bottom F" of the container V2 through the sieve (3) of the container VI to a new flouring or breading process according to the previous stages. The remainder consisting of flour or breading material in medium to large lumps remaining in container VI after the stage is definitively eliminated.

In this way, only the part of the flour or breading material that formed into non-recyclable lumps in the previous stages of flouring or breading is recycled.

The breaded food can be sent to cooking, while the excess flour, which has not been contaminated by the operator, who wears sanitary gloves, and by dispersion on the worktable, can be reused for the next flouring or breading of the same type of food for an indefinite number of flouring or breading in the same day.

The system according to the invention solves the problem of flouring or breading a food in moderate quantities by achieving an optimal level of flouring or breading for its cooking, avoiding dispersion of flour or breaded matter in the areas surrounding the flouring or breading area, and allowing 100% recycling of the flour or breaded matter not adhered to the food and not clotted during the flouring. A number of embodiments of the invention defined by the following claims have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications can be made to the described forms of embodiment without departing from the scope of the claimed invention. Accordingly, other forms of embodiments fall within the scope of the following claims.