Patent Application
20090068332
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for shucking the skins or hulls from seeds, including those of legumes, grains, drupes, silques, and achenes. In particular, the present invention relates to a rotating cone and cylinder with opposing rough lower edges to knock the softened skins or shells loose, and water floatation to carry the shucks away.
2. Description of Related Art
According to the Congo Cookbook, Moyin-Moyin (also called Moin-Moin, Moi-Moi, Moimoi), prepared from black-eyed peas or other beans, is a unique and delicious savory bean pudding. (See, www.congocookbook.com/snack_recipes/moyin_moyin.html) The traditional way to cook Moyin-Moyin is to make a paste ground from the shucked seeds. The paste is wrapped in banana leaves, and then steamed until cooked. In modern Africa, Moyin-Moyin is cooked in tin cans, or muffin pans or tins.
To start, the whole black-eyed peas have to be soaked or boiled in water until the skins are soft enough to be shucked by pinching or rubbing them off. The traditional way has been for each cook to manually rub the softened beans together to remove the skins. A rinse is used to wash away the skins and any other debris. The remaining bare seeds are drained in a colander and ground into a paste for the pudding.
Removing the skins, or shucks, from whole black-eyed peas this way is very tedious, labor intensive, and time consuming. Many different food uses of legumes, grains, drupes, silques, achenes, and other seeds call for removing the skins or hulls. The prior art has developed a wide variety of separation and grating methods, only a few of which are affordable and practical for home use.
Many prior art food graters grind the food into shavings without removing any peel, as in cheese graters. Others grind off peels that cannot be removed as skins, as in raw potato peelings. The foods of interest here are, e.g., seeds, peas, or beans where the skins can be removed whole, even if soaking or boiling is needed to soften the skins or seed coverings for complete removal and separation.
Briefly, a seed shucking embodiment of the present invention for separating seed coverings from their kernels comprises a vertical cylinder within which is rotated an upward pointing and rotating cone. The top surfaces of the cone and the inside surfaces of the cylinder are roughened to catch and grate the skins or hulls off water-softened beans or grains poured in from above. The clearances and textures between the roughened cone and inside cylinder are such that most of the skins or shells stay above the cone after being knocked loose, and the bared seed kernels drop down through without necessarily being ground up or smashed. What drops through is sent to a water bath where any remaining skins or shells are floated away. The bared seed kernels are drained and ready to be used as whole seed kernels in various kinds of foods.
An advantage of the present invention is that a device is provided that quickly and easily removes the skins or shells from water-softened beans or grains.
Another advantage of the present invention is that a method is provided for preparing specialized foods at home.
The above and still further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereof, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Particular kinds and sizes of whole seed foods are dropped in one top end of the cylinder 102 and pass down to where the cone 112 is nearest to the inside walls of the cylinder. The operation of the crankshaft 124 and roughened surfaces 106 and 114 causes the seed kernels to be stripped bare of their skins and to drop through the gap 126. Such gap 126 is not so narrow as to grind or reduce the bare seed kernels themselves. A mix 128 of bared seed kernels and some debris is sent on for floatation separation and rinsing.
In one embodiment suitable for home use, appliance 100 had a cylinder 102 about 8.5″ long and seven inches in diameter. Handles were fitted to the sides, and a hand crank allowed the user to manually turn crankshaft 124. A snap-on plastic cover was fitted to the bottom of cylinder 102 to allow the mix 128 of bared seed kernels and debris to be collected for the next step in the food preparation.
In alternative embodiments, a colander can be placed to catch spill water 214 and shucks 210. Appliance 100 and device 200 can be combined to form a kitchen utensil set. Such aids will be particularly useful in situations where a medium to large dinner is being prepared and there simply is no staff or time available to engage in the traditional seed-by-seed skin peeling.
Although particular embodiments of the present invention have been described and illustrated, such was not intended to limit the invention. Modifications and changes will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art, and it was intended that the invention only be limited by the scope of the appended claims.
