Patent Application
20190342955
This application is related to co-pending Attorney Docket No. 132048-D200 which is incorporated herein by reference.
Not applicable.
The present invention relates in general to devices and methods for reheating or cooking foods in a microwave oven, including baking. It is known that direct application of microwave energy to most food items provides less than desired heating or cooking outcomes, such as spotty heating, lack of browning, etc. To solve this, it has been known to provide microwave containers with susceptors which convert microwave energy into heat energy.
It is common for such devices to brown only the portion of the food in contact with the container. It is also common for such devices to produce food which is undesirably soggy (too high moisture content).
An object of the present invention is to provide a device and method for heating food in a microwave oven with improved browning or crisping
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a device and method including inversion for full browning and crisping.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a device which includes apertures in the cover for venting.
These and other objects are achieved by a device for and method of microwave heating with inversion.
The objects and features of the invention noted above are explained in more detail with reference to the drawings, in which like reference numerals denote like elements, and in which:
With reference to
The device 10 may be formed to substantially eliminate the entry of microwave energy into heating chamber 16, and to cook purely with thermal energy. To this end the base 12 includes a base core 18 having a general concave (upward) shape including a bottom face 20 and at least one side wall 22 extending from the periphery of the bottom face 20. The device 10 could alternatively have a round bottom face 20 with a single side wall 22 similar to a cake pan, or other shapes as desired. In this embodiment the base core is formed of drawn metal and as such will form a shield against microwaves. In the embodiment shown, there are four side walls 22 and the base core 18 is sized and shaped as a small loaf pan, and preferably includes a non-stick interior finish. The side walls 22 end at an upper rim, and it is preferred that a flange 24 extend radially outward from the upper rim.
Similarly, the cover 14 includes a cover core 26 having a top face 28 and at least one side wall 30 extending from the periphery of the top face 28. The side walls 30 end at a lower rim, and it is preferred that a flange 32 extend radially outward from the upper rim. The cover 14 is sized and shaped such that it's lower rim will substantially match the upper rim of base 12 to form the enclosed heating chamber 16. The cover core 26 is (in this embodiment) also formed of drawn metal. In this embodiment directed toward baking bread, the top face 28 is slightly domes as shown.
The base core 18 and cover core 26 are respectively heated by a base susceptor 38 and a cover susceptor 40. As is known in the art, susceptors may be formed by metallic powder disbursed through an appropriate matrix. In this first embodiment, the susceptors 38 and 40 are both formed by metallic particles suspended within an elastomer, and overmolded onto the outer face (opposite the food contact) of each of the base core 18 and cover core 26. In the first embodiment the base susceptor 38 coats the entirety of the bottom face 20 and side walls 22 of the base core 18, all the way to the flange 24. The base susceptor 38 could, however, take other forms depending upon the heat generated by the susceptor and the heat transfer of the base core 18. The coating could be partial, in the form of a grid, as dots, as stripes, etc.
To protect the base susceptor 38 and prevent contamination of food product 36, it is preferred to overmold the base susceptor 38 with a base coating 42 formed of a durable material such as an elastomer. This may be overmolded onto the base susceptor 38. In the embodiment shown, the base coating 42 is also overmolded to encapsulate the flange 24. This will provide an insulated grasping area which will remain cooler than the flange 24 of base core 18. As best illustrated in
In a similar manner the cover core 26 will have the cover susceptor 40 overmolded onto its outer face, and a cover coating 44 overmolded on the cover susceptor 40. Before this is described further, an important aspect of the present invention is the presence of a plurality of apertures 34 extending through the top face 28 of cover core 26. These apertures 34 will allow communication between the heating chamber 16 and atmosphere, and in particular will allow steam to exit the heating chamber 16. The steam will originate from moisture within a food product 36 in the heating chamber 16 and/or from condensation (liquid or frozen) on the food 36 or heating chamber 16. During baking the moisture must be allowed to vent, otherwise the cake, bread or other baked product will not properly dry during baking. Similarly, frozen food being reheated may have frozen condensation on the food, or within the device 10, which will create steam during heating and must be vented to avoid too moist a product, or may simply have a high moisture content which is best reduced before consumption. The apertures 34 extend through only the top face 28 to ensure adequate room for food product 36 to rise during baking. That is, the apertures 34 should not be places so low on the device 10 that the partially cooked food product 36 might unduly extend into or through one or more apertures 34.
Because the device 10 is intended for use in a microwave, the size of the apertures 34 in the cover core 26 becomes important. In particular, the cover core 26 is (in these first two embodiments) intended to shield the heating chamber from microwaves. The apertures 34 will not breach this shielding so long as their diameter is smaller than the wavelength of the microwaves. As such, in these first two embodiments the apertures 34 will have such a small diameter so as to shield against microwaves entering heating chamber 16. This is not required, and particular heating requirements may result in a portion of the apertures 34 having a sufficiently large diameter to allow a portion of the microwave energy to enter the heating chamber 16 and thus food product 36.
As shown in the second embodiment of
Similar to the base 12, it is preferred that the cover coating 44 extend to encapsulate the flange 32 to again provide insulated gripping surfaces. The flanges 24 and/or 32 may have areas which extend out further than others, and may act as carrying handles. In the first embodiment, the longitudinal ends are so elongated. Further, as best illustrated in
Encapulating the flanges 24 and 32 with the coatings 42 and 44 will by necessity cause the flanges 24 and 32 to be spaced from each other by the thickness of the combined encapsulations. This is best illustrated in
In operation, the device 10 with food product 36 therein will be placed into the microwave oven (not shown) in a upright configuration with base 12 lowest and cover 14 uppermost. This is the initial heating period. Operation of the microwave oven will cause the susceptors 38 and 40 to absorb microwave energy and begin to heat. This will continue until the susceptors 38 and 40 reach their Curie Temperature, at which point they will cease to absorb energy and will start to cool. Upon cooling slightly below the Curie Temperature, the susceptors 38 and 40 will again absorb energy to heat to the Curie Temperature. In this way, the device 10 will be heated to a relatively constant predetermined temperature without the need for any operator input. The heated susceptors 38 and 40 will transfer their heat to the base core 18 and cover core 26, respectively, which will raise the temperature within the heating chamber 16 and thus heat the food product 36.
As the heating chamber 16 and food product 36 are heated, any condensation within the heating chamber or on the food will evaporate as steam (perhaps first becoming liquid if the condensation was frozen). Similarly, the food product 36 may have a high moisture content which is reduced during the heating process, again evaporating as steam. This steam will be able to exit the heating chamber 16 via the plurality of apertures 34. As noted, this will help to crisp or crust the food product 36 during reheating, or maintain proper consistency.
During this period the device 10 will become hot. This heat can transfer to the microwave oven itself by way of the device 10 resting in contact with the oven interior. To reduce this heat transfer and thus protect the microwave oven, it is preferred to provide feet 48 extending downward from the base 12. As may be envisioned, the feet 48 will serve to space the bottom face 20 of base 12 from the oven itself. The feet 48 may be separate members secured to the base 12. In the preferred form shown, the feet 48 are monolithically formed of the base coating 42.
The device 10 will remain in this condition, heating the food product 36 for the desired time. If the food product 36 is raw bread dough, partially prepare bread dough, cake or other similar baked good, then during this period the food product will expand to more fully fill the heating chamber 16. This is illustrated in
If the initial heating period were continued until the food product 36 is fully prepared, then the upper surface of the food product 36 would likely not be browned as desired. To overcome this, an inventive feature of the present invention is the inversion of the device 10 for a secondary hearing period. In particular, the user would open the microwave oven, grasp the device 10 and invert it. The device 10 will then rest within the microwave oven as before, but inverted so as to rest upon the cover 14 rather than base 12. In so inverting, the food product 36 will fall within the heating chamber 16, losing contact with the base core 18 and now resting upside down on the cover core 26. This is illustrated in
During the initial heating period the apertures 34 allowed steam to escape for improved cooking. During the secondary heating period with device 10 inverted, the food product 36 may cover most or all of the apertures 34. This is acceptable. First, the initial and secondary heating periods may be timed such that little if any steam venting is required during the secondary heating period. Second, the apertures 34 may be placed such that it is likely one or more will not be covered by food product 36 when inverted and those apertures 34 will continue to vent as desired. This is illustrated in
The embodiments shown in
It is noted that the aperture 34 will allow crumbs or other dislodged/separated small portions of food product 36 to fall from the device 10 while inverted. This may be minimized by appropriate timing of the initial and secondary heating periods for some foods. Regardless, upon completion of the secondary heating period the user will remove the device 10 from the microwave oven. A period of resting or cooling may be desired prior to opening the device 10 to remove the prepared food product 36. In most cases, the user may desire to invert device 10 once again to its original orientation prior to opening.
This same method of microwave heating may be practiced with differently formed devices 10. A further embodiment of such a device 10 is shown in
With reference to
As before, the base 62 includes a base susceptor 66 and the cover 64 includes a cover susceptor 68. In this embodiment, the base and cover susceptors 66 and 68 are formed as labels adhered to the interior of bottom panel 52 and top panel 54, respectively. Such labels are well known in the art. While the base 62 and cover 64 of this embodiment do not include a metal core for shielding, the susceptors 66 and 68 act as shielding by absorbing nearly all the microwave energy which would pass through the bottom and top panels 52 and 54. The side panels 56 may remain unshielded, or may themselves include shielding 70 adhered thereto as a label, or in the form of a coating on the blank.
The heating chamber 58 will hold a food product 72. The food product 72 may take many forms as before, but may include a meat patty, a shredded potato patty, a filled pastry, etc. In the embodiment shown, the food product 72 is a sandwich having two pieces of bread and a filling, and which is intended to have the bread crisped or browned prior to serving. In this prepackaged food embodiment, the food product 72 may already be browned upon packaging, and the device 10 is intended only to heat the food product 72 and crisp its exterior.
As with the first embodiments, it is preferred that the food product 72 does not initially contact the cover 64. The reason for this is again the desire to vent the heating chamber 58. To this end, the top panel 54 will include one or more apertures 74 extending therethrough. The apertures 74 may be located outside the periphery of the cover susceptor 68. If located within the periphery of cover susceptor 68, then the label forming the cover susceptor 58 will require similar susceptor apertures 76 aligned with apertures 74. In the embodiment of
It is typically not desired to have open apertures in a frozen or refrigerated food packages as this can lead to freezer burn, drying, or other spoilage. To avoid these problems, this embodiment includes an aperture seal 78 adhesively secured over the aperture 74. This aperture seal 78 may include an unsecured tab section 80 which may be grasped by a user to manually remove the seal 78 and thus open the aperture 74 for venting. Alternatively, the user may be instructed to pierce the seal 78 for venting.
Operation of this device is similar to that described above. In this case, the device 10 will be factory assembled with food product 72 therein, and thereafter kept frozen or refrigerated as the case may be. When it is desired to heat the food product 72, the user places the device 10 with top panel 54 uppermost and manually removes (or pierces) the aperture seal 78. The device 10 is then placed into a microwave oven, with device 10 resting upon bottom panel 52 and top panel 54 uppermost. The microwave oven is then activated for an initial heating period. As before, this will result in susceptors 66 and 68 heating to the predetermined temperature. This will in turn heat the heating chamber 58 and food product 72. The lower face of the food product in contact with base susceptor 66 may brown or crisp during this initial heating period due to the heat conduction from base susceptor 66.
Upon completion of the initial heating period the microwave oven is opened, and device 10 is inverted and placed in the microwave oven resting upon top panel 54 with bottom panel 52 uppermost. The microwave oven is then activated for a secondary heating period. During inversion of device 10 the upper face of food product 72 will come to rest upon cover susceptor 68. The upper face of the food product in contact with cover susceptor 66 may brown or crisp during this secondary heating period, again due to higher heat transfer via conduction. Upon completion of the secondary heating period there may be a period of cooling or rest. The user may then open the device 10 (such as by tear tab 60) to remove the prepared food product 72.
From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention is one well adapted to attain all ends and objects set forth above together with the other advantages which are inherent within its structure.
It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of the claims.
Since many possible embodiments may be made of the invention without departing from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth of shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative, and not in a limiting sense.
