Patent Application
20070068919
Much of the information disclosed herein was also shown in my U.S. design patent application Ser. No. 29/122,679 filed May 2, 2000, now abandoned.
Early methods of making pancakes involved a heavy cast iron flat pan which was placed over a fire. The fire would heat the bottom of the pan using radiation and convection heating. The pan was made of thick heat conductive material such as steel, iron, copper or aluminum which evenly distributed the heat to the top tray surface. This evenly heated surface was required to produce evenly cooked pancakes. Without a thick, highly conductive pan material the pancakes would burn where the fire was the hottest and not cook completely where the fire was not as hot. In recent times electronic heating elements were added inside the thick conductive metal pan, and other improvements added a second heated pan on top to cook both sides of the pancake at the same time. It normally takes quite some time for this heavy metal pan to heat up to the proper temperature and cool down again for cleaning.
A certain level of training and skill is required to make a good pancake. There are two important criteria that must be controlled when cooking a pancake;
The traditional method of making a pancake involves pouring the pancake mix on an evenly heated surface at a temperature of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit, heated by a variety of power sources, including a flame, electrical elements and natural gas. The pancake mix closest to the pan becomes brown. As you move away from the pan and toward the top of the pancake the temperature drops off, which provides a somewhat uneven but sufficient environment for baking. When the bottom of the pancake reaches the desirable browning level it is flipped upside-down so that the top surface can also be browned to the correct level. This process is technique-sensitive and normally requires some training and trial and error before it is perfected.
The long pan warm up and cool down period and the requirement for constant monitoring makes it rather impractical to make pancakes for one or two people in the morning, especially when they need to get to work.
Previous devices designed for the simplified production of pancakes employ clamshell style designs which require the chef to pour the liquid batter directly onto a heating surface shaped like pancakes which serve the same function as a griddle, with heating elements embedded within both halves of the devices. The devices are closed to apply a cooking surface to both the top and the bottom of the batter to do away with the need to flip the pancakes at the correct time so as to achieve the desired browning and baking of the pancake. Upon completion of the cooking process, the devices are opened and the pancakes removed with a spatula or some similar kitchen utensil.
Several drawbacks exist for these types of devices. Firstly, there is no way to independently choose the desired level of baking and browning for the pancake. The devices are not refined enough to differentiate these two qualities to a skilled cook or pancake maker. Secondly, the use of a cooking surface with embedded heating elements requires a much longer time to warm up the devices and much longer period of time to cool to the point of being safely handled, which precludes its usage by those with limited time. In addition to taking longer to warm and cool, the cooking surfaces remained fixed within the devices, meaning the chef must extricate the finished pancakes by way of spatula or some other similarly functioned kitchen tool from a device that is still dangerously hot.
The Present Invention overcomes these challenges by providing a novel means of cooking pancakes that allows for the quick, easy and safe cooking of pancakes meeting the user's desired level of browning and baking. This invention, in its preferred embodiment, provides the user with a convenient electrical cooking device easily capable of sitting on a kitchen countertop. Instead of having heating surfaces built into the device, it employs a low-density, heat resistant tray to allow for rapid heating and cooling upon activation of the device. The tray itself is easily removable from the device and allows the user to safely pour batter or remove the finished pancakes without having to worry about navigating around the dangerously confined space inside a device employing a fixed cooking surface.
The device itself employs thermal radiation produced at varying durations and intensities in order to provide the optimal level of baking and browning for the user. A user seeking a high degree of browning and a low degree of baking, for example, would use the two independent controls to set their preference. The device then undergoes two or more phases of cooking. At least one phase is responsible for the browning, which requires a high level of heat over a certain duration. At least one phase is responsible for baking which employs a lower heat level for an increased duration relative to the browning phase.
The device comprises a top half and a bottom half containing electrical resistive heating elements, though gas fire, wood fire, etc., is also possible. The removable tray contains one or a plurality of wells into which the batter is poured, but the preferred embodiment has either 4 or 9 wells. The tray itself does not have to be the same material as the wells, such as glass wells placed in a wire-mesh tray. When the batter has been poured into the tray, and the tray placed within the device, the device is closed and the user may set his browning and baking preferences. The device alerts the user upon the completion of the cooking process at which point the user safely removes the cooking tray using the heat-resistant handles on its sides. The pancakes are then safely removed from the tray, and the device is instantly ready for the next batch of pancakes.
While the present invention is presented in drawings and description in its preferred embodiment, it should be understood that it is not limited to this single example. Those skilled in the art will be able to perceive this embodiment and deduce additional embodiments.
Separate cooking trays 7 and 10 comprise circular wells 6 in a flat plate of similar dimensions as the base 5, which fit between the top cover 2 and base 5 during operation of the device. The material of the plate 7 and wells 6 may be different, such that the wells allow the transmission of infrared radiation while the plate is composed of a low-density, highly heat-resistant material. Handles 8 attached to the center of the sides of the trays 7 and 10 may be composed of yet another material with low heat retention and conduction characteristics.
The top cover 2 is demonstrated as a hollow semicolumnar structure containing one or more electrical resistive heating elements 4 running lengthwise and parallel to the structure's surface. The reflectors 3 are located above the electrical resistive heating elements such that when the device is in the closed configuration shown in
The base 5 is a flat structure here presented as roughly square in shape. Contained within are electrical resistive heating elements 4 positioned perpendicular to the electrical resistive elements 4 located in the top cover 2 when the device is in the closed configuration of
As shown in
The top cover 2 is attached to the base 5 by a hinge 20 (shown in
The cooking tray 7 or 10 can be made from any thin heat resistant material. It is preferable to make the tray out of a non-heat conductive, heat resistant material such as phenolic or carbon fiber because it reduces the likelihood that users would burn themselves if they were to touch the cooking tray after it is removed from the oven. In the middle of the cooking tray can be any number of various sized recessed receptacles 6. The pancake mix is poured into each of these receptacles. The receptacles can be an integral part of the cooking tray or an insert 18 made out of some different material. An important part of the receptacle is that it should have either a transparent bottom such as tempered glass or be made out of a thin metal that can easily transfer radiant energy from the lower heating element to the bottom of the pancake. The cooking tray can have some holes in the areas where there are no receptacles. This would allow the hot air above the tray to mix with the hot air below the tray. The tray surface could also be made of a wire mesh 19. This configuration is shown in
Operation
The user begins by mixing pancake batter as per their own recipe and pouring it into the wells 18 of the cooking tray 19 until there is an even layer over the bottom of each well 18. Next, the tray 19 is placed onto the base 5 and the top cover 2 is lowered to completely enclose the tray within the cooking device. The user then sets the dials for the inside and outside degree of cooking on the front panel via knobs 12 and 13, respectively. The farther along the spectrum towards the “D” (dark) setting, the greater the amount of time spent cooking that particular aspect of the pancake. The outside of the pancake is cooked via radiant radiation that acts primarily on the surface of the batter to quickly brown the outside layer. The inside of the pancake is cooked via convection heating in which the electrical resistive heating elements 4 bring the temperature inside the device to approximately 300° Fahrenheit. To activate the device, the user presses the “START” button 16, which activates a timer based on the two knob settings 12, 13 and switches on power for the electrical resistive heating elements.
When the timer completes its set duration, a ding or similar type of noise to alert the user is made. The user then presses the “STOP” button 17 to terminate the cooking process. As an alternate embodiment, the cooking can be stopped automatically without the need for the user to press the “STOP” button. The top cover 2 is then lifted back into its open configuration shown in
