This invention relates to an apparatus and to an associated method for preparing a finished food product. More particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus and to an associated method for cooking discrete food articles such as bagels.
The tastiest parts of certain baked food products such as muffins and bagels are those that are browned owing to exposure to an oven's convection currents. In eating muffins, people frequently separate the crowns from the bodies of the muffins in order to savor the enhanced flavor of the crowns. Likewise, in eating bagels, some people characteristically remove the inner, doughy parts of the bagel and eat only the shell, either alone or with filling such as a cream cheese and scallion spread or a salmon spread. Where a bagel is used to make a sandwich type food item, the hollowing out of the bagel provides the additional advantage of reducing the amount of filling that is squeezed out from between the bagel halves when the consumer bites into the bagel. Concomitantly, a hollow bagel is able to accommodate a greater amount of filling material.
A problem with the conventional manual method of removing dough from the interior of a bagel is inconvenience to the consumer. Another problem is waste that occurs when the removed interior dough is discarded rather than eaten.
Although certain food products such as doughnuts are frequently made with hollow interiors, into which a cream or fruit filling may be deposited, the method by which that hollow interior is formed is not applicable to bagels. Doughnuts can be made from dough that separates during deep-frying to produce an interior chamber. Bagels are cooked by an initial boiling step and a subsequent baking step. Bagels with hollow interiors will not naturally form during the two-step cooking process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,599 describes a method for making a food product that utilizes an aliquot of dough disposed in a predetermined shape about a cooking member made of a material which has a chemical composition essentially impervious to cooking temperatures. The dough is cooked, e.g., boiled or baked, at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined period. The cooking member is maintained in the dough during the cooking thereof. After the cooking of the dough at the predetermined temperature for the predetermined period, the cooking member is removed from the cooked dough, thereby creating a chamber in the cooked dough.
Generally, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,599, the dough is molded about the cooking member to form the predetermined dough shape about the cooking member. Alternatively, the cooking member may be inserted or pressed into a lump of the dough.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,599, the cooking member is an elongate member made of a flexible material such as silicone. In that case, the elongate member may be bent to assume a desired form such as a circle. The dough generally conforms to the bent cooking member. The dough has a toroidal shape when the cooking member is bent into a circle.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,599, an end of the elongate member is left protruding from the uncooked dough form. After the dough is cooked, the elongate member is removed from the dough by grasping the protruding end of the elongate member and pulling the elongate member from the cooked dough. An edible filling may be injected or otherwise deposited into the chamber of the hollow dough cooked product after the pulling of the elongate member from the cooked dough.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,527 describes a machine for manufacturing hollow toroidal food products such as bagels utilizing cooking members or inserts as described more generally in U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,599. While the machine U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,527 is operative, it require optimization for commercial purposes.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a cooked food product having an internal chamber for receiving an edible composition.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a machine or apparatus for cooking or baking a food product so that the food product has a hollow interior for receiving an edible composition.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide such a machine or apparatus that is suitable for producing a hollow bagel.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a machine or apparatus that produces a food product which is provided with a filling.
It is a related object of the present invention to provide a method for shaping a dough preform and for cooking or baking the preform to generate a food product having a hollow interior.
Another associated object of the present invention is to provide such a method that is applicable to a bagel.
A supplemental object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a food product that is provided with a filling.
These and other objects of the present invention will be apparent from the descriptions and illustrations herein. While it is true that each object of the invention is attained in at least one embodiment of the invention, there is not necessarily any one embodiment that achieves all of the objects.
A method for manufacturing a food product comprises, in accordance with the present invention, forming a closed dough preform having an arcuate portion that is at least partially hollow and cooking the dough preform to form a cooked comestible item having an internal chamber in the arcuate portion. The word “closed” is intended to signify that the preform has an internal space that is closed off from communication with the ambient atmosphere. Thus, the preform has no openings or holes in an external surface that communicate with the internal space or hollow interior of the preform.
In a preferable utilization of the invention, the dough preform is substantially toroidal and has a circumferential extent. The preform is hollow along at least a portion of the circumferential extent. More preferably, the dough preform is hollow substantially throughout the circumferential extent. The comestible item may be a hollow bagel.
Pursuant to further features of the present invention, the forming of the dough preform includes providing a flat sheet of dough, cutting the sheet into strips, rolling the strips into cylindrical configurations, sealing the cylindrical configurations along joints and ends thereof to form a plurality of elongate dough rods each being at least partially hollow, and bending the dough rods to generate the arcuate portions. Where the dough preforms are toroidal as in the case of bagel manufacture, the dough rods are bent into generally circular shapes, and opposite ends of each of the dough rods are joined to one another to form the dough preforms.
Where any given dough preform has an internal space that is transformed into the chamber of the respective comestible item during the cooking of the dough preform, the method further comprises maintaining the internal space intact, i.e., in an uncollapsed configuration, prior to and during cooking of the dough preform. The maintaining of the internal space may be accomplished by injecting a gaseous composition (such as air) into the internal space of the given preform prior to the cooking thereof. The injecting of the gaseous composition may in turn be implemented by inserting a distal end portion of a hollow needle through the dough of the preform and forcing the gaseous composition through the needle.
Where the manufacturing process is to produce items such as bagels, the cooking of the preforms includes baking the preforms. Optionally, the process may include boiling the preforms prior to the baking process.
The manufacturing method may additionally comprise the steps of puncturing the cooked comestible items and injecting an edible filling into the internal chambers thereof.
An apparatus for manufacturing a food product comprises an assembly line including dough shaping tools for forming closed dough preforms each having an arcuate portion that is at least partially hollow. The apparatus additionally comprises at least one heating device for cooking the dough preforms to form cooked comestible items each having an internal chamber in the respective arcuate portion. The apparatus further comprises a transport mechanism such as a conveyor for moving the dough preforms from the assembly line to the heating device.
Pursuant to another feature of the present invention, the shaping tools include at least one press or roller for generating a flat sheet of dough, at least one cutter for severing the sheet into strips, shaping members for curving the strips into cylindrical configurations, at least one first closure device for sealing the cylindrical configurations along joints and ends thereof to form a plurality of elongate dough rods each being at least partially hollow, and bending elements engageable with the dough rods for deforming the dough rods to generate the arcuate portions.
Where the food items produced by the apparatus are toroidal such as bagels, the bending elements are engageable with the dough rods for forming the dough rods into generally circular shapes. In addition, the apparatus includes at least one second closure device for joining the opposite ends of each of the dough rods to one another to form the dough preforms.
Where the dough preforms have internal spaces that are transformed into the internal chambers during the cooking of the dough preforms, the apparatus further comprising means such as a gas injector for maintaining the internal spaces intact or uncollapsed prior to and during cooking of the dough preforms. The injector may include a hollow needle insertable through the dough of the preforms and a pressurization component (such as a pump or a pressurized air tank with an air-flow control valve) connected to the needle for forcing the gaseous composition through the needle.
As illustrated in
The apparatus of
The shaping tools of the assembly line 12 may include at least one roller or press 30 such as an extrusion or leveling plate for generating a flat dough sheet 32 from a lump of dough 34. The shaping tools may additionally at least one cutter 36 for severing the dough sheet 32 into strips 38.
Shaping members or tools 14 serve to curve or roll the dough strips 38 into cylindrical configurations 40. Dough shaping tools 16 include at least one closure or joint sealing device for sealing the dough cylinders 40 along longitudinal joints and optionally for closing the ends 42 of the dough cylinders to form a plurality of elongate dough rods 44 each being at least partially hollow, preferably along their entire longitudinal extent. Shaping tools 18 are bending elements engageable with the dough rods 44 for deforming the dough rods into arcuate configurations 46. Where the food items produced by the apparatus of
As shown in
As depicted in
Subsequently, as illustrated in
After the sealing of the longitudinal joint, the mandrel 88 is partially withdrawn from the dough preform 100 by a translatory drive 101, as illustrated in
After the sealing of the end 108 of dough preform 100, the cylindrical mandrel 88 may be sealed or plugged, for instance by an end plate 110, while a fine-gauge hypodermic needle 112 is inserted into the preform so as to communicate with an internal cavity or space 114 therein, as illustrated in
As depicted in
During a subsequent curving of dough preform 100 to form an annular configuration as indicated at 46 and 22 in
The bender tool 18 of
It is possible to form the dough rods 44 of
As further depicted in
Hardening of the inner surface of the extruded dough 144 may be alternatively or additionally accomplished by heating mandrel 136, for instance, by means of an electrical current conducted from a source 154. Alternatively, section 138 of mandrel 136 may be heated via a hot liquid circulated from a heat exchanger (not shown) or a magnetic field.
Elongate member 158 may be provided with a channel or duct (not shown) for conveying a gas from a supply, tank or reservoir 170. The gas may be a flammable composition ignited at a free end of elongate member 158 during a withdrawal of the elongate member from the extruded dough preform 164 for purposes of hardening an inner surface of the extruded dough, thereby provided the extrusion with internal support. Alternatively or additionally, the gas from supply 170 may be used to provide an internal pressure to the extruded dough preform 164, as discussed above. Hardening of the inner surface of the extruded dough 164 may be alternatively or additionally accomplished by heating member 158, for instance, by means of an electrical current conducted from a source 172 to heating elements 174 mounted to or embedded in member 158.
As depicted in
Although the invention has been described in terms of particular embodiments and applications, one of ordinary skill in the art, in light of this teaching, can generate additional embodiments and modifications without departing from the spirit of or exceeding the scope of the claimed invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the drawings and descriptions herein are proffered by way of example to facilitate comprehension of the invention and should not be construed to limit the scope thereof.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60472853 | May 2003 | US | |
60480105 | Jun 2003 | US |