Patent Application
20060141108
This invention relates to a tumbler for treating meat, comprising a chamber, in which meat is rolled in the presence of liquid, solution, brine, and the like in order to be massaged and/or marinated.
It is known in the art of cooking that when meat is cooked, baked, roasted, fried, grilled, etc. it loses between 30 and 40% of its weight, to produce a product that is less juicy than would be desired. This problem is solved in the meat industry by first injecting fluid, such as water, solution and brine, into the meat, and then tumbling the injected meat under vacuum for 1 hour to about 24 hours, such that it adsorbs liquids of a weight that is typically between 40 and 80% of the weight of the precooked meat, (raw meat) and only then cooking.
In domestic kitchens, restaurants, and hotels it is common to marinate meat for several hours or overnight to allow it to absorb fluids in order to obtain a juicy and tasty cooked meat.
WO 03/022073 describes a counter-top appliance having a food container with internal fins extending inward from the outer wall at an angle offset from radial. This publication teaches tumbling food, including meat. In particular, it teaches marinating meat under vacuum conditions.
The present invention provides a tumbler for treating meat, which is suitable for use in a kitchen, especially a small scale kitchen. In particular, it provides a tumbler for treating meat in the presence of fluids, comprising a light-weight chamber that is securely and rotatably mountable on a support. The chamber is capable of being loaded with meat and fluid, and has ribs to facilitate massaging of the meat. For this purpose, the ribs are either with only rounded edges or shaped to have in the cross-section solely obtuse angles.
Also provided is a vertical tumbler for treating meat in the presence of fluids designed to allow its domestic use. This tumbler includes a light-weight chamber in the form of a bowl, that is securely mountable on a support with its central axis perpendicular to the support. The bowl is capable of being loaded with meat and fluid, and has a rolling arm that is capable of revolving inside the bowl for tumbling meat loaded therein. The rolling arm has at least one spiral wing having one end near the bottom of the bowl, about 1-2 mm therefrom, and the other end away thereof. The radial extension of the wing is largest at the end that is near the bottom of the bowl, and it decreases towards the other end of the wing. The radial extension of the wing at the bottom of the bowl and its distance from the bottom of the bowl are such that the arm moves freely inside the bowl, but still meat is not caught between the arm and the bowl. Preferably, the angle between the wing and the bottom of the bowl is between 30 and 60°, most preferably about 45°.
The bowl is preferably cylindrical, and this term should be broadly construed, as not to exclude forms of bowls that are conventionally used with food processors, mixers, blenders, and the like.
Both embodiments are particularly useful in a small scale kitchen, which is a kitchen wherein only a small number of similar or identical dishes are prepared at a certain time, such as a domestic kitchen or a kitchen of a high quality restaurant, hotel, and the like. A tumbler of the invention may be useful whenever a small amount of meat, smaller than about 3 kg, is to be treated, and particularly when meat is to be treated immediately before cooking. The chamber's inner volume is thus preferably between 4-7 liter, preferably 5-6 liters.
In the present description and claims the term meat refers to any kind of meat, such as: beef, poultry, pork, lamb, veal, fish, sea-food etc.
The term cooking should be construed to include any kind of process in which heat is applied for preparing food, such as cooking, baking, roasting, frying, grilling, smoking, etc.
The tumbler according to the invention is characterized in its low weight, which allows a typical housekeeper to move it from one place to another without difficulty, to put it into and out of a closet, etc. A tumbler of the invention is typically of a size and weight of a toaster oven, microwave oven, or mixer, of the kinds that are conventionally at domestic use. Thus, the tumbler of the present invention preferably weighs no more than about 5 kg. In particular, the chamber of the tumbler should be light-weight, such that a typical housekeeper may dismantle it from the tumbler in order to clean it, replace it with another chamber, store it, etc., without encountering a difficulty. This requires a low-weight chamber, like that of a mixer bowl conventionally used in domestic kitchens, which is typically less than 1 kg in weight. Furthermore, a chamber of a tumbler according to the invention should be easily placed together with the other parts of the tumbler and dismantled therefrom.
The small weight of the invented tumbler limits the amount of meat to be prepared therein at one batch to be up to about 3 kg of meat. This allows a chef in a restaurant to have meat absorbed with marinade immediately upon receipt of a client's order, and in accordance therewith, in great difference from the standard marinating process, according to which the meat is immersed in the marinade for an overnight. This process allows absorption of only a small portion of the marinade and demands the preparation of marinated meat in advance. The use of a tumbler according to the invention also allows a restaurant to prepare meat dishes that are closer in weight to the weight of the uncooked meat.
For a housekeeper, the tumbler of the invention allows the preparation of a meal without the need of long-term planning, such that without any notice in advance the housekeeper may prepare, for example a steak from marinated meat.
A tumbler according to the invention includes a chamber that is preferably made of a transparent material, at least partially. In such a case, the user is able to see the meat and marinade while being processed in the tumbler, and determine when the tumbling process is finished. Usually, the process is to be stopped when all the fluids are absorbed in the meat, and this is easy to confirm by watching the inside of the tumbler through a transparent material it is made of.
The tumbler of the present invention is preferably free of any vacuum means, that are used in known and industrial tumblers.
Preferably, the chamber of the tumbler of the invention is adapted to revolve around its axis in a frequency of between 1 and 60 rounds per minute (rpm), preferably between 10 and 30 rpm.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for treating meat before its cooling in a small scale kitchen, the method comprising (a) inserting up to 3 kg of the meat to be treated to a tumbler comprising a light-weight chamber securely and rotatably mountable on a support, said tumbler being designed to allow the dismantling of the chamber from the tumbler by a typical housekeeper; (b) pouring a solution into said tumbler; and (c) operating said tumbler to tumble said meat for a desired time period under atmospheric pressure.
The present invention also provides a method for cooking meat, the method comprising:
Preferably, said desired period of time is between about 5 to about 10 minutes. The user may select a predetermined time for operating the tumbler, or he (or she) may start the tumbler, and stop it when he determines the tumbling process should be stopped. Preferably, the tumbler is operated until all the solution is absorbed in the meat.
Preferably, the solution to be used according to the invention includes water, salt, spices, and may also include further additives, such as sugar, lemon juice, wine, other alcoholic beverages, oil, honey, starch, curing agents, phosphates, anti-oxidants, flavor enhancers, any commercially available sauce, such as Soya sauce, etc.
Preferably, the amount of solution used according to the invention is between 5% and 30% of the meat pre-cooked, preferably between 10 and 25%, most preferably between 10 and 20%. The exact amount of solution and time of operating the tumbler depends on the specific meat and recipe.
In order to understand the invention and to see how it may be carried out in practice, specific embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting examples only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to
The chamber 4 is pivotally connected to the motor 6 in a manner that allows easy dismantling for purposes of cleaning, storing, etc. Means for connecting parts in an easily dismantalable manner are well known in the art and there is no need to detail them herein.
In operation, the user loads the chamber 4 with meat and solution (not shown) through opening 14, closes the closure, starts the motor 6, and lets it operate for a predetermined time, or until the user stops its operation, which is usually when the solution is all adsorbed in the meat, which typically takes not longer than 20 minutes, and for many kinds of meats and recipes between 5 and 10 minutes. Therefore, it may be desirable to use a motor designed for short term operation, i.e. for continuous use of no longer than about 30 minutes. The motor may also have an auto-switch that switches off the motor after such a long continuous use. Some other embodiments may be suitable also for tenderizing meat, which requires tumbling the meat after all the liquids are adsorbed therein, for up to about an hour. After the tumbler 2 stops, the user may open the closure to take the meat out through the opening 14 and cook it.
All these shapes are designed to allow the rib to interact with a piece of meat in two ways: to drag the piece from the bottom of the chamber without tearing it or penetrating into it, lifting it to a point from which it may fall down back to the bottom, or if it is not dragged, to massage the piece.
The massaging requires that the rib be round-ended or, at least, include only obtuse angles, preferably angles wider than 130°. Most ribs efficiently designed to allow the massaging will be wider near the wall of the chamber than towards its center. The massaging is most efficient if the tumbler has three or four ribs.
It should be noted that it is possible to design a tumbler as described above with at least one rib that is suitable for lifting meat and at least one rib that is suitable for massaging meat. Preferably, each rib is suitable for carrying out both the dragging and massaging functions.
The chamber 4 of the tumbler 2 may also include a plurality of small protrusions (not shown) that do not drag meat pieces but gently massage them.
The rib of
Also shown in the figures is a portion 30 of the chamber's inner wall to which the ribs are attached. To achieve massaging the chamber should be rotated clockwise, such that the ribs approach the meat with their part that creates obtuse angle with the chamber's inner wall.
The ribs shown in
A similar embodiment, wherein the chamber 102 revolves and the mixing arm 106 is static is also possible.
The wings 108 have protrusions 110 to apply further massage to the meat. Protrusions (not shown) may also appear on the inner wall of the bowl 102 and/or on its bottom. A perspective view of the rolling arm 106 is shown in
The chamber 102 is open at its top, and the rolling arm 106 is connected to a motor (not shown). In some embodiments the connection of the arm 106 to the motor is at the arm's top, and in other embodiments—at the arm's bottom. The motor revolves the arm 106 around its axis 105. The arm 106 is made to be easily separated from the motor and taken out of the chamber 102. The chamber 102 is also made to be easily removed from the tumbler 100 for cleaning, storing, etc. The weight of the arm 106 and the bowl 102 is light enough to allow a typical housekeeper handling each of them for removing, cleaning, storing, and the like, with no difficulty. The material, from which the bowl 102 is made, may be transparent, but this is not of a large advantage over opaque materials, since the meat in the bowl may be observed from the open top of the bowl.
In operation, the user loads the chamber 102 with meat and solution (not shown) through its topside, starts the motor and lets it operate for a predetermined time or until the user stops its operation. According to one embodiment of the invention the motor works in two directions to revolve the arm clockwise and anti-clockwise, such that in operation the meat climbs on the wings 108 when the motor works in one direction, and climbs down when the motor works in the other direction.
According to another embodiment of the invention the motor revolves the mixing arm constantly in a single direction, when the meat climbs up the mixing wings, and falls down when it reaches their top.
Although the invention was described in details only in respect of the above embodiments, it is not restricted thereto, and its full scope should be determined by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 156821 | Jul 2003 | IL | national |
| 161222 | Jan 2004 | IL | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/IL04/00598 | Jul 2004 | US |
| Child | 11325628 | Jan 2006 | US |
