Patent Application
20090059715
This disclosure generally relates to kitchen utensils, and more particularly to a pastry blender, also known as a pastry cutter.
Pastry dough generally has a flaky or crumbly texture. A good pastry is light and airy. When making pastry dough, care must be taken to blend the fat, such as shortening or butter, and flour thoroughly before adding any liquid. This ensures that the flour granules are adequately coated with fat and are less likely to develop gluten. On the other hand, over-mixing results in long gluten strands that tend to toughen the pastry.
Pastry blenders are primarily used to cut fat into the flour, as well as to blend the two together, in the process of making pastry dough. It is desirable for pastry blenders to cut through the fat because the fat is typically added in cold chunks to the flour. It is also desirable for pastry blenders, once the fat has been cut, to be able to blend the fat and flour into a uniform, granular consistency.
Different types of pastry blenders have different advantages and disadvantages. A blade type blender, for example, is very good at cutting through cold fat, but tends to blend the fat poorly due to the large spacing between the blades. A wire type blender, however, is very good at blending the fat into the flour, but does not cut the fat as well as a blade type blender because the wires tend to splay out around cold chunks of fat instead of cutting through.
With the use of either type of pastry blender, fat and flour often stick to the blender during its use, particularly to the inside surface of the blades or wires. Build up of fat and flour on the blades or wires decreases the effectiveness of the cutting and blending process. Accordingly, use of a pastry blender is typically stopped several times during the cutting and blending process in order to clean the blades or wires. Generally, cleaning of the blades or wires can be accomplished by the use of a spatula, a knife, or clean fingers.
This disclosure relates to pastry blenders of the type that are often utilized in blending flour and fat to make pastry dough, as well as to scrapers that can be utilized with such pastry blenders.
In one aspect, a pastry blender is provided that includes a handle, a plurality of arcuate cutting wires attached to the handle, and a plurality of arcuate blending wires that are also attached to the handle. The handle has a grip, a first wire receiving end, and a second wire receiving end. Each cutting wire having a cutting wire thickness, a first end received by the first receiving end of the handle, an apex, and a second end received by the second receiving end of the handle. Each blending wire also has a first end received by the first receiving end of the handle, an apex, and a second end received by the second receiving end of the handle, as well as a blending wire thickness that is less than the cutting wire thickness. The cutting wires and blending wires can be attached to the handle in a row or line, and can be arranged so that at least one cutting wire is attached to the handle adjacent to at least one blending wire. The pastry blender can also include a scraper that removably connects to the cutting wires and the blending wires.
In another aspect, a scraper that removably connects to a pastry blender is provided that includes a wire retaining end and a locking end attached to the wire retaining end. The wire retaining end slidably engages a pastry blender. For example, the wire retaining end can have at least one ridge or at least one slot that slidably engages the cutting wires and the blending wires. The locking end has a locked position and an unlocked position. For example, the locking end can have a first locking half and a second locking half that removably connects to the first locking half to lock the scraper onto the pastry blender.
Specific examples have been chosen for purposes of illustration and description, and are shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specification.
One example of a pastry blender is illustrated in
The handle 102 has a grip 118, a first wire receiving end 120, a second wire receiving end 122. Grip 118 has a top surface 124 and a bottom surface 126. The grip 118 is preferably ergonomic in shape and dimension, such that the grip fits comfortably in the hand of a user. A user would preferably hold grip 118 by placing the user's palm on top surface 124 and wrapping the user's fingers downwards around bottom surface 126. The grip 118 of handle 102 can be made of any suitable material, including but not limited to wood, plastic, stainless steel, rubber, or a combination thereof. Grip 118 can be solid or hollow, and can also be a single piece or multiple pieces. For example, grip 118 can have a wood or stainless steel core and a rubber cover or coating. The first and second wire receiving ends 120 and 122 can also be made of any suitable material, although the are preferably made of stainless steel.
The pastry blender 100 has a plurality of cutting wires and a plurality of blending wires. The blending wires and the cutting wires are all preferably made of stainless steel, although they can be made from any suitable material, such as, for example, a food grade metal or plastic. The cutting wires are thick wires, and have a cutting wire thickness that is suitable for cutting through fat, such as butter or shortening. The cutting wires are preferably rigid or semi-rigid. The cutting wires can exhibit some degree of flexibility or movement during use. It is preferred, however, that the cutting wires not shift significantly during use in order to facilitate their ability to cut through fat, particularly cold, usually refrigerated, pieces of fat, which tend to be hard as compared to softened fat at room temperature or warmer. The blending wires are thin wires that blend the pastry dough to an appropriate consistency. The blending wires have a blending wire thickness that is less than the cutting wire thickness. The blending wires are preferably flexible or semi-flexible, and can shift or splay during use, such as when contacted with cold fat. Although not being bound by any particular theory, it is believed that the use of cutting wires and blending wires in combination allows the pastry blender to provide improved results at both cutting fat into flour, and blending the fat and flour together.
As illustrated in
Each cutting wire and each blending wire has a first end and a second end. The first and second ends of the cutting and blending wires are received and retained by the first wire receiving end 120 of the handle 102 and the second wire receiving end 122 of the handle 102, respectively. The cutting and blending wires are preferably permanently mounted or attached to the handle 102 within the first and second wire receiving ends 120 and 122 according to any suitable method known in the art. Each cutting wire can be the same length as any other cutting wire, or can be a different length. Similarly, each blending wire can be the same length as any other blending wire, or can be a different length. Further, each cutting wire can be the same length as any blending wire, or can be a different length. Each cutting wire has a cross section that can be, but is not limited to, a circle, a square, a triangle, an n-gon, or an irregular shape. Similarly, blending wire has a cross section that can be, but is not limited to, a circle, a square, a triangle; an n-gon, or an irregular shape.
The blending wires and cutting wires each extend downwardly from the handle 102 in an arcuate manner. Each cutting wire and each blending wire is thus arcuate, and the arc of each cutting wire and each blending wire has an apex. The apex of each arcuate cutting wire and the apex of each arcuate blending wire can be substantially coplanar, which would appear as a line in cross section. For example, the apex of each cutting wire 104, 106, and 108, and the apex of each blending wire 110, 112, 114 and 116 can be substantially coplanar, at line A in
In some examples, pastry blenders also have a scraper that slidably engages the pastry blender. A scraper can allow pastry blender users to scrape off dough or fat that has gotten caught on the pastry blender wires.
As shown in
The two locking halves can connect in any suitable manner, such as, for example, an interlocking fit, a friction fit, or a press fit. As illustrated in
Referring to
In practice, the cutting wires and blending wires tend to get coated in flour and fat when the pastry blender 100 is in use. When the scraper 200 is connected to the pastry blender 100, a user can grip the locking end 224 of the scraper and exert a force to slide the wire retaining end 222 along the arc of the wires from the first end of the wires to the second end, and back, if desired. The inside wall of the wire retaining end 222 abuts, and preferably closely abuts, the wires of the pastry blender, which can contact and dislodge flour, fat, or combinations thereof, from the wires of the pastry blender as the scraper 200 slides along the wires. The first and second sides 210 and 212 preferably have a length that protrudes away from the wires of the pastry blender, so that locking end 224 is spaced away from the wires. Such spacing can facilitate the ability of any dislodged fat or flour to fall away from the pastry blender. After use, the scraper 200 can be removed from the pastry blender 200, and each can be cleaned.
The wire retaining end 222 preferably has a shape that facilitates the removal of flour, fat, and combinations thereof from the wires of a pastry blender. For example, the wire retaining end 222 can have a cross sectional shape that is a square, a rectangle, a semi circle, a triangle, an n-gon, or any other suitable shape. The inner wall of the wire retaining end 222 can have a width that is wider than the width of the first and second legs 210 and 212 of the scraper 200. Additionally, the wire retaining end 222, and particularly the inner wall thereof, can be smooth or textured. Further, the wire retaining end 222 can include a ramped or inclined scraping edge.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that although specific examples have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit or scope of this disclosure. It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to particularly point out and distinctly claim the claimed subject matter.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/959,041, filed on Jul. 10, 2007, currently pending. The disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60959041 | Jul 2007 | US |
