Patent Application
20080066626
The present invention generally relates to barbecue accessory products, and, more particularly, to the use of skewers to grill small pieces of meat and/or vegetables kebab-style on a cooking grill such as a barbecue.
The use of skewers to grill small pieces of meat and/or vegetables kebab-style is well known. Kebab skewers provide elongated, rod-like structures onto which the pieces of meat and/or vegetables can be impaled, and usually have sufficient length to provide a food-ladened skewer with a free handle end that can be gripped when placing the skewer onto a cooking grill and when lifting it off. Skewers are fabricated of a variety of materials, ranging from bamboo sticks to elongated stainless steel rods.
A well known difficulty with grilling meats and vegetables on a skewer is that the handle ends of the skewers tend to get quite hot when the food-ladened skewers are placed on the grill. This often requires that the skewers be picked up from the grills gingerly, or using a hot pad or oven mitt. A need therefore exists for a way of grilling skewered meats and vegetables without heating the skewer handles.
The present invention provides a skewer shield for shielding the handle ends of skewers placed on a cooking grill such that the handle ends of skewers, when resting on the grill, will not become hot to the touch. The skewer shield of the invention includes a shielding body fabricated of a non-flammable material that is adapted for placement on the cooking grill. A skewer elevating portion having a top resting edge extends upwardly from the shielding body and provides a structure on which the skewers can rest. By placing the skewer shield on the cooking grill, one or more food-ladened skewers can be placed on the grill shield such that the food-ladened ends of the skewers rest directly on the grill, while the handle ends of the skewers extend over the shielding body. The shielding body of the skewer shield extends behind its skewer engaging portion a sufficient distance to shield the handle ends of the skewers from the cooking grill's heat source. The skewer elevating portion will also keep the handle ends elevated so that they are easily picked up from the cooking grill.
In one preferred aspect of the invention, the top resting edge of the upwardly-extending skewer engaging portion of the skewer shield has sufficient length to accommodate a plurality of spaced-apart skewers, and is provided with repeating recesses for holding a plurality of skewers in spaced-apart relation along the resting edge. In another preferred aspect of the invention, the shielding body for the skewer handles is provided with handles on its side edges for ease of placing the skewer shield on and picking it up from the cooking grill.
Therefore, it is a primary object of the invention to provide a convenient way to shield the handle ends of food-ladened skewers from heating up when placed on a cooking grill. Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following specification and claims.
Turning now to the drawings, a skewer shield 11 includes a shielding body in the form of an elongated, rectangular shield plate 13, having side edges 15 extending rearwardly from a front edge 21. Bent over side handles 17 project upwardly from the shield plate's side edges to provide a means for easily gripping the skewer shield for lifting the skewer shield on and off a cooking grill as hereinafter described. The shield plate 13 will suitably be fabricated of a non-flammable material, such as stainless steel.
The skewer shield additionally includes an upwardly-extending shield engaging portion, which, in the illustrated embodiment, is provided in the form of a turned-up front wall 19 that extends upwardly from the front edge 21 of shield plate 13 at a forwardly inclined angle. The turned-up front wall has an elongated top resting edge 23, which in the illustrated version is pitched forward of the shield plate due to the forward inclination of the front wall. As shown in
It will further be appreciated that the preferred embodiment of the skewer shield illustrated in the drawings can be easily fabricated from a single, bent metal part, such as stainless steel.
Use of the illustrated skewer shield is further described with reference to
Once the skewered meats and vegetables have been cooked, the loaded skewers 25 are easily removed from the grill by picking them up by their skewer handle ends 27, which will remain at a relatively cool temperature, as compared to handles exposed directly to the grilling heat source. Skewers can now be removed comfortably without the aid of an oven mitt or the like. The skewer shield can then also be easily removed from the top of the grill by means of handles 17.
It is therefore seen that the present invention provides an easy-to-use means for shielding the handle ends of skewers used to grill foods kebab-style on a barbecue grill or the like. The preferred embodiment of the grill shield also provides a ready means for placing and holding loaded skewers at spaced intervals on top of a cooking grill. It is contemplated that the grill shield of the invention can be fabricated for multiple skewers or individual skewers. In the latter case, skewer shields would be provided in shorter lengths.
While the present invention has been described in considerable detail in the foregoing specification, it will be understood that it is not intended that the invention be limited to such detail, except as necessitated by the following claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/857,904 filed Nov. 9, 2006, and is a continuation-in-part of Application Ser. No. 29/266,215 filed Sep. 15, 2006, now pending.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60857904 | Nov 2006 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 29266215 | Sep 2006 | US |
| Child | 11983561 | Nov 2007 | US |
