The following disclosure relates to cooking utensil, the present invention teaches a convenient way to add steam to a griddle cooking via a metal lid.
Griddle cooking is a major cooking method. A griddle is a typically a big flat metal plate where energy is fed to the metal plate by electricity or by gas combustion. Temperature of the metal plate is raised to 350-500 degrees Fahrenheit. Many different menus can be cooked on the griddle plate, such as burger, fish, eggs, vegetable etc. When cooking vegetables, pot stickers, or lobster tail for example, it is preferable to create some steam to aid in cooking. Usually chefs squirt water over the food using a water bottle and then cover the food with a lid. It is a messy, cumbersome process. Water must be squirted multiple times to cook cold items, especially if they have just been taken out from the refrigerator. It is the purpose of this patent to provide a steam lid that allows a more convenient way of generating steam.
The following examples and aspects thereof are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems, tools, and methods that are meant to be exemplary and illustrative, not limiting in scope. In various examples, one or more of the above-described problems have been reduced or eliminated, while other examples are directed to other improvements.
It is the purpose of this invention to ease the process of creating steam for griddle cooking, preferably to use a lid that can hold a certain amount of water to allow the gradual release water inside the lid to the griddle to create steam inside the lid.
It is an aspect of this invention to provide the design of such a steam lid to allow the water to transfer to inside of the lid.
It is an aspect of this invention to provide the design of such a steam lid to distribute water to generate steam at suitable locations inside the lid.
It is an aspect of this invention to provide a design of such a steam lid so that it can be manufactured cost effectively.
Objectives and advantages disclosed herein will be understood by reading the following detail description in conjunction with the drawing, in which:
Although the following detailed description contains many specifics for the purpose of illustration, anyone of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that many variations and alterations to the following exemplary details may be made. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the concepts and techniques disclosed herein can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or in combination with other components, etc. In other instances, well-known implementations or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of various examples disclosed herein.
Griddle cooking is a major cooking method. A griddle plate is typically a steel plate of approximately 15 mm thick, 500 mm wide, and 600 mm deep. The plate is heated by gas burners or electrical burners to temperatures of 350 to 550 degrees Fahrenheit. Food is placed on the hot surface to be cooked. It is preferable to put a lid to cover the food to reduce heat loss to speed up cooking. Sometimes it is preferred to generate steam inside the lid to speed up the cooking further for foods like vegetables, lobster tails, cheese on top of a burger, etc. It is a common practice to lift up the lid and spray water onto the griddle surface and then cover the steam with the lid. However, this is a cumbersome process, which leads to wasted steam and heat.
In the current invention, a new lid design is disclosed to allow steam to be generated inside the lid by putting water on top of the lid without lifting up the lid.
In operation, food is placed on a hot griddle. The lid is placed to cover the food. Water is added to the reservoir cup with, for example, a ladle. The water will drip from the cup 110 to the grooves 104. It flows along the grooves to drip through holes 104 to land on the griddle plate to create steam inside the concave space of the lid.
The cup can function as handle of the steam lid, however it could be too hot for hand to touch. The rim of the cup can be coated with thermal insulating materials such as silicone so that it is cool enough to touch. Alternatively, a handle with good thermal insulation is attached on the wall of the dome.
The edge of the lid 405 is conformed to a flat plate, and the reservoir space 410 is also indicated in
To offset the dripping location from the center, this design can be modified as in
Flattening the bottom of the reservoir in the above example will result in an alternative embodiment shown in
The basic shape of steam lid can be different from a dome shape. For example, the wall of the lid can be in shape of a square, or a polygon.
The size of the reservoir is determined by certain parameters of the application it is targeted for, e.g. by the amount of steam needed, and the length of time the steam is needed. The number of hole and the size of the holes will determine the speed of the water to be release. It is possible to install a hole blocker that can be adjusted to allow different number of holes to open, or adjusting the size of the opening of a larger hole. As a product, the lid can be made with large number of holes half punched in production process, in such a way that a hole is not open yet, but it is very easy for a user to hand punch it open so that the user can decide how many holes to open for his application.
The steam lid of current invention can be for cooking on cookware as well. In a steam lid for such application, the wall height of the lid can be lower than that for the griddle cooking if the lid is design to rest on the wall of the cookware.
It is preferred to fabricate the steam dome using stamping, deep drawing, spinning, hydroforming and other sheet metal forming processes. For example, the design in
It will be appreciated to those skilled in the art that the preceding examples and are exemplary and not limiting. It is intended that all permutations, enhancements, equivalents, and improvements thereto that are apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings are included within the true spirit and scope of the present disclosure. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims include all such modifications, permutations and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present disclosure.