Apparatus and process for cooking potatoes
OwnerWilliam C. Gilwoodinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and process of cooking potato pieces fluidized in upwardly flowing heated air in an inverted conical cooking chamber to produce hot browned potatoes with a moisture content over 40%. According to the invention the apparatus is provided with a multispeed air blower to provide higher pressure heated air to the bottom of cooking chamber at startup of cooking to overcome jamming of potato pieces; supplemented by mechanically moving a perforated bottom support platform upwardly in the cooking chamber at startup of cooking to push any jammed potato pieces into the upwardly flowing air to assure fluidization.
Claims20
An apparatus for cooking potato pieces by heated air comprising:
- a housing;
- a cooking chamber base within said housing, said cooking chamber base being in the shape of an inverted frustum of a cone with its larger diameter on top, said chamber being open at the top and bottom;
- a removable air permeable basket in the shape of an inverted frustum of a cone similar in shape to said cooking chamber, with said basket bottom outside diameter almost equal to inside bottom diameter of cooking chamber base;
- said basket having a screen bottom and a removable screen cover on top;
- a means for heating air, a means for blowing heated air upwardly through said cooking chamber base and said screened basket to fluidize potato pieces in basket.
An apparatus for cooking potato pieces by heated air comprising a cooking chamber housing, a cooking chamber support base for a removable cooking basket within said housing, said support base provided with a passage for air flow;
- an air permeable cooking basket in the shape of an inverted frustum of a cone with its larger diameter on top, said basket having an impermeable sidewall, an air permeable foraminous bottom and a removable air permeable foraminous retaining cover on top;
- said basket mounted to mate into said support base air passage, means to restrict air flow between support base air passage and exterior of said basket so as to direct the flow of air into interior bottom of basket;
- means for heating air, means for blowing heated air through support base air passage upwardly through said cooking basket to fluidize potato pieces in basket.
Process for cooking potato pieces by heated air which comprises partially filling potato pieces into an air permeable cooking basket in the shape of an inverted frustum of a cone with its larger diameter on top, said basket having an impermeable sidewall, an air permeable foraminous bottom and a removable foraminous retaining cover on top, mounting said basket on a cooking chamber support base in a cooking chamber housing, said support base provided with a passage for air flow, mounting said basket to mate into said support base air passage, restricting air flow between support base air passage and exterior of said basket so as to direct the flow of air into the interior bottom of the basket, heating the air to between 400.degree. F. to 500.degree. F., blowing said heated air upwardly into the bottom of said basket at a velocity sufficient to fluidize all the potato pieces, maintaining such heated air fluidization until the potato pieces develop a yellow brown color similar to french fried potatoes and then removing the cooked potato pieces from said basket.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.