Microwave heating utensil
AssigneeInvenetics LLC
InventorsRobert S. Rheinish, Yading Wang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A utensil for use, for example, in the home or in restaurants, with a microwave oven for heating food preparation or service vessels (such as a dinner plate) and the food in such vessels. The utensil includes a matrix material and a microwave absorptive material. The utensil may also be configured for direct conductive heat transfer heating of food into which the utensil is immersed. Alternatively, an appliance for applying therapeutic dry or moist heat to the human body may use pellets of the matrix and microwave absorptive material in a flexible moisture and heat transmissive body.
Claims13
A microwave heating utensil particularly for heating dinner plates or other food-service or preparation vessels in a microwave oven, said utensil comprising:
- a thin and disk-like body of continuous matrix material, and a microwave absorber material dispersed substantially uniformly in said matrix material, upon exposure of said utensil to microwave energy said microwave absorber material heating and transferring heat to said matrix material, said body defining a heat-transfer surface sized for conducting heat outwardly of the utensil to a central portion of a dinner plate or other food-service or preparation vessel without substantially heating a rim portion thereof and having a large ratio of heat-transfer surface area to volume.
A method of heating a dinner plate preparatory to the serving of food on the dinner plate for consumption, comprising the steps of:
- providing a microwave-absorbing member which is configured to contact a central food-contacting portion of the dinner plate;
- placing said microwave-absorbing member on the central food-contacting portion of the dinner plate,
- exposing the dinner plate and the microwave-absorbing member to microwave energy, using the microwave energy to heat the microwave-absorbing member and conducting heat from the microwave-absorbing member to the central food-contacting portion of the dinner plate to heat the latter;
- and
- maintaining a rim portion of the dinner plate substantially unheated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.