Food preparation and storage device
OwnerJeffrey A. Giacomelinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A food storage and preparation device (10, 50, 100, 200) is provided for more rapidly cooling or heating a mass of food or other product contained within a storage pan. The device includes a plurality of air contact fins (20) which rapidly convey heat to and from the ambient surrounding air and a plurality of food contact fins (22, 56, 106) which are inserted within the mass of food to increase the surface area of the food exposed to a heat transfer surface to more rapidly transfer heat to or from the mass of food.
Claims15
A method for rapidly changing the temperature of a mass of product, comprising the steps of:
- placing a plurality of input heat transfer elements within the mass of product;
- and
- exposing a plurality of output heat transfer elements in thermal contact with the plurality of input heat transfer elements to an ambient temperature environment to transfer thermal energy between the product mass and ambient temperature environment, heat flow being equally effective from the input heat transfer elements to the output heat transfer elements as from the output heat transfer elements to the input heat transfer elements to allow equally effective cooling or heating of the product mass.
A method for rapidly changing the temperature of a mass of product, comprising the steps of:
- placing a plurality of input heat transfer elements within the mass of product;
- exposing a plurality of output heat transfer elements in thermal contact with the plurality of input heat transfer elements to an ambient temperature environment to transfer thermal energy between the product mass and ambient temperature environment;
- and
- removing said plurality of input heat transfer elements from said plurality of output heat transfer elements to facilitate cleaning.
A method for rapidly changing the temperature of a mass of pre-cooked food, comprising the steps of:
- placing at least one input heat transfer element within the mass of pre-cooked food;
- and
- exposing at least one output heat transfer element in thermal contact with the at least one input heat transfer element to an ambient temperature environment to transfer thermal energy between the food and the ambient temperature environment so that the temperature of the food is changed 100 degrees F. within four hours, heat flow being equally effective from the input heat transfer element to the output heat transfer element as from the output heat transfer element to the input heat transfer element to allow equally effective cooling or heating of the food mass.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.