Oven including smoking assembly in combination with one or more additional food preparation assemblies
AssigneeAlto-Shaam, Inc.
InventorsJanus Bartelick, William J. Hansen, Patrick A. Willis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An oven is disclosed having a first food preparation apparatus in the form of a convection heat source and/or a steam production assembly and/or a radiating heat source, and a second food preparation apparatus in the form of a smoking assembly. The oven can operate at least one of the food preparation apparatus simultaneously with the smoking assembly or separately from the smoking assembly.
Claims12
A combination oven capable of preparing food product, the combination oven comprising:
- a heating cavity defining an interior including an apparatus for supporting food product disposed therein;
- a door providing selective access to the interior;
- a first food preparation assembly comprising a steam assembly selectively providing steam into the interior to prepare food and a heat assembly selectively heating the interior to prepare food using at least one of radiating heat and forced air convection, the heat assembly comprising a heating element disposed in the heating cavity and an air mover capable of forcing incoming air across the heating element to produce heated air that is delivered to the interior of the heating cavity, the steam assembly comprising a steam producing assembly capable of delivering liquid across the heating element that transforms the liquid into steam that is delivered to the interior of the heating cavity;
- and
- a smoking assembly selectively delivering smoke into the interior independently of the first food preparation assembly;
- and a drain system configured to drain liquids produced during food preparation from the interior while preventing gasses from escaping from the interior when the interior is pressurized below a threshold pressure.
A method of preparing a food product in an combination oven having a heating cavity defining an interior including an apparatus for supporting food product disposed therein, a first food preparation assembly comprising a steam assembly operable to prepare raw food using steam and a heating assembly operable to prepare raw food using at least one of radiating heat and forced air convection, the heat assembly including a heating element disposed in the heating cavity, and a smoking assembly extending into the interior and configured to deliver smoke to the interior, the combination oven configured to operate the smoking assembly independent of the first food preparation assembly, the steps comprising:
- enclosing the food product in the interior of the heating cavity;
- heating the food product using a food preparation process comprising by operating at least one of the steam assembly and the heating assembly;
- selectively operating the smoking assembly at one of at the same time as the first food preparation process and at a different time than the first food preparation process;
- and
- draining liquids produced during food preparation from the interior while preventing gasses from escaping from the interior when the interior is pressurized below a threshold pressure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.