Abstract: A method for roasting legumes such as soybeans to enhance their nutritional properties. Raw legumes are introduced to a roaster having an oven section and a steeping section downstream of the oven section. The raw legumes are heated to a selected roasting temperature in the oven section as they are moved through the oven section to and through the steeping section. Throughout the passage of the legumes through the oven and steeping sections the legumes are mixed continuously.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for cutting a vegetable, such as a potato, into pieces suitable for the preparation of cottage-fried, french-fried, and shoestring potatoes, has a plurality of vertically arranged propelling units, each of which has a plurality of wheels having their peripheries adjacent but spaced from one another so as to define a path along which such vegetable may travel through successive propelling units and be accelerated to a speed at which it will pass through a cutter having blades which cut the vegetable into pieces.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for roasting legumes such as soybeans to enhance their nutritional properties. Raw legumes are introduced to a roaster having an oven section and a steeping section downstream of the oven section. The raw legumes are heated to a selected roasting temperature in the oven section as they are moved through the oven section to and through the steeping section. Throughout the passage of the legumes through the oven and steeping sections the legumes are mixed continously.

Abstract: A furnace having a fuel hopper in communication with a combustion chamber provided with an inclined, fuel-supporting grate. A rotary, flexible feed arm composed of a helically coiled wire serves to feed fuel from the hopper on to the grate. A draft is induced through the combustion chamber and passes through the grate and fuel supported thereon.

Abstract: Packaged foodstuffs are cooked by introducing them into a pressure retort comprising a cylindrical vessel closed at one end and provided at its other end with a closure movable between open and closed positions. Within the vessel is a hollow housing having longitudinally extending walls defining therebetween a cooking chamber and forming passages between the housing and the vessel, the housing having at one end a transverse partition confronting end spaced from the closed end of the vessel to provide a compartment between the housing and the closed end of the vessel. The cooking chamber is adapted to accommodate foodstuffs carried by supports such as carts. Cooking is accomplished by introducing steam or hot water into the cooking chamber and maintaining therein an elevated temperature for the time necessary to cook the foodstuffs.