Abstract: The present invention relates to a system for transferring sausage-shaped products, containing a flowable filling material in a tubular or bag-shaped packaging casing from a discharge device of a processing machine for processing the sausage-shaped products to a handling device for the sausage-shaped products.

Abstract: An apparatus for preparing a melon juice concentrate, such as watermelon juice concentrate, includes a finisher with brushes for separating melon flesh from melon rind including leaving at least 1/16 inch flesh on the rind and screens for separating juice from flesh. The apparatus also includes a steamer to reduce bacteria count on whole melon, a chopper for chopping melons into pieces less than about 16 inches square, an extractor for extracting juice from the flesh, and an evaporator for concentrating melon juice to form melon juice concentrate. The steamer includes a cylinder frame, steam jets directing steam through apertures in the cylinder frame at whole melon therein, and a motivator to move the whole melon along the cylinder frame. The apparatus can also process cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and other melon.

Abstract: The invention is directed to a food manufacturing apparatus comprising a feed system for inputting a plurality of materials, an extruder and a cutting assembly. The extruder comprises a pump system and a rotating extrusion die removably connected to the pump system, wherein the rotating extrusion die comprises at least one product channel for receiving and extruding the plurality of materials. The cutting assembly comprises at least one groove and a wire attached through the groove. The feed system is attached to the extruder and the cutting assembly is located at a position to cut the extruded plurality of materials with the wire from the rotating extrusion die.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for forming and baking an edible cone-shaped container, the container being of a bread dough provided with a light, flaky texture by the inclusion of solid flaked fat pieces in the dough mixture and the cone formed by an initial forming and cooking step followed by multiple baking steps.

Abstract: An apparatus for slicing and applying a spread packaged in a container onto a food item. The apparatus includes an applicating station for applying a pre-selected quantity of the spread onto the food item as the food item is moved therethrough. The apparatus further includes a pumping station in fluid communication with the applicating station for transporting the spread from the container to the applicating station. In one preferred embodiment, a loaf of bread is first sliced and thereafter split open about a hinge extending along the length of the loaf. A spread, e.g., a garlic/butter mixture, is then applied to the exposed bread surface.

Abstract: An apparatus for preparing tostones, referred to herein as a tostonera, has a base member with an upper surface including a plurality of concave recesses therein and a relatively planar bottom surface. A first press member is connected to the base member along a first periphery, and has a plurality of punches equal in number and co-located with the plurality of concave recesses. The first press member hingedly connected to the base member is capable of engaging the base member when pressure is applied to the first press member. A second press member hingedly connected to the base member along a second periphery, has at least one depression therein. The depression within the second press member may be configured to permit either a series of tostones or an entire half banana to be pressed at a single time.

Abstract: An improved bagel dough product and method for processing the bagel dough product into a finished bagel product, including thin bagel products. Mixed bagel dough is sheeted, the bagel dough including, per 100 parts of total weight: between 45-60 parts hard wheat flour and between 25-40 parts water. The bagel dough is flattened into a sheet with a thickness between about 0.2 and 0.8 inches. The flattened bagel dough sheet is fed to a cutter-picker assembly that includes an automated cutter and an automated hole removal tool. The bagel dough sheet is cut into a plurality of substantially toroidal-shaped bagel dough pieces using the automated cutter, each toroidal-shaped bagel dough piece including a ring piece and a hole piece. The bagel hole pieces are removed using the automated hole remover tool, and the ring pieces are further processed by fermenting, water cooking, and baking the ring pieces.

Abstract: Apparatus, methods and articles of manufacture are provided for cooking. A shell, made of high temperature material is disclosed for use in a frying apparatus. Thus, conductive heating and so cooking occurs on the food contained within the shell.

Abstract: A rolled shell and stuffer apparatus, particularly useful for deep frying, utilizes a number of structures which together provide the ability to quickly produce a large number of stuffed taquito type shells having high quality. The basic components of the system include a shell mold having an outer diameter of about 0.5 inches for example, formation mandrel, a rolling support, a frying support, a removal support, a stuffing system, and an optional handling tool. As will be seen, the degree of interrelatedness of these components can vary, but the result is a uniformity of high quality product which enables a wider range of food stuffing.

Abstract: For forming a ready-to-bake, endless dough ring, a dough piece is first round kneaded in a round-kneading station and then fermented in a fermenting station. In a pressure station, flattening pressure is exerted on two sides of the dough piece for a flat round piece to produce. After a relaxation interval, an inside hole is punched into the relaxed dough piece in a punching station, with a dough ring being obtained. The individual stations of a corresponding dough treatment system are connected to each other by means of a conveyor. Then secondary fermenting of the shaped dough ring takes place, which is followed by baking of a ring article. The result is an efficient method of forming a ready-to-bake, endless dough ring. Producing the baked ring article can be completely automated.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an automatic continuous dough frying unit for making deep-fried pastries having mechanisms for dispensing, transferring, turning and outputting the dough to be fried.

Abstract: The invention relates to a food cooking installation comprising numerous cooking tanks which are used to receive the food items to be cooked; means of loading/unloading the food items into/from said cooking tanks; and means of conveying, driving and storing liquids, which are used to connect a heated liquid container, a cooled liquid container and a piped water delivery point with the aforementioned cooking tanks. In this way, the tanks can be filled and emptied independently and the food items contained therein can be subjected to successive baths for different periods of time and at different temperatures, at least one of the baths being a cooking bath and the other a cooling bath. According to the Invention, each of the aforementioned cooking tanks comprises at least one lateral opening which is equipped with impervious sealing means and which is used to load/unload the food items using the above-mentioned loading/unloading means.

Abstract: Devices, systems and methods for thawing, heating and/or glazing previously frozen baked goods and other dough-based products, wherein the products can be thawed in an environment having a selected temperature and elevated humidity; the conveyor is configured to prevent early and excessive insertion of the products into the oven; the oven is configured to heat the products to greater than a selected surface temperature; and wherein the glazer is configured to apply glaze to the products when the surface temperature of the product is within a desired range.

Abstract: Provided is an apparatus for making a bread or cake product comprising two or more types of dough, wherein the dough are dispensed through a dispensing hole of a dough hopper having a dough container, and dough dispensing pistons, the method comprising substantially preventing the two or more doughs from commingling in the dough from the dough hopper.

Abstract: A machine for making cones from baked wafers utilizes roll-up mechanism in the form of a roll-up mandrel and a roll-up form. A multiplicity of such mechanisms is carried by a chain along an endless path. Each roll-up mechanism can have a frame on which the roll-up mandrel and roll-up form is mounted.

Abstract: A method for forming and baking food particles into a unified, shaped product, e.g., shaped like pizza, has heated top and bottom plates, the mating faces of which have recesses and protrusions for molding the desired shaped product. The bottom plate is in two parts that are abutted together when food particles are deposited thereon and during a baking period with the top plate placed thereon. After raising the top plate, the two bottom parts are moved apart to release the baked, shaped product. Cooked pasta, such as spaghetti, can be formed into a pizza-like shell.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for producing rolled wafer cones to be filled with ice-cream and frozen for storage. The process comprises pouring dough of high sugar content on an endless, heated baking surface, forming a strip of dough; baking the strip of dough into a thick, strip of wafer; compressing the strip of wafer and at the same time or afterwards, cutting the strip of wafer into individual pieces of wafer; and rolling the pieces of wafer into cones. An apparatus for carrying out the process is also disclosed.

Abstract: There is disclosed a multi-piece portable oven having an oven body (22), a baking mold (24), and a cover (28). Oven body (22) has and upwardly extending cylindrical sidewall (34) and a substantially flat bottom (32). Baking mold (24) has an upwardly extending cylindrical sidewall (38) and a substantially flat bottom wall (40) with an upwardly extending frusto-conical opening (44) at the center thereof. Baking mold (24) is placed inside oven body (22) for baking and steaming. Cover (28) has a circular configuration and downwardly extending peripheral edge (42) that is adapted to provide a tight fit over the baking mold (24) and oven body (22). The portable oven is adapted to be placed on top of a gas stove or electric range. The direct heat of the flame on the oven body will heat the air inside the portable oven and cause the food inside to be cooked or baked.

Abstract: A process for making bread is carried out in an apparatus which includes a kneader for kneading flour, yeast and water into dough and a pump for continuously feeding the mixed dough through flexible pipe to a cutting device which forms dough pieces. The apparatus also includes chains for transporting the dough pieces in receptacles along a sinuous path in a fermentation chamber to an oven where bread is formed. A solenoid valve is also included which injects water via tubular elements integrated with the kneader and pump to allow the dough to be more fluid. Water is again injected after delay to allow for self-cleaning of the pump and kneader. Water is also injected by a separate solenoid valve into the flexible pipe to clean such.

Abstract: A convertible gas fired or electrically heated donut cooking system is disclosed for automatic cooking of donuts featuring easy conversion from a gas fired embodiment using a low voltage battery operated controlled gas fired tube to an electric unit powered from ordinary household current for heating of the cooking oil. The electrically heated version replaces the gas fired tube and power inverter system with direct AC power supply and an electric immersion heater.

Abstract: A doughnut making machine and apparatus has a hopper for the dough of a type which exudes gluten or other sticky substances when compressed, the hopper terminates in a lower cylinder which co-acts with the cutting surfaces on a lower cutting piston. An extruding piston pushes the dough out between the cutting edge of the cylinder and the cutting piston and, thereafter, with retraction of the cutting piston, the dough is severed into a conventional toroidal shape and falls in cooking oil in a frying tank. Cooking oil from the frying tank is distributed onto the cutting edges of the piston and the cutting edge of the cylinder by various distribution techniques. Cooking oil is picked up from the frying tank using a dipstick and is transmitted to the dough cutting surfaces using gravity and capillary action.

Abstract: A doughnut making machine and apparatus has a hopper for the dough of a type which exudes gluten or other sticky substances when compressed, the hopper terminates in a lower cylinder which co-acts with the cutting surfaces on a lower cutting piston. An extruding piston pushes the dough out between the cutting edge of the cylinder and the cutting piston and, thereafter, with retraction of the cutting piston, the dough is severed into a conventional toroidal shape. Edible release oil is distributed onto the cutting edges of the piston and the cutting edge of the cylinder by various distribution techniques. The method by which doughnuts are extruded in a generally toroidal shape while distributing a film of edible release oil onto the dough cutting surfaces and then severing the formed toroidal shaped doughnut from the cutting surfaces whereby the doughnut contacts the release oil on the dough cutting surface and freely releases from the cylinder's cutting edge.

Abstract: A baking apparatus with a plurality of spaced-apart female molds, and a co-acting top tray provided with and equal plurality of hollow spikes adapted to extend downwardly into the female molds which produce an elongated cavity in a bread roll baked in the apparatus. The distance between the lower end of each spike and the lower end of an associated female mold is greater than the distance between the interior wall of the mold and outer wall of the spike with the first longitudinal cross-section of said female mold rounded at the closed end thereof and the second longitudinal cross-section, in a plane normal to the first longitudinal cross-section, is conical at the closed end.

Abstract: In an apparatus for making a rolled wafer cone from a baked flat wafer blank made from a sugar-containing wafer dough, the baked wafer blank is rolled to form a wafer cone in a winding mold while the wafer blank is still in a soft, deformable state after the baking operation. Thereafter the rolled wafer cone is permitted to harden. In order to ensure the production of wafer cones having consistently exactly the same shape, it is proposed that the wafer cone which is unrestrained at least in part is shortened in the winding mold to a predetermined length while the wafer cone is adapted to be plastically deformed. For this purpose the rolled wafer cone disposed in the winding mold is subjected to a plastic deformation only at one end or only at both ends.

Abstract: A miniature size doughnut fryer has a portable hopper easily removed from the frying machine and which is automatically positioned in an aligned cutting position when installed on the machine. An improved safety cut-out device is provided for a belt drive to assure that the doughnut conveyor stops in an overload condition but which signals the operator that the overload condition is existing. The drive and safety cut-out are provided housed within the heater housing adjacent the frying tank of the machine for ease of assembly and manufacturing cost. The heater element housing is mounted on pivots which allow easy pivotal removal of the heating elements from the frying tank as well as providing a wide stance support for the heating elements when pivoted out of the tank. The drive and control circuitry for the conveyor and the cutter head are interlocked to prevent repetitive cycling of the cutter head during a conveyor overload position. An improved dual head doughnut cutter is also provided.

Abstract: A fortune cookie making machine includes a first rotatable assembly having a number of griddles in which the cookie blanks are passed through an oven where they are baked. Thereafter a transfer mechanism strips the cookie blanks one at a time from the griddles and deposits them in a second assembly for stuffing and forming the cookies. In certain embodiments of the invention the second assembly is also rotatable. In the second assembly, a paper slip bearing the fortune message is deposited on the blank, and then the cookie blank is folded and allowed to cool to form the final desired shape. After the cookie is fully formed, it is removed from the second assembly.

Abstract: Apparatus for producing a tubular centerfilled food product having a rigid, friable baked outer shell and a core of edible filling material by a continuous, straight-through process. A semi-liquid batter having a relatively high content of mono-and/or disaccharides is carried between a pair of spaced apart heated moving surfaces and baked to form a continuous, elongated flat thermoplastic sheet having a controlled thickness. The continuous thermoplastic sheet is rolled around its longitudinal axis while warm and pliable to form a continuous tube having a closed longitudinal, non-overlapping seam. As the baked sheet is rolled around its longitudinal axis, a viscous edible filling material is injected into the core of the continuous tube as it is formed. The filled tube is cooled until the outer shell becomes rigid and is then cut into pieces of a desired length.

Abstract: The apparatus for making a filled tubular food product in which tubular dough pieces are extruded onto a supporting die member which maintains the internal diameter of the cavity in the dough piece fixed during raising and baking after which the cavity in the baked dough piece is filled with another relatively softer food product.

Abstract: A portable device for making donuts and the like which includes a batter extruder, a cooking scroll into which the extruded batter is received, a heating element underlying the scroll for heating the cooking medium introduced therein for cooking the extruded batter, a circulation pump for circulating the cooking medium in which the extruded batter is carried through the scroll, a temperature regulator for regulating the temperature of the cooking medium in the scroll, a flow controller for controlling the flow of cooking medium through the scroll, and a conveyor for evacuating the finished product from the scroll. The extruder and flow controller are synchronized, whereby a continuous stream of raw batter may be introduced into the cooking medium and cooked therein.

Abstract: Doughnut frying apparatus has a conveyor extending lengthwise of the hot oil tank and provided with transverse flights with its upper course disposed to carry floating doughnuts from a transverse pickup zone near the infeed or rear end of the tank towards the outfeed end thereof. Successive series of uncooked doughnuts are delivered into the tank in a transverse receiving zone spaced rearwardly of the pickup zone. Means are employed to enable the interval between the delivery of successive series to be minimized by circulating hot oil to provide a stream flowing upwardly through the receiving zone and into the pickup zone preferably also with an air stream directed close to but above the surface of the oil and forwardly through the delivery zone.

Abstract: A donut making appliance includes upper and lower electrically heated grids movable into and out of mating engagement along first surfaces. Each of the first surfaces of the grids includes a predeterminedly placed annular recess having a central core. Upon bringing the grids into engagement, the recesses are aligned to define a toroidally shaped cavity in which cake or the like batter is placed for baking donut shaped cakes. The central core of the lower grid defines a well preferably having the shape of a truncated cone, open at the first surface of the grid. The central core of the upper grid comprises a plunger having a shape complementary to that of the well and extending outwardly from the first surface of the grid, for receipt in the well upon engagement of the grids. The plunger-well arrangement ensures the alignment of the recesses and the displacement of cooking oil deposited in the well upon bringing the grids into engagement.

Abstract: A machine comprising means for continuous extruding a strand of sausages surrounded by a covering of a pre-made dough, cutting the strand into portions of predetermined length, supporting cut off portions and transferring the same for frying, frying the cut off portions in oil and removing the fried portions in timed sequence with cutting towards a container for the finished product, and a food product comprising fried dough-enclosed sausages produced by the machine.

Abstract: A dough dispensing device and support is illustrated including a rotatable molding means having axially spaced dough receiving cavities formed therein with a stationary separator therebetween to facilitate rapid dispensing of molded dough configurations. A support for the dough dispenser has a pair of pivotal connections between the dough dispenser and a stationary support surface so that the dough dispenser may be maneuvered upwardly for clearing the side of a cooking compartment to which the dough is to be dispensed and subsequently pivoted to a lowered position closely above the surface of the cooking medium contained in the cooking compartment for safely and rapidly dispensing a plurality of dough masses without splashing of the cooking medium.

Abstract: The input section of apparatus for use in the continuous production of dough of either one of two types has a blender into which the dry material for either type of dough is metered. First and second oil containers, a water container and a container for a yeast solution each have an outlet conduit in communication with the blender and provided with a precision pump and the water and the yeast solution are refrigerated. The outlet conduits of the containers have precision pumps and are arranged so that with either dry material, the appropriate liquids are delivered to the blender in the same relationship to the dry materials.

Abstract: Flat circular wafers are folded into the shape characteristic of fortune cookies in a machine which includes a turntable whereon a flat wafer is located and carried to a predetermined position, a reciprocating plunger operable to press the wafer through a pair of gates which define a slot below the predetermined position thereby to make a first fold in the wafer along its diameter so that it has a semicircular shape, two pairs of pincers which grasp the once-folded wafer at opposite ends of the first fold line, and means to operate the pincer pairs to move toward one another to bring the midpoint of the first fold line against a stationary edge and to make the second fold over that edge, and a pair of juxtaposed endless belts that grip the twice-folded wafer on edge therebetween and carry it to discharge. Also, a device is described for laying a fortune slip on the flat wafer after it is located on the turntable.