Abstract: An apparatus for rapidly cooking meat products for a quick service restaurant which will simulate the appearance of an open flame broiled meat product. The meat product is clamped between a grill and a series of raised crown portions formed in the bottom of a cooking pan. The cooking pan also includes rounded depressions which alternate with the upraised crowns to serve as reservoirs for the collection of fat and other rendered meat juices. The clamping action between the grill and the pan flattens the meat product having a range of product weight to a uniform thickness while simultaneously assuring conductive heat transfer from the crowns to the meat. The grill is pre-coated with a carmelizing agent which leaves grill marks on the meat product during the cooking cycle.

Abstract: A method of extending the holding time for a cooked food under specified conditions of temperature and high relative humidity, and more specifically, a method of significantly extending the holding time for cooked chicken products for an additional period through controlling of the environment or atmosphere within a holding chamber without encountering any appreciable loss in the organoleptic, olfactory or textured qualities of the food. The chicken product is maintained in a holding chamber in an environment or atmosphere at carefully controlled dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures under conditions of a high relative humidity.

Abstract: The specification discloses an apparatus for rapidly cooking meat products for a quick service restaurant which will simulate the appearance of an open flame broiled meat product. The meat product is clamped between a grill and a series of raised crown portions formed in a cooking pan. The cooking pan also includes rounded depressions which alternate with the upraised crowns to serve as reservoirs for the collection of fat and other rendered meat juices. The clamping action between the grill and the pan compresses the meat product having a range of product weight to a uniform thickness while simultaneously assuring conductive heat transfer from the crowns to the meat and radiant heat from the black body pan to the meat. The grill is pre-coated with a carmelizing agent which leaves grill marks on the meat product during the cooking cycle.

Abstract: The specification discloses an apparatus for rapidly cooking meat products for a quick service restaurant which will simulate the appearance of an open flame broiled meat product. The meat product is clamped between a grill and a series of raised crown portions formed in the bottom of a cooking pan. The cooking pan also includes rounded depressions which alternate with the upraised crowns to serve as reservoirs for the collection of fat and other rendered meat juices. The clamping action between the grill and the pan flattens the meat product having a range of product weight to a uniform thickness while simultaneously assuring conductive heat transfer from the crowns to the meat. The grill is pre-coated with a carmelizing agent which leaves grill marks on the meat product during the cooking cycle.

Abstract: A system for controlling energization of an electrical resistance heater disposed in heat exchanging relation with a food cooking medium includes a signal generator providing an output signal of amplitude-time character defining a preselected cooking cycle, an element in the cooking medium providing a control signal indicative of cooking medium temperature and circuitry interconnecting an electrical voltage supply with the heater for excitation thereof responsively to both the control signal and the signal generator output signal.

Abstract: A preselected volume of a liquified cooking medium is supplied to a continuous-flow system serving a cooking chamber. In the course of heating the supplied cooking medium prior to the cooking cycle, an overflow device is operative to remove that volume of the thus expanded cooking medium in excess of the preselected volume. On commencement of the cooking cycle, the overflow device is rendered inoperative.