Abstract: An improved rotary retort for cooking food products in sealed containers. The retort comprises a vessel including a substantially cylindrical shell and a pair of heads respectively closing the ends of the shell. A support for carrying the sealed containers is rotatably mounted within the vessel. The support includes at least one U-shaped channel member having integral lips located on the upstanding portions of the U-shaped channel, whereby a plurality of sealed containers received in the channel are retained in the channel by the lips. The support is rotated in the vessel, and the interior of the vessel is selectively heated and cooled as the support is rotated to accomplish complete processing of the food products within the sealed containers.

Abstract: Control for a multiple batch process for preparing product from a plurality of constituent ingredients, in which an error in one batch from the multiple batch is equally divided over the subsequent batches so that all of the remaining portion of the multiple batch can be used and the resulting product is uniform. In the process of preparing product from a plurality of constituent ingredients, a batch of certain of such ingredients is mixed in a receptacle, sequentially divided into substantially equal portions and transported to an apparatus for combination with certain other of such ingredients for preparing the product. The error compensating control comprises an intermediate chamber in flow communication with the receptacle and the apparatus. A predetermined portion of the mixed batch is transferred from the receptacle to the intermediate chamber, where it is weighed, and then delivered to the apparatus.