Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for cooking and indicating the doneness of food products immersed in a hot liquid cooking medium such as deep hot fat. An indicator circuit that cooperates with an acoustic detector produces a first control signal indicating that acoustic activity in the cooking medium has fallen to below a threshold level for a predetermined first period of time, and afterwards produces a second control signal correlated to the doneness of the cooked food product a predetermined second period of time following said predetermined first period of time.

Abstract: Skin is removed from an edible material by passing the edible material through a skin removal zone of an ablative removal apparatus. In the skin removal zone, skin is ablatively removed by the action of a continuous wave carbon dioxide laser beam which rapidly traverses the skin removal zone in a direction substantially transverse to the edible material movement. The edible material may be skinned regardless of whether it is fresh, frozen, thawed, or cooked. Skin vaporized by the laser light beam generates a gaseous plume which is removed from the skin removal zone by causing a current of air to traverse that zone.