METHOD FOR SLICING TENDERS
A method of processing a jumbo tender of a meat tender or poultry breast into strips having a desired weight and thickness with minimal losses requires two diagonal cuts across and through the jumbo to yield three portions which are substantially the same in weight and thickness.
This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/782,322 filed on Mar. 1, 2013 which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/662,564 filed on Jun. 21, 2012, both of which are relied upon and incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to the field of food preparation and more particularly to the preparation of poultry strips or tenders. In greater particularity the present invention relates to a method of slicing tenders to achieve the maximum number of substantially equal sized tenders.
Food safety guidelines call for cooking poultry products to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165° F. (about 74° C.) and cooking most beef, pork and other red meats, other than organ meats, the a safe minimum internal temperature of 145° F. (about 63° C.) as measured using a food thermometer. Typically, such temperature measurements are taken at the thickest portion of the poultry or meat product. However, poultry products such as chicken or turkey breasts or tenders and beef or pork tenderloins can have irregular shapes which often vary in thickness. As referred to herein, tenders will encompass any meat products which have these irregular or tear drop shapes. The term tender may refer to a product which has not been sliced into smaller portions or the resulting smaller portions. The term jumbo or jumbo tender, as used herein, refers to a meat product that will be reduced in size as by slicing in accordance with the disclosed method.
As a result of the irregularities in shape, some portions of the poultry or meat may be over cooked while other portions may be undercooked resulting in a food product that is less palatable. Additionally, due to variations in thickness cooking times may be prolonged or extended in order to achieve the safe minimum internal cooking temperatures. Such prolonged cooking times may also result in a meat or poultry product having a less palatable texture or taste due to loss of moisture and/or degradation of the proteins.
Referring to
It is an object of the present invention to facilitate the processing of meat and poultry products into strips or tenders that are uniform in thickness. The forgoing object of the invention furthers yet another of object of the invention which is to insure the proper cooking of tenders on the basis of the time the tenders are cooked. The aforesaid objects facilitate the further object of avoiding sickness from undercooked poultry. Yet another object of the invention is to reduce the amount of waste meat and poultry created with traditional methods of processing the breast meat.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention.
The method for processing tenders is depicted in the accompanying drawings which form a portion of this disclosure and wherein:
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The savings in waste of the new method is significant. The jumbo's used to create the tenders as shown in the prior art FIG.'s 1 to 3 and in the present embodiment shown on
Claims
1. A method for slicing a portion of an irregularly shaped meat product having one substantially flat side and an opposing side which varies in thickness from the substantially flat side into a group of substantially uniform strips comprising the steps of:
- a. placing the meat product on a cutting surface with the substantially flat side of the meat product down against the cutting surface;
- b. slicing across and through the meat product along a first diagonal line from near the thickest section of the meat product so as to remove from the meat product a strip of meat having the desired characteristic weight and thickness;
- c. slicing across and through the meat product along a second diagonal line beginning at substantially the thickest portion of the meat product and extending substantially parallel said first diagonal line, to yield a second strip of meat from the meat product, said second strip also having the desired characteristic and weight and thickness, and a residual meat portion.
2. A method for slicing a meat product as defined in claim 1 further comprising trimming said residual meat portion to yield a strip of meat having substantially the same thickness as said first and second strips of meat.
3. A method for slicing a meat product as defined in claim 1 wherein thickness of a strip of meat produced by the method is always measured on the thickest portion of the strip, as the strip is lying flat with the longest dimension as the length, the second largest dimension as the width, and the smallest dimension as the thickness.
4. A method for slicing a meat product as defined in claim 3 wherein the second diagonal line is spaced from the first diagonal line a distance substantially the same as the thickness of the strip of meat removed in the first slicing step.
5. A method for slicing a meat product as defined in claim 4 further comprising trimming said residual meat portion to yield a strip of meat having substantially the same thickness as said first and second strips of meat.
6. A method for slicing a meat product as defined in claim 4 wherein the meat product is a poultry breast.
7. A method for slicing a meat product as defined in claim 5 wherein the step of slicing along said first diagonal line yields a strip of meat having a thickness of between about 0.30 to about 0.60 inches.
8. A method for slicing a meat product as defined in claim 6 wherein the step of slicing along said first diagonal line yields a strip of meat having weight between about 20 and about 27 grams.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 3, 2015
Publication Date: Jun 30, 2016
Inventors: Mike Ensley (Epworth, GA), Andres Garcia (Gainesville, GA), Gordon Tatro (Gainesville, GA), Michael Sheets (Dawsonville, GA), Mark Sosebee (Gainesville, GA)
Application Number: 14/958,297