Abstract: Apparatus for cooking meat patties and the like including a pair of opposing heat transfer plates having inner cooking faces for holding the patties therebetween and an outer heat receptor portion for receiving heat such as from the surrounding fat in a deep-fat cooker. Securing the plates a predetermined distance apart corresponding to the thickness of the meat pattie. Adjustably connecting the plates together to compress the uncooked meat pattie and/or to compress the meat pattie as it is being cooked. Providing a stack of heat transfer plates which form a series of vertically spaced compartments, with alternate compartments being used for holding a meat pattie, and the interstitial compartments receiving the heat source medium such as fat.

Abstract: A cup and cover turnover mechanism for muffin grilling griddles having a cup flight which straddle mounts spaced roller chains of a cover and hearth flight, wherein the conveying chains of each of said flights engage identical sprockets which mount for rotation about the turnover axis of the griddle and coordinate each cup thereon in fixed relation with a cover as the muffin is bottom-grilled and turned over on the pitch circles of said sprockets for top-grilling on the hearth flight of the griddle.

Abstract: A cooking device including an open topped vessel having a prismatic form and a polygonal base which is mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis parallel to its length. Motor means for oscillating the vessel in a rocking motion about the axis and a heat source is fixedly mounted above the vessel.

Abstract: A cylindrical drum and a roller are mounted for rotation with their respective axes horizontal. The periphery of the roller is adjacent to that of the drum and has one or more recesses of constant depth. The drum and the roller are rotated at the same peripheral speed. A farinaceous paste, supplied to the periphery of the roller in a zone remote from the drum, is repeatedly taken up by the recess or recesses and is transferred to the drum in the form of portions, which may be interconnected. The paste on the drum is heated, so that it is at least partially cooked to pastry, and the pastry is removed from the drum.

Abstract: A continuous griddle comprising a cover/hearth plate chain web which transports muffin covers in the forward direction and doubles as hearth plates when inverted and moved in the backward direction, and a cup chain web which transports cup flights in coordinate over/under relation with said cover flights and said hearth flights in both forward and backward directions. Lift tracks under said cover flight cooperate with said cup plate web to lift the cups against the covers to flatten the muffin tops during grilling of the muffin. Cover and cup flight turnover means invert said cups and said covers in coordinate relation one to the other with the muffin contained therein during reversal of direction. Hearth plate lowering and cup flight lift tracks over and under said hearth flights and cup flights cooperate with said cover/hearth plate web and said cup plate web, respectively, to withdraw the muffins from said cups without damage thereto.

Abstract: A device for cooking meatballs has a frame supporting an open-ended drum for rotation on the frame about a substantially horizontal axis. The drum is open at both its inlet end and its outlet end and has for part of its length an outer wall together with the inner wall forming a jacket. Heating oil is brought into the jacket through an axial rotary joint and discharged from the jacket through a similar axial rotary joint. Within the drum is a plurality of helical fins spaced apart circumferentially. The fins are of a sufficient height to propel axially of the drum meatballs introduced thereto through the inlet end and to carry the meatballs to the outlet end for discharge therethrough. Extending axially a short distance away from the inner wall and preferably carried by adjacent portions of the fins are tumbling bars. These are effective to lift and release the meatballs.

Abstract: A cooking device for quickly and uniformly cooking food products, especially meat products, and for warming rolls and other bread products.

Abstract: A pancake or crepe making machine which comprises a support structure movably mounted on a griddle.The support structure includes a pair of spaced-apart end members rigidly interconnected by a plurality of laterally extending, spaced-apart members. A lower laterally extending member supports at least one dispenser for dispensing dough onto a surface of a griddle. An upper laterally extending member supports means for actuating the at least one dispenser. Means are provided for advancing the support structure along a length of a griddle on which the support structure is movably mounted. A spreader and leveller means is mounted on the support structure, the spreader and leveller means extending between the spaced apart end members. The spreader means includes a blade, a lower edge of which is spaced slightly above a surface of the griddle.

Abstract: A cooker for meatballs and the like has a semi-cylindrical trough mounted on a frame for rotation about its own substantially horizontal but slightly inclined axis. The trough is rocked to and fro by a controlled driving device to swing between extreme positions and optionally to stop between the extreme positions. The trough has a meatball inlet at one end and a meatball outlet at the other end. Between those ends the trough has interrupted, interior, helical vanes staggered with respect to each other on opposite sides of the center of the trough to impell the meatballs from one end to the other as the trough rocks. The trough includes a jacket having inlet and outlet connections for heating oil and may also have radiant heaters directed toward the inside of the trough.

Abstract: An apparatus for use with a crepe pan for making crepes or the like, the apparatus generally comprising a pan support frame for supporting the crepe pan and means for moving the pan support frame in a first direction to a handling position where the pan is adjacent to a heating unit, and in a second direction to a cooking position where the pan is astride the heating unit, the pan support frame being maintained in the handling position for a first predetermined time and in the cooking position for a second predetermined time.

Abstract: A meatball cooker has a frame on which a pair of generally cylindrical rollers are mounted alongside each other to extend horizontally with their axes parallel to each other. At least one of the rollers, and preferably both, includes a helical groove concentric with the respective axis, the groove being of a character to engage the customary meatball. The rollers are heated internally, and preferably externally also, and are rotated relative to each other about their respective axes and preferably in the same directions with the helical grooves of the same hand to advance and turn the meatballs. There is an enclosure around the rollers and a grease pan beneath. Conveniently there is a feeding chute for introducing the meatballs to the device and a receiving chute for carrying away processed meatballs.

Abstract: A hamburger patty and bun cooker has a frame supporting a pair of vertically spaced, relatively flat, horizontal heated platens. One run of an endless conveyor on said frame travels through the space between the platens to advance hamburger patties through such space. At least one of the platens is provided with a low-friction layer between it and an advancing patty. The layer is constituted by jets of hot air discharged over the platen surface or by a Teflon-coated thin, metal foil sheet or by a Teflon-carrying thin, fiber glass sheet, the sheets being readily changeable. Bun portions for the individual patties are advanced on the same frame in paths parallel to the hamburger patties by comparable endless conveyors and are heated by individual platens on the frame as the bun portions advance.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for applying a cooking mix to the rotary cooking drum of an automatic machine for making pancakes or the like by means of a continuously rotating paste-entraining roller partly immersed to a substantially constant depth in a mix tank, the film of mix being entrained by adhesion on the surface of the roller and contacting movable means for partly retaining this film, resulting in the formation of a bead of mix which touches lightly upon the surface of the cooking drum and thus coats it.

Abstract: A pancake-making machine (for baking French-type pancakes or "crepes") has a drum rotatable by a drive motor via heat-resistant synthetic-resin gears on its ends. A transfer roller carried on a batter trough is displaceable toward and away from the drum by a handle which controls the drive motor to arrest both the drum and the transfer roller when the two are pulled apart. The transfer roller forms a layer of batter on the drum which is heated by an internal electric heating element supplied with current through axially extending copper sleeves at its ends. The handle is a bent wire pivoted at each end in a slot in the machine housing and latchingly engageable against the displaceable trough. A thermistor imbedded in the drum adjacent the surface thereof is connected via an electronic circuit to a triac in series with the heating element to control the drum heating. A wire stretched tight between two support arms serves to strip the baked pancake from the drum.

Abstract: A sliding patty griller has a frame on which are horizontally mounted a lower heated platen and an upper heated platen parallel to each other and partially overlapped in plan. A conveyor slides patties first over the lower platen, then between the two platens and finally under the upper platen. The patties are supported, when off the lower platen but still under the upper platen, on a bar grid providing drainage. The conveyor has cross bars acting as pushers and in one instance the bars are scalloped to conform to the trailing wall of each patty. Weight bars over the initial portion of the lower platen hold the patties thereon in close contact therewith.

Abstract: Solar cooking apparatus is provided with a frame or base readily movable to locate the apparatus in a favorable exposure to the sun and embodies an oven provided with mirrors or reflectors arranged to direct the suns rays onto a food support or the like positioned within the oven. The oven itself is tiltable on the frame to follow the sun from morning to evening whereas the food support is movable within the oven to permit it to maintain a horizontal position in any tilted position of the oven.

Abstract: A pancake-making machine (for baking French-type pancakes or "crepes") has a drum rotatable by a drive motor via heat-resistant synthetic-resin gears on its ends. A transfer roller carried on a batter trough is displaceable toward and away from the drum by a handle which controls the drive motor to arrest both the drum and the transfer roller when the two are pulled apart. The transfer roller forms a layer of batter on the drum which is heated by an internal electric heating element supplied with current through axially extending copper sleeves at its ends. The handle is a bent wire pivoted at each end in a slot in the machine housing and latchingly engageable against the displaceable trough. A thermistor imbedded in the drum adjacent the surface thereof is connected via an electronic circuit to a triac in series with the heating element to control the drum heating. A wire stretched tight between two support arms serves to strip the baked pancake from the drum.