Abstract: The invention is an improvement of the filter unit in beverage makers. Said filter unit comprises a filter insert and a filter lock, can be placed as a whole onto and removed from the brewing container, and at the same time ensures good sealing of all components. For improved handling, the brewing chamber can be filled and closed outside of the beverage-maker, wherein the particularly large depth of the filter insert offers significant assistance. Closing the brewing chamber by means of the filter closure prevents the beverage base material from oozing out due to a ring engaging in the filter insert and additionally ensures its adequate sealing. By widening the brewing chamber, the beverage-making machine provides a consistent quality of the beverages with of different fill levels.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a ham stand which allows the quickly and easily inverting the position of a piece of ham once it is no longer possible to continue cutting a side thereof, without the need of having to remove and once again place the piece of ham in the ham stand, further allowing to maintain a boneless piece of ham as a rigid block, for which purpose it comprises a main bar (1) configured for being supported in a substantially horizontal position by a first support (2) and a second support (3), where said main bar (1) is configured for being integrally fixed to a side of a piece of ham and rotated about its own axis occupying two stable angular positions spaced at least 180° from one other.

Abstract: According to the invention, in a method of preparing a sandwich by introducing a filling between two mutually-facing portions of a piece of bread, the following operations are performed: placing a filling on a filling support dish; placing the dish with the filling on a tilting dish support fitted with a pusher or a handle; engaging the top and bottom portions of the piece of bread or dough product on either side of the pivot axis of the dish support; actuating the pusher or the handle to cause the dish support to tilt together with the dish towards a space for filling as defined by said top and bottom portions of the piece of bread or dough product so as to obtain an angle of inclination for the dish that is suitable for causing the filling to slide off the dish into the space for filling, while retaining the dish on the dish support.

Abstract: The invention concerns a multilayer food product and a method for obtaining a multilayer food product. The product includes at least one lower layer and one upper layer of thermally stable food components, wherein the lower layer has a lower viscosity and the upper layer has a uniform distribution.

Abstract: This invention refers to a machine for the cutting and extraction of the stem of vegetables with tree-like structure and the cutting and extraction method of the stem with this machine which provides pieces branched into different sizes of the edible part of the vegetable. The machines is characterized by being constituted by at least one tray in which the vegetable to be cut is deposited which slides along a horizontal structure and by several vertical slide guides with several cutting devices for the separation of the useful tree-like material, a cutting device for the division of the stem into pieces and a cutting device for the separation of the stem from the edible part. It can be additionally equipped with knives arranged radially on the cutting head for the division of the tree-like material into portions.

Abstract: A square shaped cake removal having four outer edges of approximately twelve (12) inches in length and formed of a single piece of material with a uniform thickness throughout of approximately ½ inch to 1 full inch. The material further including a centrally located aperture cut into and through the plate, the centrally located aperture also square in shape and having four inner edges, each of a preferred length of approximately two to two and one-half (2 to 2½) inches on all four sides.

Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for producing a rolled snack piece using an extruder having typically a plurality of orifices through which an extrudate exits the extruder. Each of these orifices is spiral shaped. When a desired length of extrudate stream or rope protrudes from an orifice, it is cut at its base, thus producing individual snack pieces that appear to have been rolled after being sheeted.

Abstract: An apparatus for warming one or more tortillas or other flat foods is disclosed. A round top pan and a round bottom pan each have a flat, circular base portion defined by an interior and an exterior flat surface. The base portions are surrounded by an integral curved rim portion that extends to one side of the base portion and terminates in an annular symmetrical lip. The base and rim portions, together, define a heating space therebetween, and the pans are positionable with lips in mutual contact in a closed orientation. The pans are hinged together so that the top pan is rotatable into an open orientation about a hinge. Each pan includes a handle portion that, when the pans are brought into the closed position, together form a handle structure suitable for gripping.

Abstract: A food flipping assembly (4), used to automatically flip food 180.degree. while cooking, includes a frame (16) having cam-carrying U-shaped arms (24, 25), and a pair of movable support plates (38) slidably mounted to the U-shaped arms for movement between first and second elevations. A food carrier (20) is pivotally mounted to the support plates for movement about a horizontal axis (22). A food carrier rotator (58) is mounted to the food carrier and has drive elements (60, 63) which engage cam surfaces (64, 66) carried by the arms. Movement of the food carrier from the first elevation to an intermediate elevation does not cause the food carrier to rotate; movement from the intermediate elevation to the second elevation causes the drive elements to engage the cam surfaces thus rotating the food carrier about 135.degree.. Lowering of the food carrier back onto the cooking surface causes the food carrier to complete its 180.degree. rotation.

Abstract: A method and device for baking dough or batter comprising at least two heatable plates, each of them having a top side, wherein the dough or batter is automatically put on the first and second heated plates for making pastries, pancakes and the like. The method is characterized in that the dough or the batter is baked on its one side on the top side of the first plate whereafter the partly baked dough or batter, is transferred to the second plate and is baked on its other side. The pastry/pancake, completely baked on the second plate is pivotably transferred to a laying off place. Using the device, a plurality of pastries, pancakes, and the like can be automatically and systematically produced.

Abstract: A trash receptacle tray support configured and capable of supporting a tray for use in emptying contents of a tray into a trash receptacle. A tray support having a hinged attachment for pivoting a supported tray toward a trash receptacle so that trash is directed into a trash receptacle. A method of emptying trash into a trash receptacle from a tray by use of a pivoting trash receptacle tray support with directing means for guiding trash into a trash receptacle.

Abstract: A turner arm assembly for a doughnut fryer has a pivot axle on one end that is provided with a hardened ball mounted in a cylindrical hardened bearing of the sidewall of a conveyor assembly. In an alternative form a straight diameter pivot axle is provided in a crowned internal diameter of the hardened bearing. The opposite end of the turner arm assembly is drivingly connected to a drive axle fixed to a cam. A removable stop prevents the pivot axle from moving outwardly of the sidewall of the conveyor assembly. The turner arm assembly is removed by moving the stop, shifting the turner arm axially until the turner arm is free of the drive axle, then sliding the turner arm back inwardly of the sidewall of the conveyor assembly while the pivot axle connection with the sidewall of the conveyor assembly gives complete free movement of upward pivotal movement of the turner arm to clear the opposite end of the turner arm over the sidewall for removal.

Abstract: An apparatus for use in releasing a fragile food product which has become stuck to a support surface as a result of a prior processing operation, and for transferring the released food product from the support surface in an orderly fashion so that the food product can be further processed and the support surface returned for reuse. In a preferred embodiment, a releasing roller having flexible rubber projections thereon rotates below a tray which supports strips of an extruded meat product stuck to the tray, with the projections extending upwardly through apertures in the tray to gently contact the underside of the meat strip. A back-up roller above the tray and offset horizontally from the releasing roller restrains the trays and strips from moving upwardly, thereby cooperating with the releasing roller to free the adhered food product.

Abstract: A machine for processing pod vegetables including a frame. A generally horizontal outer drum is rotatably mounted on the frame and is adapted to contain the pod vegetables being processed. The outer drum has an inwardly presented working surface adapted to interact with the pod vegetables to process them, the working surface having an ascending side and a descending side as the outer drum rotates. An inner drum is rotatably mounted on the frame, the longitudinal axis of the inner drum being oriented parallel to the longitudinal axis of the outer drum. The inner drum is adapted to rotate in the same direction as and at a higher rate of rotation than the outer drum, the inner drum having an outer surface.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for draining and expunging excess oil from delicate pizza crusts which have been fried in oil, adapted for association with discharge mechanism of a crust fryer, functioning in cooperation therewith to receive, drain, and manipulatively reposition the crusts for packing into shipping cartons. Crusts discharged from the fryer at the infeed end fall into slots formed by adjacent vertical flights provided at spaced intervals on an inclined drain conveyor. The delicate crusts are held against deformation in upright position by the flights during their traverse of the conveyor length thus allowing for dripping drainage of oil from their respective surfaces. The oil so drained is collected in a drain pan positioned beneath the conveyor and at an angle sloping towards the frying mechanism at the infeed end of the conveyor. Oil collected by the drain pan is thus directed into an associated catch tank for subsequent return to the fryer.

Abstract: Multi-cavity molds coact with respective table elements forming a drainage table. Between each mold and the corresponding table element is a connecting means allowing the mold to slide between a normal cheese-draining position against the table element and a cleaning position spaced from the table element. The connecting means include abutments limiting said sliding of the mold and on which the mold is supported in said cleaning position thereof.

Abstract: A bean snipper having an annular drum including openings in the drum of a size to receive beans and to permit only the ends of the beans to protrude outwardly from the outer surface of the drum, knives held in contiguous relationship to the outer surface of the drum for snipping the protruding ends of the beans, an orienter consisting of a plurality of circular discs mounted perpendicularly on a shaft having its axis substantially parallel to the axis of the drum, and a motor for driving the discs and the drum in the same direction, the discs being spaced apart a distance less than the length of the beans and being located in the lower portion of the drum adjacent the downwardly moving side thereof for tending to cause the beans to be oriented with their axes extending perpendicularly to the axis of the drum to thereby increase the probability that the ends of the beans will enter the openings in the drum, and a plurality of parallel annular plates extending inwardly from the inner surface of the drum in subs

Abstract: As a plurality of rows of baked cookie halves, each having a flat side and a rounded side, leave the oven-cooler on a transfer conveyor belt they are allowed to fall off the end of the belt onto a lower conveyor belt. Every other row is allowed to free-fall with the result that they flip 180.degree. in mid air while the remaining rows are guided by a slide which is moved into position so that alternate rows of cookie halves on the lower conveyor belt are disposed with the flat side up and the flat side down, respectively. A filling is automatically deposited on the cookie halves having the flat side up and a vacuum pick-up device raises each row of cookie halves having the flat side down and deposits them on the filled cookie halves as they pass underneath.

Abstract: A culinary article for turning over foods such as eggs, without flipping them, has a spatula section to pick up the food, a curved surface over which the food next slides to partially turn it over, an opposing, coacting curved surface which receives the food and completes the reversal action as the food slides therealong, and a delivery surface.

Abstract: A horizontal supply conveyor carrying a board with a number of loaves of cheese thereon is mounted for vertical adjustment in front of the open ends of a multiplicity of horizontal guideways disposed in superimposed and in juxtaposed relationship. By selective adjustment and selective operation of the conveyor the board is moved into registry with a selected one of said guideways whereupon a pushing device pushes the board from the conveyor and into the guideway in which similar loaded boards are stored the last one of which is thus discharged from the rear of the selected guideway onto another conveyor to be moved back to the first conveyor by transporting means which include a device for turning over the loaf.