GB2292134A - Retailing of cooking additives - Google Patents

Abstract

Cooking additives, especially for Indian cuisine, are packaged individually in premeasured amounts for a specific recipe. The purchaser buys the package which has all the additives and the recipe 7 which ensures that the purchaser adds the correct amount of additive at the correct time in preparing the recipe. The package may comprise a folded card one half of which has apertures 22 etc to receive removable, individual, lidded, plastics cups 8 etc containing respective additives. Alternatively, that card half may be unapertured and have sachets (36, Figure 3) of each additive adhered thereto. <IMAGE>

Description

Improvements relating to recipe additives This invention relates to recipe additives and packaging therefor, and in particular to retailing of spices useful in cooking prescribed Indian cuisine recipes.

Although not restricted to curry recipes, the invention will be described in particular relation to curries. It is however to be stated that the invention is applicable in relation to other recipes using relatively complicated combinations of spices and the like, such as Thai recipes and other "Eastern" recipes. It should also be clarified that the term "spices" is used to embrace also strong-tasting ingredients in sauce and, puree form.

Traditionally, curries are cooked using individual spices such as chilli powder, turmeric, cardamom, cloves, ginger garlic, garam massala, cumin seeds, cinnamon, black pepper and sauces and purees etc. These spices are added to the dish at different stages during preparation in order to maximise the contribution each makes to the flavour of the cooked dish.

This traditional mode of cooking is however used by those with the time and skill to judge the amounts of each of the spices required and to learn the stages at which the spices should be added. An alternative is curry powder which is a mixture containing the spices in the required proportions, and indeed it has been common household practice to use such curry powders which are added to the dish in one portion measured by the cook.

More recently, suppliers of curry powder have realised that consumers taste the difference between curries produced in restaurants, which are produced by the traditional method, and those they cook at home using curry powder. Thus, suppliers have begun selling portion packs of curry powder and marketing these as "Restaurant Style". Still, these portion packs cannot reproduce the taste of curries cooked the traditional method.

Furthermore, the use of curry powders gives little understanding of the combinations of spices used, and the more adventurous and perhaps sophisticated consumer would find it more satisfying to cook curries by the traditional methods. As described above however these methods can be highly inconvenient and the cost of buying each ingredient separately can be prohibitively expensive due to the large minimum quantities by which such ingredients are sold.

It is an object of the present invention to alleviate the abovementioned drawbacks associated with the prior art modes of supply of spice mixes.

Thus, it is an object of the invention to allow the production of relatively complexly spiced dishes by traditional methods, i.e. the introduction of each spice separately, with the minimum of inconvenience and cost.

According to the present invention in one aspect there is provided a package comprising a plurality of portions of spices individually wrapped, each portion being of an amount premeasured for use in a specific recipe.

There are preferably provided at least four portions of different spices, and there may be eight or more such portions.

The package preferably further comprises a printed card element or the like showing the said specific recipe, including a description of the stages thereof at which each spice portion should be added to the dish in preparation.

The spice portions are preferably arranged in the package to present the portions in the sequence in which they are to be used in the said recipe.

Furthermore, the package preferably comprises two card elements, the first of which receives the spice portions, and the second being the said printed card element. The two card elements are preferably foldably connected. The card elements are preferably defined and folded so that only when the cards are unfolded, or opened, do the spices and recipe present themselves to the consumer.

According to one preferred embodiment, the spice portions are separately wrapped in plastics containers with a breakable flexible backing, the said containers being removably received in apertures defined in the said first card element.

The said containers are preferably formed of transparent plastics material, and the backing is preferably of laminated film, attached to the container body by heat sealing. These containers will be located within the packaging such that the transparent plastics body, and therefore the spices themselves, project through the said apertures to display the spices when the package is intact and unused. The packages are preferably removable from the said first card once the cards are unfolded.

According to a further embodiment, the spice portions are packed in individual sachets which are removably attached to the first card portion.

Also according to the invention there is provided cooking recipe additives individually wrapped and grouped into a retail unit which includes the recipe indicating the manner in which the additives are to be used, said additives being contained in their wrappings in premeasured amounts as required by the recipe.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Fig. 1A is a view of a package of one embodiment of the present invention; (during the preparation of a recipe) Fig. 1B is a view of the package as presented for sale to a consumer; Fig. 2 illustrates an individual spice container of the embodiment of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a plan view of a second embodiment of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, Fig.lA shows a package according to the invention in use during the preparation of a recipe. The package comprises a card 2 having two halves or sheets 4 and 6 connected by a fold line 5. Each sheet 4 and 6 is in the shape of the outline of a traditional Indian cooking pot but it can be a more regular shape such as rectangular or square. Sheet 4 is a carrier sheet and carries individual spice containers or pots 8, 10 and 12.

One of the containers 8 is illustrated in Fig. 2, and is seen to comprise a transluscent relatively rigid plastics cup 14, a laminated film lidding 16 heat sealed over the cup to seal same, and the contained spices 18 for example cloves. The cup 14 has a peripheral flange 15 to which the lidding is sealed.

The other containers 10 and 12 are of similar construction, but contain different spices (not illustrated).

Referring again to Fig.lA, the card panel 4 is provided with a number of circular apertures 16 of which three accomodate the containers 8, 10 and 12, and the remaining four apertures 22, 24, 26 and 28 are illustrated as empty, the containers which were previously accomodated in these holes having been removed.

Each spice container is accommodated within an aperture such that the flange overlaps the edge of the aperture, and the flat laminated film lidding of the containers is exposed and lies close to the inner surface 30 of the top panel 4 which is a backing panel or sheet. The laminated liddings 16 of the containers may be printed with the names 42 of the spices which they contain.

The inner surface 32 of the panel 6 is printed with a curry recipe 7 for which the types and quantities of spices in the containers 8, 10, 12, etc. are suitable.

The package is presented for sale to a consumer in a closed state Fig 1B with the panel 6 is folded onto and appexed to the container-filled top panel 4, the panels 4 and 6 lying adjacent one another, and the packages being thus trapped against removal from the package by their flanges 15. Each half of the closed package furthermore has a hanging aperture 34 to allow the package to be stored on a hanging display in the shop.

Preferably, the package has on its outer surface details of the other ingredients which are required in order to cook the meal, so that the consumer can buy these simultaneously with the spices if desired.

When the consumer, having bought the package, wishes to cook a curry meal, the package is opened to expose the laminated film backs of the containers Fig 1B (with details of their contents 42, or simply sequential numerals, visible) and to expose also the recipe printed on the panel 32. As cooking commences, the cook lifts out the spice containers 8, 10, 12, etc. from the panel 4, breaks open the backing 16 and adds all of the spice to the dish in preparation as the preparations reach the stage when each particular spice is required. The stage at which each spice is required will be indicated on the recipe.

The package panels need not be manipulated or folded during the preparation of a dish, since the spice containers are easily accessible, and the recipe readily legible, with the package folded open.

A further embodiment of the invention is illustrated in Fig.

3, wherein in place of using rigid plastic containers, the spices are contained in flexible sachets 36 adhered one behind the other on the inner surface of one panel 30 of a rectangular packaging card 34. Other features also bearing reference numerals corresponding with those of the features in the Fig 1 embodiment are also equivalent.

The sachets are arranged in the package 34 in the order in which they are to be used in the recipe 38 printed on the other panel 32 of the package, and the sachets are printed with an indication of their contents 40 which becomes visible the contents are used.

It will be appreciated that the recipes may be varied according to personal taste by using less of, or indeed none of, any of the spices provided.

Claims (12)

CLAINS

1. Cooking recipe additives individually wrapped and grouped into a retail unit which includes the recipe indicating the manner in which the additives are to be used, said additives being contained in their wrappings in premeasured amounts as required by the recipe.

2. Recipe additives according to Claim 1, wherein the recipe additives are for Indian cuisine.

3. Recipe additives according to Claims 1 or 2, wherein recipe additive include spices.

4. Recipe additive according to any preceding claim wherein the additives are individually wrapped in plastic portion pots.

5. Recipe additives according to Claim 4, wherein said pots have a top and flange and are sealed by lidding material applied to said flange.

6. Recipe additives according to Claim 5, wherein said additives are grouped together by the pots being held in respective holes in a carrier sheet.

7. Recipe additives according to Claim 6, wherein the pots are prevented from being removed from the carrier sheet by a backing sheet which is applied to trap the pot flanges between the carrier sheet and backing sheet.

8. Recipe additives according to Claim 7, wherein the carrier sheet and backing sheet are formed in a one-piece blank and the backing sheet is folded onto and adhered to the carrier sheet.

9. Recipe additives according to Claims 6, 7 or 8 wherein the carrier sheet and/or backing sheet are of cardboard.

10. Recipe additives according to any of Claims 6 to 9, wherein the recipe is printed on the carrier sheet and/or the backing sheet.

11. Recipe additives according to any of Claims 4 to 10 wherein the portion pots are of clear plastics material rendering the contents visible to the purchaser.

12. Recipe additives individually wrapped and grouped into a retail unit substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.