US20090194542A1

US20090194542A1 - Threaded food container with presser

Info

Publication number: US20090194542A1
Application number: US12/012,273
Authority: US
Inventors: Kwang Suk Hong
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2008-02-02
Filing date: 2008-02-02
Publication date: 2009-08-06
Also published as: KR20090084992A

Abstract

A food press and drainer for preparing fermented or pickled foodstuffs, such as Kimchi, where the apparatus is a cylindrical vessel with a helical groove and a closed bottom for containing food preparations, which require both solid foodstuffs which may or may not have fluid extracted or separated during the preparation process; whereby, the extraction and separation is performed by a round support member with pluralities of drain holes formed therein; whereby, the support member has the shape of a circular disc with a head portion for manual turning where the disc is sized to fit loosely inside the helical groove of the cylindrical vessel and manual turning in the clockwise direction lowers the disc; thereby pushing the disc down over the solid foodstuff for the purpose of extracting and separating fluids from the solid foodstuffs in order to reuse the fluids for creating similar food preparations in multiple layers; or, so the container may be inverted, thereby permitting the fluid to drain from the container vessel while keeping the solid inside the container after the vessel is inverted

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Some prepared foods must be contained in liquids for fermentation and for flavor conservation. For instance, Kimchi, a pickled foodstuff, must be prepared and preserved in its own juice; otherwise, the prepared pickle will lose its freshness and flavor. Often, foodstuff needs to be pressed during fermentation to obtain the best possible flavor.
Many fresh raw vegetables or food solids have a lower density than the fluid used in food preparation, therefore when the food solids are placed in a fluid, the vegetables will float, and only be partially submersed in the preparation fluid. Seasoning ingredients which often have a higher density then the preparation fluid sink to the bottom of the container. In order to ensure that the vegetables used in the food preparation have the proper seasoning, the food solids must remain submersed in the preparation fluid.
There is a need with respect to different food preparations where the fluid may or may not need to be extracted or discarded to either preserve freshness, or reuse the preparation fluid.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The current application relates to food containers with presser and fluid separator.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

U.S. Pat. No. D512,881, to Bertulis, depicts a presser used to drain the preserving liquid from the food as the food is being pressed. The pressing is done by applying force to the pair of handles located at the topside of the can drainer's circumference.
U.S. Pat. No. D421,555, to Duhamel depicts a disc-shaped presser with pluralities of holes and a handling knob located at the center of the disc. Applying force to the handling knob does the pressing.
U.S. Pat. No. D105,367, to Swordling, depicts a partitioned draining bowl comprised of a container bowl and a draining bowl. This device is used to separate water from the food stored on the draining bowl.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,166, to Smith, presents a plate with drain inserts to remove water from foods. The plate can be inserted inside the food container. Water can then be separated by draining through the holes of the plate as the container is stored.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,721, to Homes, discloses a food can drainer comprised of a food can and a disc-shaped liquid drainer. The liquid is drained as the disc is pressed towards the bottom of the can.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,106,453, to Ekdahl discloses a portable strainer with pluralities of grills and a handling tip outside the disc-shaped strainer for handling and setup. The liquid is drained as the strainer is set in place and the container is flipped. The liquid will drain through the grill but the food will remain inside the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,544, to Farley, discloses a device for tune squeezer and strainer. The utensil is a device comprised of multiple draining holes with smaller than the circumference of the tuna can and a pair of support handles that can be doubled as feet when the device is inserted upside down. The liquid is drained by pressing the can towards the strainer.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,007,907, to Yaeger, discloses a meat or vegetable presser comprised of a container with a disc-shaped top, a bar with male screw tract, a secondary gear-shaped bar placed perpendicular to the screw bar and a turning handle done for pressing. The bottom of the container is comprised of pluralities of holes to permanently drain any liquids from the food.
None of the Prior Arts disclose a device capable of pressing the food solids inside a contained fluid as part of the process for preparing the food. It is the object of the current application to correct such deficiencies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the threaded food container comprised of the threaded bucket, with the flat disc and lid.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view or the food container with coiled threads emphasized.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the threaded food container's lid.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the flat disc with pluralities of holes and handle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1, is a perspective view of the food container (30); comprised of a lid (33) with the lid's (33) gasket (32) and opening knob (31); male screw lip (14) and flange (12); cylindrical shaft (10) vessel with helical groove (11) with a flat bottom for stability; and a pressing disc (20) comprised of pluralities of holes (22) and grip knob (22).
The lid's (33) main purpose is to conserve the food's freshness for as long as the environment surrounding the food container (30) allow. FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the lid (33). The gasket (32) is flexible rubber material embedded at the circumference of the lid (33). Flexibility of rubber allows tight contact between the lid (33) and the cylindrical shaft (10) when the food container (30) is closed. A tight contact between lid (33) and cylindrical shaft (30) can make opening difficult. An opening knob (31) is embedded to the gasket (32) to facilitate opening of the food container (30).
Food is inserted to the food container (30) and is stored in the cylindrical shaft (10). Once food is set the user can then compress the floating contents by inserting the pressing disc (20) beginning at the male screw lip (14) in the flange (12) area. The circumference of the cylindrical shaft (10) at the vicinity of the male screw lip (14) is slightly larger than at the main body and bottom of the cylindrical shaft (10). At the top of the cylindrical shaft (10) and male screw lip (14) the helical groove's (11) flange (12) is slightly thinner than the rest of the helical groove's (11) thickness. The larger circumference at the top of the cylindrical shaft (10) and thinner flange (12) allow for easy insertion of the pressing disc (20).
Once the pressing disc (20) is in place the free-floating food can be pressed by turning the pressing disc (20). The helical groove (11) is set in such way that the only way to turn the pressing disc (20) towards the bottom of the cylindrical shaft (10) vessel of the food container (30) is in the clockwise direction. Turning in the clockwise direction allows obeys the physics laws of angular momentum. Removing the pressing disc (20) requires turning in the counterclockwise direction hence angular momentum happens in the opposite direction. The helical groove (11) alignment for clockwise-counterclockwise turning is illustrated in FIG. 2 represented with the diagonal lines. The pressing disc (20) nor the lid (33) appear in FIG. 2.
As the pressing disc (20) is rotated the lower density food can be pressed the food towards the bottom of the food container (30) and liquid can be separated by flow through holes (22) and the gap between the pressing disc (20) and cylindrical shaft (10). As illustrated in FIG. 1, the circumference of the pressing disc (20) is slightly smaller than the circumference around the helical groove (11) from the cylindrical shaft (10). This allows for zero-force insertion of the pressing disc (20) and can be interlocked once inside the helical groove (11) between the ribs (13, not shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 only points the dashed lines of the “peak” of the rib). The interlocking of the pressing disc (20) between the “ribs” of the helical groove (11) is essential to keep the lower density solid material at the bottom of the food container (10).
FIG. 2 illustrates the helical grove (11) and the ribs (13) of the cylindrical shaft (10) is represented by the dashed lines.
The pressing disc (20) can be rotated by turning the attached grip knob (21) in either clockwise or counterclockwise direction. The grip knob (21) is attached at the center of the of the pressing disc (20) and illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is an exploded and isolated view of the pressing disc (20) of the current application.
Although the above description has been made in conjunction with the embodiment utilizing food container (30) with a pressing disc (20) comprised of pluralities of holes (22) and grip knob (21) it should be noted that the current application may be embodied by utilizing any container with the purpose of storing food with helical screw for pressing disc (22) rotation.
The pressing disc (20) may be comprised of a single hole (22) or the pressing disc (20) may comprised of grills (not illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 4) Furthermore, any other modifications and changes can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the current application.

Claims

1) A cylindrical shaft vessel whereas;

helical grooves on its inward facing surface of the annular wall, with an enclosed bottom on the lower annular end;

and,

opens upwards in an axial orientation;

and,

an upper annular projecting edge, of which has an elongated flange mating with a corresponding furrow of a gasket affixed to the lid;

and,

a corresponding disc with pluralities of holes;

whereas;

the disc is inserted in said cylindrical shaft where the major surface of said corresponding disc is transverse to the axial direction of the shaft vessel rotatable with respect to the transverse axis of the shaft vessel where the edge of the disc is interlocked inside the helical groove, gripping by the user's hand on the disc grip to exert rotational force on the disc in the helical groove progressing the disc downward towards the enclosed bottom of the cylindrical shaft, thereby pressing solid matter lower in density than the fluid, thus permitting fluid to pass through the holes of the disc preventing the solid matter from free floating in the fluid of said vessel.

2) The cylindrical shaft vessel from claim 1; where the height of each rib ranges in percentage of the cylindrical diameter of the vessel from 1% to 3%.

3) The cylindrical shaft vessel from claim 1; where the angle rage from 5 to 10 degrees; whereby, the spacing between the disc and said helical groove has a gap of 0.7% gap of the total diameter of the annular wall;

and,

the helical groove protrudes 4% to 5% from the diameter of annular wall towards the center of the vessel providing space for the lid to permit fluid to flow through the helical groove to enable a loose fitting without slippage from the upward pressure of the floating solid matter immersed in fluid.

4) The cylindrical shaft vessel from claim 1; where the materials of construction is polypropylene.

5) The cylindrical shaft vessel from claim 1; where the materials of construction is wood.

6) The cylindrical shaft vessel from claim 1; where the materials of construction is tin.

7) The cylindrical shaft vessel from claim 1; where the materials of construction is glass.