BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a compact smoking oven.
Smoking ovens are known in the art. The known smoking ovens are formed as industrial installations which have great sizes, are provided with powerful and voluminous mechanisms and parts for smoking a significant quantity of food products, and are very expensive. It is desirable to provide a compact smoking oven which can be used in households by individual users and which do not require special skills for smoking food products.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a compact smoking oven which can be used in households by an individual user and does not require any special skills for smoking food products.
In keeping with these objects and with others which will become apparent hereinafter, one feature of the present invention resides, briefly stated, in a compact smoking oven which has a box-shaped housing having a peripheral wall composed of two wall portions spaced from one another and including an inner wall portion provided with a plurality of throughgoing openings, a container for accommodating wooden chips and having at least one wall provided with a plurality of openings, means for heating the container so that when the container is heated and wooden chips inside the container are heated a smoke is produced which exits the container through the openings in the container, then enters a space inside the peripheral wall and exits the space through the openings of the inner wall portion into an interior of the housing, and means for holding a food product to be smoked by the smoke.
When the smoking oven is designed in accordance with the present invention it is compact, has a simple construction, is easy to operate, and can be used in households by an individual user who does not have any special skills for smoking.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a front sectional view of a compact smoking oven in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectioned side view of the smoking oven of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a sectioned front view of the oven in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the smoking oven in accordance with a further embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a view from below of an upper wall of a housing of the smoking oven of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a smoking oven in accordance with still a further embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a side view of the smoking oven of FIG. 6;
FIGS. 8A and 8B are section front view and a section side view of another embodiment of the smoking oven;
FIGS. 9 and 10 are a side view and a view from below of a flame distributing element with a metal plate of the smoking oven of FIG. 8;
FIGS. 11A-11B are views showing a section side view and a section front view of a further embodiment of the inventive smoking oven;
FIGS. 12A-12C are views showing a plan view of a smoking oven with a horizontal rod for supporting food products, and an end view of the rod, and a motor used for turning the rod;
FIGS. 13A-13B are views showing a smoking oven with a plurality of rods mounted on two discs and with a drill, correspondingly;
FIGS. 14A-14C are views showing a food product supporting unit with discs and a plurality of fronts on a perspective view, a view of one end of the food product supporting unit, and an end view of a fragment of one disc;
FIGS. 15A and 15B show a flywheel separately from the rod.
FIG. 16 is a view showing a further modification of food product supporting means formed as a foldable unfoldable grade;
FIGS. 17A-17E are a plan view, a front view, a side view, a fragment of the plan view and a perspective view of a container for accommodating wood chips;
FIGS. 18A-18C are a plan view, a side view and a section orof a tray with a louver for food defrosting of the inventive smoking oven;
FIGS. 19-22b are views of the smoking oven, showing different embodiments of air flow for door sealing; and
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
A smoking oven shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2 has a housing with a
peripheral wall 1, a
top wall 2 and a
bottom wall 3. The
peripheral wall 1 is formed as a double wall and has an
outer wall portion 1′ and an
inner wall portion 1″ which is provided with a plurality of
perforations 4. The smoking oven further has a
container 5 for accommodating wooden chips. The
container 5 has an
upper wall 6 which is also provided with a plurality of perforations. The lower wall of the
container 6 is inserted into an inner space of a
housing 8 of heating means. The heating means also include a
heating element 9 formed for example as an electrical heating element connectable with a source of electric current (not shown). A
lower grill 10 is located on a
support 11 and in turn supports a tray for fat collection and for heat distribution, and a
louver 13 for food defrosting is arranged on the
tray 12.
The smoking oven further has a food product supporting means which is formed as a
rotatable disc 14 provided with a plurality of hooks. The disc is connected with a shaft which is rotated by a
motor 15. The
motor 15 is accommodated in an
upper compartment 16 which is separated from the interior of the housing by the
upper wall 2.
Fans 17 are accommodated in the
compartment 16 and are rotatable by
electric motors 18.
The interior of the housing is closeable and operable by a
door 19 which has a double wall and an
inner space 20 between two wall portions of the double wall and an exit opening
21.
The smoking oven in accordance with the present invention as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 operates in the following manner:
A food product to be smoked is introduced into the interior of the housing and is suspended on the hooks of the
rotatable support 14. Wood chips are introduced into the interior of the
container 5 and the container is placed through the upper opening of the
heater housing 8 so that the lower closed wall of the
container 5 is located at a distance above the
electrical heating element 9 of the heater. Electric current is supplied to the electrical heating element, the electrical heating element heats the air inside the
heater housing 8, the heated air heats the bottom wall and the peripheral wall of the
container 5, through the
openings 6. The smoke is deflected toward the openings of the inner wall portion of the peripheral wall of the housing into the inner space between the
inner wall portion 1″ and the
outer wall portion 1′, then the smoke passes through the
openings 4 of the
inner wall portion 1″ and enters the interior of the housing so as to smoke the food product suspended on the
support 14. At the same time, the
fans 17 are rotated by the
motors 18, cool the air and cause flow of air over the
upper wall 2 of the housing so as to heat cool the upper wall and also into the
interior space 20 of the
double wall 19 so as to cool the double wall and to provide gas tightness of the interior of the housing. Fat from the food product is collected in the tray.
In the embodiment of
FIG. 3, the food product supporting means include two
discs 14′ and
14″ provided with a plurality of hooks and rotatable independently from one another.
In the embodiment of
FIGS. 4 and 5, the food product supporting means include four
discs 24 provided with a plurality of hooks, and the grouped so that two
discs 24 are located in one compartment of the housing while two
other discs 24 are located in another compartment of the housing separated from the first mentioned compartment by a
partition 25. The housing has two
doors 26 which provide access to a corresponding compartment.
In the embodiment shown in
FIGS. 6 and 7, the food product supporting means include a plurality of
rods 26 provided with
hooks 27 and connected with a
door 28. The container for
wood chips 29, the
heater 30 as well as the
tray 31 are also connected with the
door 28. After smoking the door is displaced outwardly of the housing, and the food product supporting means
26,
27 are also located outside of the housing so as to remove the smoked product and to put a new smoked product on the hooks.
In the embodiment of
FIGS. 8A-8B, a heater is formed as a
gas heater 32 connected with a source of gas and having one outlet opening at its right end in
FIG. 4 or a plurality of openings distributed over the
pipe 23. A
heat accumulating element 34 in
FIGS. 9-10 formed for example as a metal plate is located above the flame and separated from the latter by a
flame distributing element 35 which is formed for example as a concave sheer provided with a plurality of perforations. The combination of the
elements 34,
35 provides for a uniform distribution of the heat to the
container 5 which accommodates the wooden chips.
In the embodiment of
FIGS. 11A, the food product supporting means in addition to the
rotatable disc 14 provided with a plurality of hooks also has a plurality of
horizontal rods 36. As can be seen from
FIGS. 12A-12C, the rod
36A can be turned around its axis by a
motor 37.
In the embodiment shown in
FIGS. 13A-13B the food product supporting means include two
discs 41 and
42 which are rotatable by not shown electric motors and a plurality of
rods 43 mounted on the discs spaced from one another in a circumferential direction. As can be seen from
FIG. 14A-14C, one end of each rod is inserted through the slot of the
disc 41 and locked there by a turnable flap, while the other end of the same rod extends through a corresponding opening in the
disc 42. As can be seen from
FIGS. 15A-15B, each rod is provided with a
flywheel 44 which is fixedly connected with the respective rod, while the rods are turnably mounted in the slots and openings of the
discs 41 and
42. When the discs are rotated about their joint axes, the
rods 43 are rotated about these axes as well. At the same time, since the
flywheel 44 tends to retain its vertical position, it turns each rod with which it is connected around its own axis. Thus, during rotation of the discs, the food product on the rods gradually turns so that each portion of the food product is uniformly heated.
In the embodiment of
FIG. 16, the food product supporting means include a
grill 45 composed of two
grill portions 46 and
47 pivotally connected with one another by a
pivot axle 48. The
grill portions 46 and
47 can be opened so as to insert a food product, and then closed so as to enclose the food product in their interior, and then locked by locking
means 49 in the closed position.
FIGS. 17A-17E illustrates a
container 5 for accommodating wooden chips, as can be seen, the
container 5 has an
upper wall 50 provided with a plurality of
openings 51, a
peripheral wall 52 provided with a holding
flange 53, and a
lower wall 54. The holding
flange 53 is provided with
means 55 for connecting the container with the housing of the heater located underneath the container, for example, formed as threaded openings for screws and the like.
FIGS. 18A-18C are different plan views, side views and sections of the tray.
FIGS.
11A-
11C
11B are a plan view, a side view and a front view, showing a section of a
tray 12 with a
louver 13 for food defrosting, of the compact smoking oven.
In all embodiments, the
housing 1, the
compartment 16, the
container 5, the
door 28, the unit
10-
12 are designed as in the embodiment of
FIGS. 1-2.
FIGS. 19-21 show front views and FIGS. 22A and 22B show perspective views of the inventive smoking oven with different directions of air flow to provide sealing of the oven door.
It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.
While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a compact smoking oven, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.