US 4,154,861 · Granted 1979-05-15

The Jet-Blast Patent That Changed How Food Gets Heated

Imagine a kitchen tool that shoots hot air jets directly at your food's surface to cook it faster and more evenly. Instead of waiting for heat to slowly seep through, these focused jets strip away the cool air layer around the food and blast heat right where it counts, kind of like a targeted hairdryer for your dinner.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a method of heating food by directing jets of heated gas perpendicular to the food's surface. What's protected here is the specific technique of moving the food (or jets) so the hot gas hits discrete points on the surface before spreading out, which effectively removes the insulating boundary layer of cool air and moisture around the food and transfers heat directly to those impact points.

Why it matters

This patent protects a heat-transfer technique that improves cooking efficiency by targeting heat delivery rather than relying on ambient warmth. By removing the natural cool-air barrier that surrounds food and concentrating heat at specific points, the method enables faster, more controlled cooking. This kind of precision heating can reduce cooking time and improve food texture, making it valuable for industrial food processing and potentially for consumer kitchen devices seeking faster or more uniform results.

Real-world use

You'd encounter this technology in commercial food-prep equipment or advanced kitchen appliances designed to cook food faster and more evenly by blasting hot air directly at the surface rather than surrounding it with heat.

Original USPTO abstract

Jets of heated gaseous fluid are perpendicularly directed against the surface of a food product, moving relative to said jets, such that the jets impinge against discrete points on said surface, before fluid in the jets is diffused, to wipe away the boundary layer of air and moisture from said discrete points. Heat is thus transferred to the surface of the food product at points upon which the jets impinge thereby increasing the temperature at said points.

Patent details

Publication number: US 4,154,861
Filing date: 1976-05-19
Grant date: 1979-05-15
Assignee: Smith Donald P
Inventor(s): SMITH, DONALD P
CPC class: A21B1/245

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