Device for Cooking or Grilling Small Pieces of Food

Various attempts have been made to develop devices for cooking or grilling specialty food items, particularly for use with outdoor barbecue grills. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,855 to Avner describes a secondary grilling apparatus which comprises a flat sheet of metal with rectangular openings which clips onto the bars of conventional barbecue grills. The sheet provides a secondary surface for grilling with smaller openings. However, the device cannot be easily taken out of the barbecue grill when hot and does not permit easy turning over of food items.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,196 to Schlosser et al. describes a pivoting auxiliary rack which attaches to the perimeter of a barbecue grill and can be pivoted from the side attachment over the surface of the grill or off to the side for easy retrieval of cooked food items. The pivoting rack comprises a circular flat grill with a rail around the edge to prevent food from falling off. The circular flat grill is similar to the main grill of the barbecue, but is held above the main grill by means of a pivot. The device suffers the same problems that a regular grill with longitudinal bars in that small food items easily slip through. Also, the device cannot be easily lifted out of the grill and shaken to turn over food items.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,846,941 to Goodwin discloses a barbecue basket which fully encases food items and is mounted on a spit, permitting one to easily turn cooking food items over for cooking on both sides. The device cannot be easily removed from the grill because it is mounted on a spit. Also, the device would not be suitable for small food items because the longitudinal bars create lengthwise openings through which small food items would fall out.

Other devices include the PLATINUM GRILLING WOK.TM. (sold by Charcoal Champion) which comprises a square bottom with trapezoidal sides that flare outward from their attachment to the square bottom. The wok contains some small circular openings to allow circulation of heated air and smoke. However, the wok contains no lid that permits shaking of food items to easily turn them over. In addition, the limited number of openings does not allow full circulation of heated air and smoke which are important for achieving optimum grilling flavor.

Still another device is the BARBECUE GRILLING GRID.TM. (sold by Charcoal Champion) which comprises a flat sheet with diamond-shaped openings and an upturned edge on one side. The grid cannot be easily lifted off of the grill, nor can it permit shaking of food items to turn them over without their falling out. It is essentially one-sided.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for cooking or grilling small food items which permits optimum circulation of heated air and smoke to achieve full grilling/cooking flavor. The device is entirely independent from the grill requiring no attachment whatsoever. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that can be easily removed from the barbecue grill, lifted out, and shaken to turn food items over without their falling out. These same functions may be achieved while cooking with the device on the grill grate by either removing the lid or lifting the lid and stirring, shifting or moving the food items inside the device with a cooking implement (such as tongs, spatula, fork, etc.).

The use of a lid with the device is optional. With the lid on or off, spices, sauces, and flavorings may be added while cooking. Also, the grilling device of the present invention is designed to fit completely within standard barbecue grills so that the top of the grill can be closed while offering the maximum amount of cooking surface area. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a light-weight grilling device that can be easily and cheaply manufactured from a single piece of starting material.

With these objects in mind, the present inventors discovered that a grilling device could be fashioned out of light-weight stainless steel mesh having square openings, which could easily be fabricated from a single flat piece of mesh by folding and which would satisfy the above objects. Due to the flexibility of the stainless steel mesh, the device can be shaped to fit the interiors of standard barbecue grills, permitting the lid of the grill to be completely shut while providing the maximum surface area for cooking small pieces of food and maximizing the aromatic effect of barbecue cooking or grilling. Since the device is independent from the grill on which it is used, food items may be prepared and placed inside the device at one location, carried and then cooked at the grill. Once cooking is completed, the food items may be carried from the grill inside the device to another desired location.

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the present invention without a top.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment similar to that of FIG. 1 with a top in the open position and side handles.

FIG. 3 shows the embodiment of FIG. 2 with the top in the closed position.

FIG. 4 shows a side view of the embodiment of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a top view of another embodiment with two inwardly facing top edges and two outwardly facing top edges and square grasping handles at each corner and hand spaces between the two corner handles.

FIG. 6 is a top view of the lid for the embodiment of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a frontal cut-away view of the embodiment of FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is a side cut-away view of the embodiment of FIG. 5.

FIG. 9 shows the device of FIGS. 5-8 prior to folding.

FIG. 10 shows a preferred embodiment of the device with slots formed by curled edges that lock in the lid.

In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to a device for grilling small pieces of food, wherein the device comprises a basket composed of mesh having square openings throughout the mesh and the basket has a base that matches the shape of the grill and four side walls which are high enough to retain small pieces of food when the device is shaken to turn the small pieces of food over, wherein the mesh is made of a material suitable for cooking or grilling food that is welded, soldered, or woven. Preferably, the basket is shaped to fit within the interior of a grill when the lid of the grill is closed. Optionally, the basket of the device is covered with a lid that may be fastened to the device or placed on top of the device.

Another embodiment of the present invention is a method of using the device to grill small pieces of food on a grill comprising placing the pieces of food in the basket, placing the basket on the grill, closing the lid of the grill, removing the basket after the small pieces of food are cooked on one side, shaking the basket to turn the pieces of food over onto their uncooked sides, and placing the basket onto the grill until the small pieces of food are cooked. Optionally, the entire device may be turned upside down with the food remaining in the basket to turn the food over when a lid is in place.

Preferably, the device is used on a covered grill having a lid and the base of the device has a rectangular or circular shape which matches the dimensions of the most commonly sold outdoor barbecue grills. More preferred is a rectangular base measuring about 11 inches by about 16 inches.

The mesh can be made of any material suitable for cooking or grilling pieces of food that is welded, soldered or woven. Preferably, the mesh is stainless steel mesh or mild steel covered with a non-stick coating such as XYLON.TM. (manufactured by Whitford Manufacturing). The size of the square openings throughout the mesh is between 14 gauge and 19 gauge, or which measure between about 0.2 inches across to about 0.8 inches across. The most preferred size of the square openings is about 0.5 inches across.

The mesh can optionally be nickel-plated, porcelain-coated, or coated with a non-stick coating suitable for grilling or cooking.

As used herein, "small pieces of food" refers to those small pieces of food cooked on grills which normally fall through the longitudinal bars of a conventional grill grate. In particular, these small pieces of food include sliced, chopped, unchopped, chunked, and whole vegetables, fruits, scallops, shrimp, and pieces of meat or fish.

Preferably, one or more divider walls can be placed inside the basket and attached to the base to create separate areas for placing different types of small food pieces. For example, all the vegetables can be placed on one side of a divider wall and all the chopped meat pieces can be placed on the other side of the divider wall.

For convenience, only FIG. 1 contains the mesh pattern drawn on all sides. FIGS. 2-9 are in block style, showing only structural lines where edges or corners are formed. However, the devices shown in FIGS. 2-9 are also formed of the mesh material shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention wherein one of the four side walls 3A adjoining the cooking base 1 is raised higher than the other three side walls 3B, 3C and 3D.

As shown in FIG. 2, it is preferred to attach a lid 4 having two triangular overhang portions 6 by means of fasteners 5 to the raised side 3A. The fasteners may be any suitable fasteners that withstand the heat of cooking or grilling including alligator clips or metal rings. Also, FIG. 2 shows wire semi-circular handles 2 attached to two of the sides 3C and 3D that adjoin the raised side 3A. FIG. 2 also shows a divider wall 7 placed inside the basket for separating different kinds of small food pieces.

FIG. 3 illustrates the embodiment of FIG. 2 wherein the lid 4 is in the closed position. Due to the raised edge 3A, the lid slopes downward when closed to meet the top edge of the lower front side 3B. This embodiment is advantageous because it fits inside most rectangular-shaped outdoor grills wherein the lid of the grill slopes downward toward the front of the grill.

The embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-4 can be manufactured from a single flat piece of mesh by making cuts in the piece of mesh according to desired dimensions and folding the sides of the cut pieces upward and joining the corners with fasteners or by welding or other suitable means for joining pieces of mesh together. For example, starting from a single piece of mesh, the lid 4 can be cut out and the overhang portions 6 can be folded downward. One or more divider walls 7 can be cut from the single starting piece of mesh and later attached into the interior of the basket. The basket is formed from the single piece of mesh by folding the pre-cut sides 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D upward so that the edges of the sides meet each other. Thereafter, the adjoining edges may be fastened by suitable means for fastening pieces of mesh together such as closing rings, clips, solder or welding.

FIGS. 5-8 relate to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, which also can be manufactured from a single flat piece of mesh by making cuts in the piece of mesh according to desired dimensions and folding the sides of the cut piece upward and joining the corners with fasteners or by welding or other suitable means for joining pieces of mesh together as discussed more fully below.

In the preferred embodiment of FIG. 5, there is an interior rectangular cooking base 1', two outwardly facing top edges 3' adjoining two side walls 5', two inwardly facing top edges 4' adjoining the other two side walls 5", and four square grasping handles 2' at each corner of the base 1'. This embodiment is advantageous because the inwardly facing edges 4' help to retain the small pieces of food when the basket is moved while on the grill and or turned over onto its side, or removed from the cooking surface and shaken to the turn the food pieces over. The outwardly facing edges 3' provide handles for easy grasping of the basket during shaking, turning the device upside down with the lid on, and in removing the device from the grill.

FIG. 6 shows the lid for the device of FIG. 5. The lid is a flat rectangular piece of mesh adapted to be placed on top of the opening in the device of FIG. 5. The lid can optionally be placed on top of the device and removed to permit stirring or moving of the contents within the basket. Also, the lid can be used for gathering contents in the basket by turning the device upside down while the lid is on or used for cooking by turning the device upside down so that the lid becomes the cooking base or independently removing the lid and using it as a second cooking base. The lid may be fastened at the top edge at one or more of the sides 5' so that it can be opened and closed.

FIG. 7 shows the 5' side wall and corner handles 2' cut away from the rest of the device of FIG. 5. FIG. 7 illustrates how the outwardly facing edge 3' meets the two corner handles 2'.

FIG. 8 shows the 5" side wall and corner handles cut away from the rest of the device of FIG. 5. FIG. 8 illustrates how the inwardly facing edge 4' faces away from the corner handles 2' toward the inside of the basket.

FIG. 9 shows the device of FIG. 5 prior to folding of a piece of the mesh. The four dashed lines indicate the four places where the flat piece of mesh is internally pre-cut. All internal solid lines indicate the lines along which a fold must be made. First, the two 5' side walls which include the two outwardly facing 3' edges are folded up. Second, the other two 5" side walls which include the two inwardly facing 4' edges and the corner post portions 2' are folded up forming a basket. The inwardly facing 4' edges are folded to the inside of the basket. The outwardly facing 3' edges are folded to the outside of the basket. Lastly, the corner posts are formed by folding first at line A away from the basket, then at line B in a direction parallel to the adjoining side wall 5", then at line C and finally at line D. In this way, the four corners of the corner post 2' are made.

FIG. 10 shows a preferred embodiment of the device of FIG. 5, wherein of the two 3" top edges have been curled over towards the inside of the basket to simultaneously create a roll-shaped gripping handle and locking grooves which accept the edges of the lid of FIG. 6, which is shown as a dashed line in FIG. 10, and hold it in place on top of the basket. The lid of FIG. 6 can be removed by sliding it laterally out of the locking grooves. Since a roll-shaped gripping handle is formed by the curled top edges 3" having a C-shaped cross section, there is no need for the square grasping handles 2' of the embodiment of FIG. 5.

It will be understood that various modifications in the invention as described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and from the scope of the claims which follow.