Examples: Patent Simple Food Cooking Method

Been told that you can't patent a simple cooking method? Well, these applicants ignored this sage advice and ended up with granted patents:

Baked beans

This is the original PATENT for BAKED BEANS:

1. Bake beans between 175‐230C for 8‐9 hours
2. Cool baked beans to 80C
3. Place cooled baked beans in cans and immediately seal

Despite having this patent, the person that made all the money was the clever bean that added "tomato sauce". Bring out the toast for tea!

Patent: US1496458

Peanut butter

WOW! The original Kellogg's patent for making PEANUT BUTTER:

1. Blanche nut kernels
2. Roast the kernels or boil them for 4‐6 hours
3. Grind / roll the kernels to a pulp
4. Add 1 part water to every 2 parts pulp
5. Seal the pasty pulp in cans
6. Heat the cans by steam to a temperature 100‐115C for 1‐4 hours.

To avoid a bitter taste, don't heat the pasty pulp above 115C.

Apparently, this process achieves the "desired consistency between soft cheese and hard cheese or dried beef(!)", enabling the peanut butter to be "sliced" and placed on bread.

Bet this looked remarkably similar to Geitost ‐ that incredible Norwegian sweet cheese.

Patent: US604493

Scrambled eggs

Ever wanted to make McDONALD's scrambled eggs?

Doubt it, but just in case, here is McDonald's infamous patented method for making scrambled eggs:

1. Pour "liquid egg" into rings supported on a heated grill
2. Rapidly move the rings to and fro while maintaining contact between the rings and the grill … until the eggs have "congealed into a mass of cooked scrambled egg"

Any takers for "a congealed mass of egg"? Clearly this patent specification never made a pass by the marketing department.

Patent: US4433001

Hot sauce

What did TABASCO SAUCE patent?

Its unique method for making a hot, fermented sauce in 43 days:

1. Add vinegar and salt to peppers
2. Leave the mixture to stand for 6 weeks
3. Filter out the skins and seeds
4. Pot the extracted skins and seeds for 24 hours with alcohol
5. Press the liquid from the skins and seeds
6. Combine the filtered and pressed liquid
7. Pass it through a fine flour sieve

Patent: US107701

Pizza

How to make a PIZZA HUT patented pizza:

1. Combine pizza toppings (e.g. cheese, sliced meats, ground meats, and vegetables)
2. Fuse the toppings combo into a disk
3. Store the fused toppings disk
4. Make a pizza base with a central recess
5. Place the fused toppings disk in to the pizza base recess
6. Cook the pizza

… Fresh pizza base with "not so fresh" (pre‐fused) toppings. Those clever marketing guys may have missed a trick when they focussed on "the deep‐pan pizza".

Patent: US5256432

Ketchup

How to make your own PATENTED KETCHUP:

1. Create a blend of liquid tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt and spices having a 7% lower‐than‐desired moisture content
2. Agitate the blend while passing bursts of steam there through to increase the temperature of the blend to 57‐85C
3. Maintain the temperature for about 2 minutes to cook and pasteurise the blend, while continuing to pass bursts of steam there through until 7% water by weight has been added to the blend

Apparently, the secret lies in not heating the tomatoes in a conventional manner, but using steam to heat and hydrate the blend.

Patent: US3399064

French fries

Make your own McDONALD'S fries!

Just follow McDonald's patented method for making "French fry potato segments":

1. Peel, trim and cut potatoes into elongate segments
2. Wash the segments
3. Blanche the segments
4. Dehydrate the segments in heated circulating air to reduce the segments' weight by about 20%
5. Fry the segments in a deep fat bath at 150‐190C for 15‐60 seconds
6. Freeze the segments to at least ‐18C
7. Fry the segments in a deep fat bath at 150‐190C for 90‐210 seconds

Patent: US3397993

Breakfast cereal

What did KELLOGG's CORNFLAKES patent? Kellogg's has been the #1 selling cereal since the 1890's, thanks to its patent for:

"Soaking, cooking, drying, rolling and baking grain"!

Seriously, Kellogg's patent no. US558393 entitled "Flakes cereals and process of preparing same" claimed "A process of manufacturing an improved alimentary product, which consists, first, in soaking the grain in water for some hours, whereby it is subjected to a preliminary digestion with its contained cerealin, and a temperature which prevents actual fermentation; second, subjecting the previously‐soaked grain to heat for a time sufficient to completely cook the starch; third drying the grain; fourth rolling the grain between cold rollers; and fifth, baking the flakes until thoroughly dry and crisp." In English: … the steps of soaking, cooking, drying, rolling and baking grain.

The simple sandwich

This one's good! McDONALD's actually patented its "method for making a sandwich":

1. Heat bread
2. Simultaneously assemble garnish in a container
3. Place the heated bread over the garnish‐filled container
4. Invert the bread and container to deposit the garnish on the bread

Never considered myself cutting‐edge when emptying a can of Heinz beans on toast for tea. But, starting to reconsider.

Patent application: WO2006/068865

Pickled Gerkin

For those who love Pickles as much as I ‐ a patented method for making a PICKLED GHERKIN:

1. Heat‐shock cucumbers in 77C water for 3‐5 minutes until they heat up to 63C
2. Drain and pack the cucumbers in a sanitised container and cover them in brine (1.6‐10% salt by weight) previously heated to 77C then cooled to 5C
3. Inoculate (1,000,000,000 per litre) the container with a pure culture lactic acid fermentation‐inducing microorganism (e.g. Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Lactobacillus lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus thermophilus, Pediococcus cerevisiae, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides)
4. Seal the container with a sanitised closure and incubate at room temperature for 3‐4 days to permit fermentation

And, there you have it: a pickled, yet firm gherkin. A real treat!

Patent: US3403032

KFC food warmer

Ever wondered how KFC chicken can stand in a warmer for "UP TO 6 HOURS"! and still taste so good?

KFC uses its patented "Method for extending the holding time for cooked food":

1. Maintain relative humidity within the range of 70‐95% under controlled dry bulb and wet bulb temperature conditions
2. Regulate the temperature in the warmer to a minimum level

UP TO 6 HOURS!!!! Vacillating between being impressed and put off.

Patent: US5077065