Chop Rack Structure for Upright Bone-Down Cooking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cooking chops with bones down is challenging due to instability and uneven heat distribution, requiring constant supervision and limiting control over heat exposure.
Innovation Solution
A chop rack with a tray and support frames that maintains meat upright, allowing bone contact with the tray and adjustable slats for fine-tuned heat control, ensuring even cooking without supervision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If chops are cooked without a rack and separated, then the cooking process is simpler, but the chops become unstable and fall over during cooking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a chop rack as an intermediary device between the heat source and the chops. The rack includes a base and multiple support frames that hold chops in an upright position, providing stability without requiring constant supervision. The support frames act as mediators that maintain chop orientation while allowing heat to reach the meat effectively.
2Manufacturing precision
If chops are cooked with bone side down on a conventional rack, then even cooking is achieved, but the bone does not sufficiently stabilize the chops and constant supervision is required
Solution Approach 1:
The chop rack is segmented into multiple support frames spaced apart from each other. Each support frame independently holds a chop in place, allowing the chops to be positioned bone-side down for even cooking while the segmented structure provides stable support without requiring supervision. The segmentation allows each chop to be individually stabilized.
3Reliability
If an individual must expose chops to heat in a uniform fashion, then control over the heat source is limited, but this is necessary for proper cooking
Solution Approach 1:
The chop rack features adjustable support frames that can be moved closer or farther apart, and the height of the support frames can be adjusted. This dynamic adjustability allows users to control the exposure of chops to the heat source while maintaining proper cooking conditions. The rack adapts to different chop sizes and heat source configurations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The chop rack stabilizes chops for even cooking, allows for bone-down cooking, and provides intuitive, durable, and unsupervised cooking with controlled heat distribution.
Implementation Method 1
Meat is received between the support frames such that the meat is maintained in an upright position, which in some embodiments allows a bone portion of the meat to come into contact with the base of the tray
Implementation Method 2
a central portion of both sidewalls does not have a slat to form an opening in the cooking surface to allow heat through to create even cooking conditions
Data Source
AI summary
A chop rack that has a tray with a base and sidewalls. Attached and extending upwardly from the tray is a plurality of spaced-apart support frames. Received and positioned over the support frame is a top assembly. Meat is received between the support frames such that the meat is maintained in an upright position, which in some embodiments allows a bone portion of the meat to come into contact with the base of the tray. Alternatively, a chop rack is provided that has a first and second sidewall that each has a set of spaced-apart slats connected along their respective lower edges that adjustably and selectively interlock with one another to form a cooking surface that allows for fine-tuned heat adjustments. Additionally, a central portion of both sidewalls does not have a slat to form an opening in the cooking surface to allow heat through to create even cooking conditions.