An oven for continuous cooking of products carried upon a open mesh wire conveyor provides the impingement of a cooking vapor from air discharge structure having ports arrayed above and below the conveyor. The discharge ports extend laterally of the conveyor and communicate with upper and lower plenums each charged by blower fans which draw cooking vapor from low pressure corridors alongside the product conveyor. Gas, electric or thermo fluid heaters are disposed in the corridors. The discharge ports are in slot form disposed about the apex of a Vee shaped riser spaced from the adjacent riser to provide a low pressure flow channel communicating with the corridors giving a rapid velocity change of the cooking vapor from turbulent to a less turbulent flow. The distance for vapor travel between the upper discharge ports and the product carrying conveyor is variable. Temperature and moisture content of the process vapor can be changed to suit cooking conditions.
This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/956,014 filed Oct. 22, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,178, issued Aug. 10, 1999 which was a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/774,739 filed Jan. 4, 1997, now abandoned.
An oven utilizes a convective heat transfer mechanism for cooking the food products where the oven provides heated gas in the form of columns or streams and which are directed to at least one surface of a food product within the oven. Moisture, in the form of steam, is introduced within the convective heat transfer mechanism. Thus, an effective moisture environment can be created at and around the surface of the food product that is cooked under the influence of the heated gas/steam columns or streams. More preferably, steam is introduced within the convective heat transfer mechanism for creating a moisture environment substantially surrounding the entire food product during its baking. Such an oven permits baking food products, in particular dough products, and even more particular bagel products, by a convective heat transfer mechanism that provides for quicker and more even cooking of the food product while providing for the making of whatever level of moisture is desired about the food product for imparting a desirable characteristic to the food product. For bagel products, in particular, desirable surface sheen and texture characteristics can be achieved The present invention is also directed to methods of cooking food products, in particular dough products, and even more particular bagel products, by way of such an oven.
A conveyor oven having a heating chamber and an oven chamber. A conveyor is disposed in the oven chamber to convey food products between an entry port and an exit port. An air impingement assembly is disposed to provide jets of impingement air toward the food product. A fan blower, a heater and a moisture delivery device are arranged to provide heat and moisture to an airflow to the air impingement assembly so that the jets of air are heated and laden with moisture and provide as a blanket-like mixture of air and moisture at the surface of the food product.
