BigPatents India

An apparatus and method of processing a product, such as food product are disclosed. Untreated product is placed inside a bottom-unloading basket that is, in turn, placed within a covered vessel. For processing a food product, a porous steamer apparatus is provided for insertion into a covered cooking vessel. The steamer apparatus is comprised of two unfastened pieces, a basket and a support base, each of which has a plurality of small holes through which steam, but not food product, may pass. The basket holds the food product, is roughly cylindrical in shape, has an open-ended top and an open-ended bottom, and rests firmly upon, but is not fastened to, the support base during the steam-cooking process. The support base has an inverted conical shape and a vertical pole that has a hook-shaped upper terminus and that is integrally-connected to and protruding above and below the uppermost point of the support base. A perforated, closed spice container is removably fastened to the pole at a point underneath the support base. During the pressurized steam-cooking process, a pressure dome is removably fas-tened onto the cooking vessel. Upon completion of the steam-cooking process, the pressure dome is unfastened from the vessel and the basket is lifted out of the vessel, thereby releasing all of the food product directly into the vessel, and the support base, due to its inverted conical shape and hooked upper end, is easily lifted up through the cooked food product and out of the vessel, simultaneously with the spice container. An agitator dome having integrally-connected mixing blades is then removably fastened onto the top of the vessel, and the food product is mechanically mixed at ambient atmospheric pressure.