IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR BASTING MEAT
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Lacey at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 24th August 1881.
JOHN LACEY, Surgeon, "of 23, Trinity St., Borough, in the County of Surrey.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR BASTING MEAT."
In roasting meat the contraction of the cellular substance expels the fat and
watery vapour and therefore requires the frequent well-known operation of "basting"
with the juices which exude, savoured with herbs necessary to produce flavour
and likewise to prevent the meat from burning and becoming hard and tasteless.
Baking meat in confined chambers or ovens does not admit of the transition of the
vapours so rapidly as in roasting, but savoury basting also plays an important part
in this department of cookery. Basting by hand, as heretofore effected, requires
unremitting attention on the part of the cook, and in cases of baking necessitates
frequently opening the oven, thereby occasioning considerable loss of heat.
My Invention therefore relates to the simple and effectual automatic means of
basting meat in the capacity as above set forth.
For this purpose I connect to the usual dripping tray or pan of tin, galvanized
or enamelled iron, a vertical metal framing of tee, angle, or other suitable section
for carrying basting troughs.
These troughs, which may be one or more in number to each apparatus, extend
at or about right angles from the framing at a convenient height over the greater
length of the tray below. Their construction may be of blocked tin or galvanized
iron of semi-circular or angular section, having numerous small perforations along
their inverted apecies and sides, permitting vertical and lateral egress of the
basting liquid and ensuring effectual distribution of the same on the joint below.
For automatically feeding and maintaining a constant or intermittent basting
supply to these troughs I provide a miniature chain pump or bucket elevator com-
municating with the dripping tray as source of basting, and worked by an endless
chain or band over pullies driven by a smoke, water, or spring jack, or other
similar convenient motive power.
As a modified means of carrying the above operation into effect, a lever, termi-
nating with a swinging ladle, might be actuated by cams or tappets on the spit or
jack axis engaging with the tail of the lever at any desired intervals.

page_text: In baking, the jack having been wound up, or other source of power set in
motion, the whole apparatus is placed in the oven and requires no further attention
during the time allowed for cooking, in which cases the jack might be protected
from any excessive degree of heat by wood, felt, or asbestos non-conducting
packing. In roasting, the rotary motion of the spitted or suspended meat and the
basting supply may be accomplished from the same inotive power and prime mover,
and, if necessary, the moving parts can be protected by the usual reflecting screen
through which the axis of rotation is prolonged.
For lubricating any bearings or moving parts plumbago might be employed.
It will readilly be understood that the speed of the basting supply can be
modified as desired by the differential velocity of the bucket axis or the relative
distance apart the buckets are placed on the chain. It is obvious that the above
described apparatus can be arranged for meat fixed or rotating in horizontal or
vertical planes.