Patent ID: 8574652

Claim:
A method for smoke infusing crustaceans, or mollusks, or fish, comprising the steps of: (A) introducing crustaceans, or mollusks, or fish, into an smoke-infusing zone; (B) repeatedly cycling the smoke-infusing zone with a plurality of smoke-infusing cycles, each smoke-infusing cycle comprising the steps of: a) pulling a vacuum on said smoke-infusing zone to convert said smoke-infusing zone to a vacuum smoke-infusing zone, b) flowing smoke at atmospheric pressure into said vacuum smoke-infusing zone, thereby substantially filling the vacuum smoke-infusing zone with smoke, c) terminating said flow of smoke into said vacuum smoke-infusing zone; d) providing a time for each flow of smoke into said vacuum smoke-infusing zone in the range of between about 1 second and about 10 seconds, e) releasing the vacuum by admitting ambient pressure air into said vacuum smoke-infusing zone, whereby said vacuum smoke-infusing zone is brought to a state of ambient air pressure, and residual smoke remaining in said vacuum smoke-infusing zone is expelled from said vacuum smoke-infusing zone, and f) repeating steps a)-e) between a range of about 50 to about 400 cycles to produce crustaceans, or mollusks, or fish which are smoke-infused; (C) withdrawing the smoke-infused crustaceans, or mollusks, or fish from the smoke-infusing zone, and (D) subjecting said withdrawn smoke-infused crustaceans, or smoke-infused mollusks, or smoke-infused fish to a chilled resting cycle in a dry cold zone, at a suitable low temperature of between about 0° C. to about 4° C. and for a suitable period of time between about 1 hour and about 10 hours, thereby to produce smoke-infused crustaceans, or smoke-infused mollusks, or smoke-infused fish.