Food steaming apparatus

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with this invention there is provided food steaming apparatus comprising a tubular body and including at least one perforated food support and, optionally, a divider having perforated walls for use in association therewith, the apparatus being characterized in that at least either the food support or any divider for use in association therewith, has perforations shaped to impart a transverse component to the direction of travel of steam rising substantially vertically prior to passage through such perforations.
Further features of the invention provide for each of the perforations to have a deflector zone adjacent same, the deflector zone extending out of the plane of the perforated food support or divider, as the case may be; for the deflector zones to be integral with the perforated food support or divider and to have a free edge defining part of the periphery of an aperture to the associated perforation transverse to the plane of the perforated food support or divider; and for the deflector zones to be inclined to the plane of the perforated food support or divider and to decrease in cross-sectional size from the aperture towards the food support or divider.
Still further features of the invention provide for the food support or divider to be made of sheet metal, in which case perforations are formed therein by forming cuts in the sheet material and deforming the material in the vicinity of the cut on one side thereof out of the plane of the sheet to provide deflector zones terminating in apertures to the perforations located in a plane substantially at right angles to the sheet; for the said deflector zones and apertures to the perforations to be directed downwardly in the case of the walls of a divider; and for said deflector zones and apertures to the perforations to be directed all in the same direction relative to a central point, in particular, a circumferential direction in respect of a substantially circular food support.
In a preferred form of the invention the tubular body is adapted to be supported on a perforated support member of dished configuration and adapted to be carried by the upper edge of a substantially conventional cooking pot and for the food steaming apparatus to be provided with a lid having outlet apertures therethrough