Importance

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Abstract

An agitator for mixing food or other materials in a kettle either with or without heating of the materials, the invention allows gentle and thorough mixing of materials ranging from liquids to semi-solids. The present agitator is especially useful for mixing and blending of substantially liquid mixtures having suspended solids, the solids being uniformly suspended within the mixture without damage to the solids. The agitator preferably takes the form of a rotary shaft horizontally disposed within a kettle having a substantially hemispherical bottom portion, each end of the shaft having a substantially arcuate element of particular contour attached thereto. The arcuate elements lie in planes which are perpendicular to each other and are the same general shape. The arcuate elements are provided with contoured scrapers having scraping edges which conform to localized portions of the interior surface of the kettle and which in combination act to uniformly scrape food-contacting walls of the kettle to prevent burn-on of food materials during a mixing and/or cooking period. The scrapers and to some degree the arcuate elements act on rotation of the shaft to lift material from the bottom of the kettle to the top of the body of the material and thus produce a uniform dispersion of liquid and solid materials during cooking/mixing, during mixing only, or while dispensing the uniformly mixed material from the kettle.

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First Claim