Two-sided hamburger grill; In-N-Out Burgers; U.S. Pat. No. 7,726,235

U.S. Patent No. 7,726,235, issued on June 1, 2010 to In-N-Out Burgers of Irvine, CA, discloses a two-sided grill for cooking hamburgers on both sides simultaneously.

According to the patent, two-sided cooking has been known to significantly reduce cooking times as compared to one-sided cooking, so more customers can be served in a shorter amount of time.  However, existing two-sided grills did not allow the top cooking portion to be easily removed from a large number of meat patties while the top cooking portion remains in place on other meat patties being grilled.  In-N-Out’s patented two-sided grill has a top cooking portion that can be moved from one set of patties to another, allowing placement of cheese, buns, or condiments on the side of a patty that has already been cooked while the second side continues to be cooked on the griddle (termed “capping”).

Residents of Orange County are a devoted clientele of In-N-Out Burgers and its made-to-order hamburgers, cheesburgers, “double-doubles,” fries, and shakes.  The menu presented to customers appears limited to the novice, but In-N-Out also has “not-so-secret” menu selections which are variants of its standard menu items.  For example,  Animal® style (In-N-Out has a U.S. trademark for this term, so how secret can it be?) is a mustard-cooked beef patty, with lettuce, tomato, pickle, extra spread, and grilled onions.  Next time you order one of these, think of the patented technology that In-N-Out has developed to make it for you.

Besides the ’235 patent, In-N-Out has two other U.S. patents to a “floating clamshell griddle toaster” and an “ergonomic griddle scraping tool.”