1. A tray for holding cooked food portions at an elevated temperature, comprising:
a container having an open top, a bottom and a sidewall structure, the bottom and the sidewall structure defining an interior volume for containing the cooked food portions; and
a support having an open bottom;
wherein the container is removably disposed in the support, the support is rigid relative to the container, and the container extends through the open bottom for allowing an external heated surface to contact the bottom of the container.
2. The tray of claim 1 wherein the sidewall structure of the container has an outwardly extending top edge for supporting the container on the support.
3. The tray of claim 1 wherein the container is a thin-walled container having a wall thickness of less than about 0.035 inches.
4. The tray of claim 3 wherein the container has a wall thickness of about 0.025 inches or less.
5. The tray of claim 2 wherein the top of the support has a recessed surface for receiving the outwardly expanding top edge of the container.
6. The tray of claim 1 wherein the container has an indentation in its sidewall structure for supporting the container in the opening.
7. The tray of claim 6 wherein the support is capable of at least partly supporting the container by the indentation.
8. The tray of claim 1 wherein the height of the container is greater than the working height of the support.
9. The tray of claim 1 wherein the sidewall structure comprises two opposed sidewalls and two opposed end walls.
10. The tray of claim 1 further comprising at least one sidewall opening in the sidewall structure of the container for providing at least one air passageway therethrough for venting the interior volume of the tray.
11. The tray of claim 10 wherein the at least one passageway has a total cross-sectional area, the ratio of the total cross-sectional area of the at least one passageway in square inches to the interior volume of the container in cubic inches is in the range of from about 1:2100 to about 1:13.
12. The tray of claim 10 wherein the support further comprises a support sidewall structure having at least one support sidewall opening, the support sidewall opening being capable of alignment with at least one container sidewall opening.
13. The tray of claim 12 further comprising means for adjusting the size of at least one of the openings in the support sidewall.
14. The tray of claim 1 wherein the thickness of the bottom of the container is thinner than the average thickness of the support.
15. The tray of claim 1 wherein the bottom of the container has a higher heat transfer coefficient than the average heat transfer coefficient of the support.
16. An apparatus for holding previously cooked food portions at an elevated temperature, comprising:
at least one heated doorless compartment for holding the food portions, said compartment having an upper compartment surface and a heated lower surface;
a cabinet for housing said at least one compartment therein, said cabinet including at least one cabinet opening for inserting and removing the previously cooked food portions into and out of said compartment;
at least one tray, the tray being placeable into the compartment, the tray having:
a container having an open top, a bottom and a sidewall structure, the bottom and the sidewall structure defining an interior volume for containing the cooked food portions and
a support having an open bottom, wherein the container is removably disposed inside the support; and
means for supporting said tray in said compartment so that when the tray is placed on the heated lower surface the bottom of the container is in contact with the heated lower surface and said top edge of said tray is spaced from the upper compartment surface.
17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the sidewall structure has an outwardly expanding top edge for supporting the container and the top of the support has a recessed surface for receiving the outwardly expanding top edge of the container.
18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the container has an indentation in its sidewall structure for supporting the container in the opening and the support is capable of at least partly supporting the container by the indentation.
19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the height of the container is greater than the support height.
20. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising at least one sidewall opening in the sidewall structure of the container for providing an air passageway therethrough for venting the interior volume of the tray.
21. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the bottom of the container has a higher heat transfer coefficient than the average heat transfer coefficient of the support.
22. A method of storing a cooked food item comprising:
providing a container having an open top, a bottom and a sidewall structure, the bottom and the sidewall structure defining an interior volume;
providing a support having a support opening;
placing the container into the support opening thereby forming a tray;
placing the cooked food item in the tray to at least partially fill the interior volume; and
placing the tray having the cooked food therein into a compartment having a heated surface so that the bottom of the container contacts the heated surface to maintain the temperature of the food in a desired elevated temperature range.
23. The method of storing cooked food of claim 22 further comprising removing the cooked food item from the compartment more than 15 minutes and less than 60 minutes after the cooked food item was placed into the heated compartment.
24. The method of storing cooked food of claim 22 further comprising setting a timer for a predetermined time period of more than 15 minutes immediately before or after the placement of the tray in the compartment.
25. A method of handling cooked food portions to be incorporated into a sandwich in a restaurant comprising:
providing a container having an open top, a bottom and a sidewall structure, the bottom and the sidewall structure defining an interior volume;
providing a support having a support opening;
placing the container into the support opening thereby forming a tray;
placing and storing for a desired period of time the cooked food portion in the tray to at least partially fill the interior volume;
placing the tray having the cooked food therein into a compartment having a heated surface so that the bottom of the container contacts the heated surface to maintain the temperature of the food in a desired elevated temperature range;
removing the cooked food portion from the tray; and
assembling a sandwich using the cooked food portion from the tray.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. An ink jet recording medium in the case of carrying out bidirectional printing using a printer of a serial system wherein inks of at least two colors are mounted in carriages and the nozzle row is disposed in parallel with the main scanning direction of a head, wherein the recording medium comprises a base material and an ink-receiving layer, the ink-receiving layer has an average ink-absorbing capacity of from 10 to 30 cccm2, and the contact angle of the uppermost surface layer of the ink-receiving layer is from 20 to 60 degree to an ink having a surface tension of from 25 to 72 dyncm.
2. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the ink-receiving layer is composed of at least two layers, and the ink absorbing capacity of the uppermost surface layer is larger than the ink-absorbing capacity of the lower layer.
3. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the ink absorbing speed of the uppermost surface layer of the ink-receiving layer is faster than the scanning speed of the head.
4. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 1, wherein when the thickness or the uppermost surface layer is A (m), the average ink absorbing capacity of the uppermost surface layer is La (cccm2), the thickness of the whole layers of the ink-receiving layer is T (m), and the average ink absorbing capacity of the whole layers of the ink-receiving layer is L (cccm2) , the following relations of equation (1) and equation (2) are satisfied:
5 m<A<0.7TEquation (1)
1.1L<La<2LEquation (2)
5. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the ink-receiving layer contains a pigment, and the pigment has an apparent specific volume of from 3 to 20 cm3g and is at least one selected from synthetic silica, aluminum hydroxide, alumina, pseudo boehmite, calcium carbonate, aluminum silicate, magnesium carbonate, zeolite, and zinc oxide.
6. The ink jet recording medium according claim 1, wherein the ink-receiving layer comprises a coated layer containing a pigment for absorbing an ink and a binder in an amount of from 20 to 80 parts by weight to 100 parts by weight of the pigment, and the coated amount of the coated layer is from 10 to 30 gm2.
7. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the uppermost surface layer contains a cationic sizing agent in an amount of from 0.2 to 8 parts by weight to 100 parts by weight of the pigment for absorbing an ink.
8. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 7, wherein the cationic sizing agent is made of a styrene-base resin.
9. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the uppermost surface layer is formed by overcoating a layer containing from 0.2 to 3 parts of a cationic sizing agent.
10. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 9, wherein the cationic sizing agent is made of a styrene-base resin.
11. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is used for a recording method wherein the resolution is at least 720720 dpi.
12. The ink jet recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is used for a recording method that the maximum jetting amount of ink per one dot is not larger than 15 picoliters.