Smoking machine

Claim 1

Apparatus for smoking a quantity of comestible products comprising: conveyor means for moving a stream of said products along a predetermined path of travel; a first operating station positioned along said path for loading a supply of said product onto said conveyor means to form said product stream; a second operating station positioned downstream from said first station along said path for removing said products from said conveyor means; a smoking chamber positioned along said path intermediate said first and second stations arranged to receive said conveyor means and temporarily enclose a portion of said product stream; means to direct a supply of liquid smoke into said chamber; means to nebulize said liquid smoke to form a cloud of liquid smoke within said chamber in the path of said product stream, with the major portion of said cloud being formed from droplets of a size less than about 150 microns; means to circulate said cloud to bring said nebulized smoke into substantially uniform contact with the exposed surfaces of said product within said chamber; means to create a pressure differential between the interior of said smoking chamber and the surrounding atmosphere to prevent escape of any substantial portion of nebulized liquid smoke cloud from said chamber into the adjacent atmosphere; means to flush accumulated liquid smoke condensate from said chamber and said conveyor means; means to control the speed of travel of said conveyor means; and means to regulate the density of said smoke cloud within said housing; whereby a smokey flavor is rapidly imparted to said products by exposure of said product stream to said cloud of liquid smoke of a selected density for a selected time interval.