Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Automatic control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-23
2001-08-28
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Automatic control
C099S348000, C099S455000, C366S145000, C366S146000, C366S149000, C366S279000, C366S601000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06279463
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus capable of achieving hybrid cooking with high-temperature gas that heats the bottom of a cooking vessel and high-calorie steam that heats the body of the cooking vessel.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional cooking apparatus has a cooking vessel for receiving and cooking food materials and a gas heater arranged under the bottom of the cooking vessel to heat the same. Processes of cooking, for example, frying food materials such as vegetables with the prior art will be explained.
A large quantity of vegetables are charged into the cooking vessel up to the top thereof. The gas heater heats the bottom of the cooking vessel to a high temperature. As the vegetables are fried, they shrink from the top of the cooking vessel toward the bottom thereof and are fried at the bottom with the gas heater.
Frying a large quantity of food materials such as vegetables only with high-temperature heat generated by the gas heater arranged under the bottom of the cooking vessel takes a long time. Namely, it takes a long time to reduce the volume of the food materials to the bottom of the cooking vessel. If a cooking temperature is increased to shorten the cooking time, the food materials will burn and stick to the inside of the cooking vessel.
A water content in the cooking vessel, or the ratio of the weight of water within and around food materials in the cooking vessel to the weight of all materials in the cooking vessel, is an important factor to burn food materials in the cooking vessel, and therefore, it must correctly be controlled during cooking. When boiling down food materials to cook bean paste, sauce, or soup in the cooking vessel, a water content in the cooking vessel greatly affects the taste of the food. Accordingly, the timing of stopping the boiling must correctly be controlled. To achieve this, the prior art forces workers to sample and taste food materials boiled in the cooking vessel carefully. This method frequently destabilizes the quality of a cooked state of the food materials.
To correctly control a water content, workers must always pay attention to the conditions of food materials in the cooking vessel until the completion of cooking and must have masterly skill to manage this. Shortening a cooking time to, for example, a half of a usual cooking time makes the monitoring of water content difficult for workers. A simple carelessness may result in missing a correct water content. Accordingly, the prior art must limit a cooking speed to correctly control a water content.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a cooking apparatus capable of correctly and simply controlling a water content while shortening a cooking time.
In order to accomplish the object, a first aspect of the present invention provides a cooking apparatus having a cooking vessel for receiving and cooking food materials, a bottom heater arranged under the bottom of the cooking vessel, for heating the bottom of the cooking vessel, a heat exchanging jacket arranged along the body of the cooking vessel and defining a closed space for passing a thermal fluid to exchange heat with the body of the cooking vessel, and a fluid source for supplying and draining the thermal fluid to and from the heat exchanging jacket.
A second aspect of the present invention provides a cooking apparatus having a cooking vessel for receiving and cooking food materials, a bottom heater arranged under the bottom of the cooking vessel, for heating the bottom of the cooking vessel, a heat exchanging jacket arranged along the body of the cooking vessel and defining a closed space for passing a thermal fluid to exchange heat with the body of the cooking vessel, a fluid source for supplying and draining the thermal fluid to and from the heat exchanging jacket, a weighing unit for supporting at least the cooking vessel and heat exchanging jacket and detecting the gross weight of at least the cooking vessel and heat exchanging jacket, a memory for storing a reference weight change corresponding to a water-content change to attain a target cooked state of the food materials, and a controller for controlling at least the bottom heater according to the detected gross weight and reference weight change.
A third aspect of the present invention forms the bottom heater of the first and second aspects with a gas heater, an electromagnetic induction heater, or an electric heater.
A fourth aspect of the present invention employs steam as the thermal fluid.
A fifth aspect of the present invention forms the weighing unit of the second aspect with load cells provided for legs of a base for supporting at least the cooking vessel and heat exchanging jacket.
A sixth aspect of the present invention makes the controller of the second aspect stop the heating of the food materials if the detected gross weight corresponds to a target water content.
According to the first aspect, the cooking vessel receives food materials. The bottom heater heats the bottom of the cooking vessel, and at the same time, the fluid source supplies and drains a thermal fluid to and from the heat exchanging jacket to exchange heat with the body of the cooking vessel. The first aspect efficiently heats the food materials from the bottom and body of the cooking vessel. Heat generated by the bottom heater is conducted from the bottom to the body of the cooking vessel. At this time, the heat exchanging jacket passes the thermal fluid to exchange heat with the body of the cooking vessel. This prevents the heat from the bottom from escaping to the outside. Instead, the heat from the bottom is efficiently conducted to the inside of the cooking vessel. The cooking apparatus of the first aspect is capable of cooking a large quantity of food materials in a short time.
According to the second aspect, the cooking vessel receives food materials. The bottom heater heats the bottom of the cooking vessel, and at the same time, the fluid source supplies and drains a thermal fluid to and from the heat exchanging jacket to exchange heat with the body of the cooking vessel. The second aspect efficiently heats the food materials from the bottom and body of the cooking vessel. Heat generated by the bottom heater is conducted from the bottom to the body of the cooking vessel. At this time, the heat exchanging jacket passes the thermal fluid to exchange heat with the body of the cooking vessel. This prevents the heat from the bottom from escaping to the outside. Instead, the heat from the bottom is efficiently conducted to the inside of the cooking vessel. The cooking apparatus of the second aspect is capable of cooking a large quantity of food materials in a short time.
In addition, the weighing unit of the second aspect detects the gross weight of at least the cooking vessel and heat exchanging jacket. The memory stores a reference weight change corresponding to a water-content change to attain a target cooked state of the food materials. The controller controls at least the bottom heater according to the detected gross weight and reference weight change. The second aspect correctly controls a water content in the cooking vessel to attain a target cooked state of food materials in the cooking vessel. Drastically shortening a cooking time requires masterly skill to control a water content in the cooking vessel. The second aspect is capable of simply and correctly controlling a water content in the cooking vessel as mentioned above and removing limits on the cooking speed of the cooking apparatus, thereby greatly reducing a total cooking time.
According to the third aspect, the bottom heater is a gas heater, an electromagnetic induction heater, or an electric heater, to surely heat the bottom of the cooking vessel to a high temperature.
According to the fourth aspect, the fluid source supplies and drains steam to and from the heat exchanging jacket. The steam exchanges heat with the cooking vessel to surely reduce a cooking time.
According to the fifth aspect,
Kajiwara Kogyo Co., Ltd.
Kilpatrick & Stockton LLP
Pratt, Esq. John S.
Simone Timothy F.
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