Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Automatic control
Patent
1999-06-03
2000-10-31
Alexander, Reginald L.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Automatic control
99403, 99407, 426438, A47J 3712
Patent
active
061385522
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to household electric deep fat fryers, particularly but not exclusively automatic fryers, comprising a vat disposed in a housing and containing a cooking bath, electric heating means adapted to heat the cooking bath, a basket for receiving the food to be fried mounted in said vat, and a control panel which comprises automatic electronic control means for a cooking cycle of the food to be fried, and first means permitting selecting a cooking temperature as a function of the particular foodstuff to be fried and providing to the automatic control means first information representative of the selected cooking temperature.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In known automatic deep fat fryers of this type, the automatic electronic control means determine the cooking time and take account only of the appropriate cooking temperature which depends on the particular type of foodstuff to be fried, such as for example fried potatoes, mushrooms, fish, meat. However, the cooking time thus determined is not the best to obtain sufficiently cooked and browned foods, because the weight, even approximately, of the foodstuffs to be fried is not accounted for by the automatic control means of the fryer.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The invention has particularly for its object to overcome this drawback and to provide an automatic deep fat fryer of the type described above, which permits determining the optimum cooking time permitting obtaining sufficiently cooked and browned foodstuffs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, the control panel comprises moreover second means permitting selecting an image code of the load in the basket containing the foodstuff to be fried and supplying to the automatic control means a second information representative of the selected image code of the load in the basket, and the automatic control means are adapted to calculate a cooking time for the food to be fried as a function of the first and second information emitted respectively from the first and second selection means.
Thus, it will be understood that the combination of the selection of the cooking temperature and that of the image code of the load in the basket, permits optimizing the cooking time calculated by the automatic control means. Moreover, this selection of the code constituting itself an image of its own load in the basket, and hence not requiring determining the exact weight of the foodstuff to be fried, contributes to substantially simplifying the automation of the fryer, and hence decreasing its cost of production. Moreover, the fact of visually coding the load in the basket facilitates the selection of the latter by the user and renders this selection particularly easy for the user.
According to a preferred embodiment, the second selection means comprise a selector butter provided on the face of the control panel and adapted to occupy selectively several positions each marked by a particular identification symbol constituting the image code of the load in the basket. Preferably, the identification symbols are three in number and correspond respectively to a half load in the basket, a normal load in the basket and an overload in the basket.
The invention also relates to a process for controlling the cooking of an electric deep fat fryer according to the invention, this process being characterized in that it comprises the following operations: foodstuff to be fried; function of the selected cooking temperature and of the selected image code of the load in the basket; actuates the automatic control means as soon as the selected cooking temperature is reached by the cooking bath.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The characteristics and advantages of the invention will become further apparent from the description which follows, as a non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic view in vertical cross section of a deep fat fryer according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of a control panel
REFERENCES:
patent: 4601004 (1986-07-01), Holt et al.
patent: 4913038 (1990-04-01), Burkett et al.
patent: 5352866 (1994-10-01), Cartwright et al.
patent: 5590587 (1997-01-01), Polster
Baillieul Philippe Louis Robert
Imbeaud Jacques
Alexander Reginald L.
Moulinex (S.A.)
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