This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-75786, filed Dec. 2, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus and a method of automatic cooking, and, more particularly, to an apparatus and a method of automatic cooking of food using an automatic cooking algorithm.
2. Description of the Related Art
A basic method of cooking buckwheat, which is a type of hulled grain, is to put buckwheat and a proper amount of water in a vessel, and steam the buckwheat by heating the vessel. If heat is directly applied to the vessel that contains the buckwheat and the water, the heat is transmitted through the vessel, so the water contained in the vessel is boiled. While the water is boiling, the buckwheat is cooked to become edible. However, if the buckwheat is heated at an extremely high temperature for a long time during cooking, an optimal cooking quality of the buckwheat may not be obtained. Accordingly, the cooking of the buckwheat should be carried out while heating power is reduced in stages in order to obtain a satisfactory cooking quality of the buckwheat. Additionally, a cooking result depends on respective durations of the cooking stages.
When buckwheat is cooked, a gas/electric equipment, such as a cooking top, is generally used to heat a vessel containing the buckwheat. Notwithstanding that the cooking quality of the buckwheat depends on the precise control of applied heating power and cooking time for which the buckwheat is cooked, the cooking of the buckwheat is carried out depending on the judgment of a cook, so the optimal and uniform cooking quality of the buckwheat is not easily obtained. Additionally, a cook should control heating power and ascertain the cooking state of the buckwheat while standing by beside the cooking equipment, so the cook may not do other things until cooking is terminated. That is, the cook may not effectively manage the cooking time of the buckwheat.
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method of automatic cooking, which automatically cook buckwheat, thus conveniently providing the uniform and optimal cooking quality of buckwheat to a user.
Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The foregoing and other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing an apparatus of automatic cooking, including a cooking cavity that contains food to be cooked and water therein, a heating unit that heats the food and the water, and a control unit operated to heat the food and the water at a preset initial output of the heating unit, first, to reduce the output of the heating unit and allow the heated high temperature water to be absorbed into the food after a first preset time has elapsed, and second, to reduce the output of the heating unit and cook an inside of the food using the high temperature water absorbed into the food after the water has simmered.
Additionally, the foregoing and other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing an apparatus of automatic cooking, including a cooking cavity that contains food to be cooked and water therein, a heating unit that heats the food and the water, a gas sensor that detects properties of air inside the cooking cavity, and a control unit operated to heat the food and the water at a preset initial output of the heating unit, first, to reduce the output of the heating unit, allow the heated high temperature water to be absorbed into the food, and obtain an output of the gas sensor after a first preset time has elapsed, and second, to reduce the output of the heating unit and cook an inside of the food using the high temperature water absorbed into the food when the output of the gas sensor reaches a preset value.
The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing a method of automatic cooking using a cooking apparatus, the cooking apparatus having a cooking cavity that contains food to be cooked and water therein, and a heating unit that heats the food and the water, including heating the food and the water at a preset initial output of the heating unit, first, reducing the output of the heating unit and allowing the heated high temperature water to be absorbed into the food after a first preset time has elapsed, and second, reducing the output of the heating unit and cooking an inside of the food using the high temperature water absorbed into the food after the water has simmered.
Additionally, the foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing a method of automatic cooking using a cooking apparatus, the cooking apparatus having a cooking cavity that contains food to be cooked and water therein, a heating unit that heats the food and the water, and a gas sensor that detects properties of air inside the cooking cavity, including heating the food and the water at a preset initial output of the heating unit, first, reducing the output of the heating unit, allowing the heated high temperature water to be absorbed into the food and the water, and obtaining an output of the gas sensor after a first preset time has elapsed, and second, reducing the output of the heating unit and cooking an inside of the food using the high temperature water absorbed into the food when the output of the gas sensor reaches a preset value.
These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.
An apparatus and a method is provided to implement automatic cooking in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings
A cooking tray 104a is disposed to be rotatable in the lower part of the cooking cavity 104, and food to be cooked is put on the cooking tray 104a. A space 118 separated from the cooking cavity 104 by a partition wall 116 is positioned opposite to the machine room 106. In the space 118, a gas sensor 112 is disposed to detect specific properties of air inside the cooking cavity 104. In an embodiment of the present invention, the gas sensor 112 is used to detect the amount of moisture contained in the air inside the cooking cavity 104 and output a voltage signal S that is inversely proportional to the amount of the moisture contained in the air.
The machine room 106 includes a magnetron 106a, a cooling fan 106b and an air duct 106c. The magnetron 106a generates microwaves. The cooling fan 106b cools the magnetron 106a by sucking external air. The air sucked through the cooling fan 106b is supplied to the cooking cavity 104 through the air duct 106c of the machine room 106. The air passed through the cooking cavity 104 is discharged from the body 102 while passing the gas sensor 112.
The control unit 202 is connected at its output terminals to a magnetron drive unit 204, a fan drive unit 206, a motor drive unit 208 and a display drive unit 210 that drive the magnetron 106a, the cooling fan 106b, a tray motor 212 and a display unit 110b, respectively. The tray motor 212 rotates a tray 104a disposed in the cooking cavity 104. The display unit 110b is positioned on the control panel 110 shown in
In order to implement the apparatus and the method of automatic cooking of the present invention, the cooking data of the buckwheat required to obtain the optimal and uniform cooking quality of the buckwheat are obtained by ascertaining the properties of the buckwheat and executing cooking tests under various conditions. If the buckwheat is heated at a high temperature for a short time, the insides of buckwheat grains are not sufficiently cooked and the surfaces of the buckwheat grains are damaged. Accordingly, water should be heated enough to be boiled at the start of the cooking of the buckwheat. Thereafter, when the water is boiled, the buckwheat should be cooked for a sufficient time so that the heated water is absorbed into the buckwheat grains while heating power is being reduced. In order to obtain the optimal cooking quality of the buckwheat, appropriate heating power and cooking time, as described below, should be controlled in each of the cooking stages.
The cooking stages of the buckwheat are divided into a boiling stage, a simmering stage, and a steaming stage to cook boiled buckwheat thoroughly, and appropriate heating power and cooking times are set in each of the cooking stages. In order to cook the buckwheat, the boiling stage is first carried out, in which water is boiled by heating a vessel that contains the water and the buckwheat. After the water is boiled, the simmering stage is carried out, in which the heating power is reduced to prevent the boiled water from overflowing outside the vessel, while the reduced heating power is maintained for a predetermined time to simmer the water sufficiently, so that high temperature water is sufficiently absorbed into the insides of the buckwheat grains. When the simmering stage is completed, the steaming stage is carried out, in which the heating power is further reduced, and the buckwheat is cooked for a time sufficient for the insides of the buckwheat grains to be completely cooked by the high temperature water absorbed into the insides of the buckwheat grains. That is, the surfaces of the buckwheat grains are heated and cooked in the simmering stage, and the insides of the buckwheat grains are heated and cooked in the steaming stage.
Cooking characteristics of the buckwheat described above are shown in
Horny projections exist on the surfaces of the buckwheat grains, so water should be heated to a high temperature at the start of the cooking stages so that the water is absorbed into the insides of the horny projections in order to cook the buckwheat sufficiently. Accordingly, the output P1 of the magnetron 106a is maximized so that the water is boiled as quickly as possible in the boiling stage of the buckwheat cooking. As shown in
If the boiling stage is completed, the output of the magnetron 106a is first reduced, and then the simmering stage is carried out. In this case, a first reduced output is more than 55% of the output of the boiling stage. The cooking time of the simmering stage ranges from a time point of the current output S of the gas sensor 112 to a time point of the initial output S0 of the gas sensor 112. The ratio S/S0 may be greater than a preset coefficient ρ, that is, S/S0>ρ. The coefficient ρ has different values according to the quantity of the buckwheat to be cooked when the automatic cooking of the buckwheat is carried out. The coefficient ρ is less than 0.77 if the quantity of the buckwheat corresponds to the quantity for one person, while the coefficient ρ is equal to or greater than 0.77 if the quantity of the buckwheat corresponds to the quantity for two or more persons. In the table shown in
In the steaming stage, the output of the magnetron 106a is reduced to be more than 55% of the output of the simmering stage regardless of the quantity of the buckwheat to be cooked. The buckwheat is heated until a total cooking time reaches 15 minutes and 10 seconds to 24 minutes and 30 seconds, depending on the quantity of the buckwheat. In the steaming stage, the insides of the buckwheat grains are completely cooked. However, since a heat transfer rate is gradually decreased in the insides of the buckwheat grains, the insides of the buckwheat grains are allowed to be cooked sufficiently by reducing the output of the magnetron 106a in the steaming stage and increasing the cooking time of the steaming stage. The cooking time of the steaming stage is set to be equal to or greater than twice the cooking time of the boiling and simmering stages. As shown in
As is apparent from the above description, the present invention provides an apparatus and a method of automatic cooking, which cook buckwheat according to an automatic cooking algorithm, thus providing a uniform and optimal cooking quality of the buckwheat when cooking of buckwheat.
In one embodiment, the output of the heating unit is reduced to the second reduced output if the current output of the gas sensor is equal to or less than 77% of the initial output of the gas sensor.
Although a few preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2002-0075786 | Dec 2002 | KR | national |
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