The present invention relates to a method for heating a meal or food to be cooked in a closed high-level cooking appliance with at least one muffle defining a cooking area with a muffle opening, a—motorized or manually operated base door for closing the muffle opening and a ceramic cooking zone which is arranged in the base door, as well as a high-level cooking appliance.
The process of placing food to be cooked on a support and then pushing the support into the oven along a guide for heating the food is known from ovens. In such cases the meal can be heated up rapidly by pre-heating or by a high temperature in the oven. This disadvantage is that this heating-up process takes a comparatively long time.
Also known is the process of rapidly heating up a meal by radiated heat from heating elements and heating lamps typically mounted in the roof of the oven, e.g. halogen lamps. The disadvantage here is the additional equipment outlay and a possible soiling and burning out of the lamps. Here too there is the danger of burning the meal on its—generally exposed surface.
DE 100 59 652 A1 for example discloses a generic high-level cooking appliance in which a cooking zone can be used in the open state in a hotplate operating mode and in a closed state in a bottom heat operating mode. With this appliance the meals are laid on supports for the items to be cooked which are pushed into holder parts so that in the closed state the food is arranged as it would be in an oven with baking trays.
The object of the present invention is thus to create an opportunity for faster but still even heating of meals, especially for cooking frozen meals.
The present object is achieved by the method with the features of claim 1 and by the appliance as claimed in claim 15.
To this end the method features the following steps:
(a) Laying at least one meal on the cooking zone in a open state of the high-level cooking appliance and doing this without cooking utensils or accessories such as pots, pans or such like,
(b) Closing the high-level cooking appliance and
(c) Heating at least one meal in the closed state of the high-level cooking appliance at least through the contact heat from the heated cooking zone. The contact heat provides a rapid response compared to hot air and heats correspondingly rapidly.
So that the meal is heated up evenly, it is additionally heated in step (c) by hot air and/or radiated heat which originates from other heating elements, such as a ring element and/or an overhead heating element for example. Especially when hot air is used, it is advantageous for the cooking zone to heat up relatively quickly, whereas the hot air typically takes some time to increase the temperature in the cooking space significantly. Through this difference in the heating-up time the meal on the cooking zone is heated up rapidly e.g. defrosted, and then—with now sufficiently hot heating air—completely cooked or heated through. This process avoids an uneven cooking of meals, and time savings are produced since, inter alia, preheating or separate defrosting are no longer necessary. A typical application environment is the preparation of frozen pizza, which can be fully prepared with this method without preheating in 10 minutes.
Preferably the cooking space is heated by the cooking zone and a hot air function, but additionally or alternatively to hot air in step (c) the meal can also be heated by radiation heat.
The meal can, depending on consistency for example, be laid directly on the cooking zone, e.g. frozen pizza. The meal can however also be laid in a mold, a roasting dish, a foil tray or on a metal sheet on the cooking zone, e.g. cakes. In this case the intermediate layers do not significantly prevent the heat being conducted.
So that the cooking zone warms up quickly, it advantageously features at least one heating element and a cover made of ceramic glass or of a thin metal sheet. The ceramic glass preferably features a printed area, within which the items for cooking or the meal can be laid.
Especially with frozen meals, such as pre-cooked frozen meals, it is advantageous for fast preparation or cooking for the cooking appliance to be operated at high, especially maximum, heat power, especially at 3.6 KW. In this fast cooking process the high, especially maximum, power is maintained all the time, by contrast with the known cooking processes. Thus no rapid heating-up is employed here, in which there is only strong heating to start with so that the heat can then be reduced again once a preset temperature has been reached. This produces savings in time of up to 30%.
It is advantageous for even cooking of the (frozen) meals for the cooking zone (15) to be operated with a heat power which on average amounts to 40% of the entire heat power, especially up to 30%, specifically between 15% and 20% of the total heat power. The heat power is timed within a heat cycle; the heating elements can be operated in different ways in such cases. If the cooking zone is operated with a heat power of 15-20% of the total heat power, it is useful for the remaining heat power to be distributed to a ring heating element and/or an overhead heating element and/or a radiant heating element, e.g. a halogen lamp. In this case it is especially useful for the heat power of the ring heating element to amount to around 25% of the total heat power and the heat power of the overhead heating element to amount to around 55-60%.
Usefully the fan is operated for generating the hot air, especially at maximum fan power.
It is especially advantageous for a memory unit for storing fast-cook programs to be present, in which for example fast-cook programs for various frequently-cooked meals or meal types are stored, and thereby are also able to be retrieved by the user. The fast-cook programs can for example differ in the operation of the hotplate in hotplate or bottom heating mode and/or in the relative heat power of the different heating elements to each other and/or the duration. For especially convenient operation, for a fast-cook mode of operation only the meal type or—class and possibly a weight of the meal need be set. It is especially useful for the fast-cook programs to be able to be set by the user, e.g. the temperature or heating duration is able to be set to adapt the heating operation to the individual taste of the user. It is useful for the settings to be able to be reset to ex-works settings which can then be stored for example in a non-volatile memory, e.g. an (EE)PROM, or even a read-only memory, e.g. a ROM.
An exemplary embodiment of the invention is described schematically in detail below with reference to the enclosed figures. The figures show:
It can be seen from
In the exemplary embodiment shown the heating elements 16, 17, 18 are embodied as radiant heating elements which are covered by a glass ceramic plate 19. The glass ceramic plate 19 has approximately the same dimensions as the upper side of the base door 7. The glass ceramic plate 19 is also equipped with installation openings (not shown), through which sockets for holding holder elements 20 for pot supports 21 extend, as shown in
With the aid of a control knob provided in the control panel 12 the high-level cooking appliance can be switched to a hotplate or a bottom heat operating mode, which will be explained below.
In the hotplate operating mode the hotplate heating elements 16, 17 can be activated individually by means of control elements 11, which are provided in the control panel 12, via the control circuit 13, whereas the radiant heating element 18 remains inoperative. The hotplate operating mode can be executed with the base door 7 lowered as shown in
In the bottom heat operating mode, not only the hotplate heating elements 16, 17 but also the radiant heating element 18 are activated by the control circuit 13.
In order to achieve the most even possible browning profile of the food being cooked during bottom heat operation, it is of decisive importance for the cooking zone 15 providing the bottom heat to have an even distribution of the heat power output over the surface of the cooking zone 15, although the heating elements 16, 17, 18 have different rated outputs. Preferably the heating elements 16, 17, 18 are thus not switched on permanently by the control circuit 13 but the power supply to the heating elements 16, 17, 18 is timed. In this case the different levels of rated heating power of the heating elements 16, 17, 18 are reduced so that the heating elements 16, 17, 18 create an even distribution of the heating power output over the surface of the cooking zone 15.
The control panel 12 is primarily arranged on the front of the base door 7. Other alternative arrangements are also conceivable, e.g. on the front of the housing 1, divided up into different subpanels and/or partly on side surfaces of the cooking appliance. Further embodiments are possible. The design of the control elements 11 is not restricted and can for example include control knobs, rocker switches, pushbuttons and foil switches which include display elements 14, e.g. LED, LCD and/or touchscreen displays.
The control device 13 from
Heating programs can be selected and activated via the control panel 12. To this end one of the control elements 11 is configured as a heating program selection switch, for example as a rotary switch without a stop position, with the heating programs being cycled through by turning the switch. On activation of the heating program selection switch, which can also be a multi-function switch able to be set by further control elements 11, a numeric or alphanumeric display 14 displays the corresponding heating program. Using a control element 11 as a reset switch a specific heating program or all heating programs can be reset to the ex-works setting. Another of the control elements 11 can be embodied as a confirmation key for activating the respective function.
In fast-cook mode the cooking zone 15—for example in its bottom heat mode—and at least one further heating element are operated simultaneously, e.g. a ring heating element and/or an overhead heating element, which can be embodied and activated as a single circuit or as a number of circuits. In this case the cooking appliance is operated continuously at maximum power. Simultaneously the fan 23 circulates the heated air around in the cooking space 3. The maximum rated heat power amounts in this embodiment to 3.6 KW.
The activation of the fast cooking mode by pressing a corresponding key (digit combination) on the control panel 12 includes an automatic movement of the base door 7 from an open into a closed state, preferably with activated anti-jamming protection.
In
By means of the maximum power of 3.6 KW and the benefit of the contact heat created by the two-circuit bottom heat element of the glass ceramic (with or without metal tray/mold/foil tray etc.) such products are brought up to their serving temperature very quickly. The heating duration can be set as a function of the mass, structure (thickness, height) and/or the initial pre-cooked state of the food to be cooked. With the fast-cook function it is advantageous for the user only to have to allocate the food to a food class (e.g. pizza, potato products, baking items, roasting items etc.), e.g. by setting of a suitable heating program, and for the heating program then to set the optimum temperature and duration automatically. The weight of the food for example can also be entered if necessary. It is generally advantageous for the user to be able to modify the heat parameters.
With all embodiments other heating elements or differently designed heating elements could also be used, e.g. radiant heating elements etc.
The embodiments described above are not to be understood as restrictive.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102005038880.9 | Aug 2005 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2006/064697 | 7/26/2006 | WO | 00 | 2/14/2008 |