CH712395B1 - Combi device with a control for controlling a cooking process. - Google Patents

Abstract

A cooking device comprises on the one hand a microwave generator and on the other hand a hot air generator and / or a heating device for heating the cooking space and / or a steam generator for supplying steam into the cooking space. By combining cooking technologies, the cooking time and cooking result can be optimized. The cooking device has a time mode (Z4-Z7) in which a desired cooking time can be specified. If, for example, a short cooking time is desired, the proportion of microwave power is increased. On the other hand, the cooking device has a power mode (L4-L7) in which a desired microwave power can be specified. Depending on the microwave power, the cooking device can predict the cooking time and display it via input / output means.

Description

description

Field of the invention The invention relates to a cooking appliance with a microwave generator and a hot air generator and / or a heating device and / or a steam generator for cooking food.

Background Cooking devices are known from the prior art, which optionally or in combination have a microwave generator, a hot air generator, a heating device for heating the cooking space and / or a steam generator for supplying steam into the cooking space. By combining several cooking technologies in a single device, space and costs can be saved. With such combination devices, a user can select one cooking technology or a simultaneous use of several cooking technologies at the beginning of the process.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The object of the invention is to provide a cooking appliance with improved ease of use.

The object is achieved by a cooking appliance with the features of the independent claim. The cooking device has a cooking space for receiving the food to be cooked and a microwave generator for heating the food to be cooked. Cooking in the context of this invention is intended to encompass all types of heating of the food to be cooked, for example heating, heating, but also thawing of food, dishes, liquids, etc.

Furthermore, the cooking device comprises a hot air generator and / or a heating device for heating the cooking space and / or a steam generator for supplying steam into the cooking space. A heating device is to be understood as a resistive heating in the cooking space or on the wall of the cooking space, in particular a grill, an upper heat and / or a lower heat.

Likewise, the cooking device comprises a controller for controlling a cooking process, a memory with at least one cooking program and input / output means for entering a process parameter. The cooking program preferably specifies what the starting state of the food is (e.g. «frozen carrots» or «unfrozen veal fillet») and the final state (e.g. «bite-proof» or «medium rare») of which the food is to be transferred.

The controller has a time mode, wherein in the time mode, the process parameter to be entered is the desired cooking time and the controller is designed to select the amount of microwave power supplied in the cooking process depending on the desired cooking time such that the cooking process in the desired cooking time is completed.

As an alternative or in addition to the time mode, the controller has a power mode, the process parameter to be entered being the desired microwave power in the power mode and the controller being designed to calculate the expected cooking time for the cooking process depending on the process parameter and on the input / output means display.

[0009] A cooking process is to be understood to mean any period of time during which the cooking device is in operation. This does not necessarily have to be a complete cooking process. Because it is also possible for a user to change the cooking program or mode during the cooking process and thus start a new cooking process.

[0010] The cooking programs can be designed as desired. It may be possible in a cooking program that the user manually specifies all of the information that defines the cooking program, while another cooking program according to the specification e.g. pre-programmed boundary conditions for the type of food to be cooked, e.g. regarding the initial condition and the desired final condition of the food.

[0011] The desired value of the process parameter and the cooking program can be specified via the input / output means. It is also possible for the controller to specify a standard value for the process parameter, which is used when the user has not specified a desired value for the process parameter.

The time mode and the power mode are basically the same modes, except that the process parameters are chosen differently. The starting point is the cooking time, the microwave power and the cooking program. While in the time mode the microwave power is determined as a function of the desired cooking time and as a function of the cooking program by the controller, in the power mode the cooking time as a function of the desired microwave power and as a function of the cooking program is determined.

[0013] Both the time mode and the power mode enable the cooking appliance to be operated comfortably by a further process value being determined automatically by the control system as a function of the process parameter.

The input / output means are advantageously designed for inputting the quantity and / or type of the food to be cooked. The control is trained

CH 712 395 B1

a) in time mode: to determine the microwave power supplied depending on the quantity entered and / or the type of food to be cooked and / or

b) in power mode: to calculate the expected cooking time depending on the quantity entered and / or the type of food.

The amount and / or the type of food to be cooked can be communicated to the cooking device by the user, for example, via the input / output means. It is also possible that the cooking device has devices, in particular a scale or means for optically recognizing the food to be cooked, with which the control can determine the quantity and / or the type of the food to be cooked itself. Furthermore, conclusions about the type and / or amount of the food to be cooked can also be drawn from the absorbed microwave power. Devices of this type, with which the cooking appliance itself determines the type and / or quantity of the food to be cooked, are also to be understood as input / output means.

With this additional information, which parameterize the cooking program to be used more precisely, the control can determine the microwave power more precisely for the food to be cooked, in order to keep the quality of the cooking result as high as possible. The cooking time can also be calculated more precisely on the basis of the additionally available information on the quantity and / or the type of food to be cooked.

Furthermore, the controller can be designed to provide a selection of cooking times in the time mode and / or a selection of microwave powers in the power mode depending on the input of the quantity and / or the type of the food to be cooked via the input / output means, i.e. limit the possible input ranges of the process parameter.

As a result, the control system preselects possible microwave powers and cooking times so that the user cannot select the values of the process parameters in such a way that a poor cooking result would be achieved.

Advantageously, at least three different desired cooking times can be entered via the input / output means in the time mode and / or at least three different desired microwave powers in the power mode.

It can thus not only be selected, for example, between activating and deactivating microwave power, but a graduated setting is possible, which can be carried out more precisely the more different desired cooking times and / or microwave powers can be entered.

The controller can advantageously be designed to set the microwave power in the time mode in such a way that a cooking result that is constant compared to a cooking process can be achieved without switching on the microwave generator.

This is possible, for example, by adding just as much microwave power to the control, depending on the cooking time entered, that at the end of the cooking time the same cooking result is achieved as if the cooking process had been carried out without the addition of microwaves with the maximum cooking time.

Furthermore, it is also conceivable that the control limits the microwave power and specifies more or less microwave power depending on the time of the cooking process. For example, the highest possible microwave power can be selected if a food is to be heated from the refrigerator to room temperature. At the end of a cooking process, Depending on the food to be cooked, only low microwave outputs are possible in order to achieve a constant cooking result.

If the cooking time desired in the time mode is chosen too low, the controller could correct the selection or suggest possible cooking times.

Whether two cooking results are the same can be determined, for example, by means of a texture analysis to assess the mechanical and physical properties of the food after the cooking process.

The cooking device can advantageously have a memory in which model parameters for determining the microwave power to be used in the time mode are stored as a function of the amount and / or type of the food to be cooked and as a function of the desired cooking time.

Likewise, model parameters for determining the cooking time to be calculated in the power mode can be stored in the memory as a function of the quantity and / or the type of food to be cooked and as a function of the desired microwave power.

The term model parameters is to be understood as any information that the controller can use to calculate the microwave power and / or the cooking time depending on the process parameters entered and on the selected cooking program. For example, these can be tabular values or parameters of functions. Furthermore, it is also possible for the cooking device itself to record data during operation and thereby optimize the model parameters stored in the device.

CH 712 395 B1 In a special embodiment, the control is designed to calculate in the power mode how much shorter the cooking time for the cooking process with the desired microwave power is compared to the cooking time for the cooking process without microwave power.

By means of a display of the cooking time reduction, the user can see the time saved by using the desired microwave power in the power mode. This allows the user to decide during the selection of the microwave power whether he is willing to accept an additional addition of microwave power in order to prepare the food more quickly.

Furthermore, the controller can be designed to take into account the magnetron temperature for determining the microwave power and / or for calculating the cooking time, preferably the current magnetron temperature at the time the desired microwave power or the desired cooking time is entered.

This can be achieved, for example, by measuring the temperature of the magnetron at the time of input in order to make a prediction as to whether the magnetron can only deliver a limited power during the cooking process due to the temperature being too high and the cooking time therefore being extended.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further refinements, advantages and applications of the invention result from the dependent claims and from the description that follows with reference to the figures. It shows:

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for operating the cooking device, and

Fig. 2 is a diagram of the dependence of the cooking time and microwave power for a specific food.

Ways of Carrying Out the Invention

Basics:

The cooking device described here has, as mentioned, a cooking space in which the food can be heated in a manner known per se using a microwave generator and another heat source. The “other heat source” is advantageously a resistive heating device which is arranged on a wall of the cooking space and / or a steam generator which introduces hot steam into the cooking space.

The device is equipped with a controller and with input / output means.

The control system provides the user with a plurality of cooking programs, of which the user can select one from the input / output means. Part of these cooking programs can be conventional, e.g. as classic operating modes steam cooking, microwave cooking, etc. However, at least some of the cooking programs are designed as automatic programs in which the control, as explained below, takes on an additional measure of control.

These cooking programs of interest here (generally referred to below as “cooking programs” or “cooking programs”) are provided for automatically converting a food to be cooked from a defined initial state into a defined final state under the control of the control system.

A cooking program of this type is preferably defined by characteristic quantities which the food to be cooked should have at the beginning and at the end of the cooking process.

The characteristic quantities at the beginning of the cooking process are e.g. one or more of the following sizes in question:

- Type of food (e.g. meat and / or type of meat, vegetables and / or type of vegetables)

- Quantity of the food (e.g. weight, volume, thickness etc.)

- Temperature or phase condition of the food (e.g. starting temperature and / or information on whether the food is frozen or not).

The characteristic quantities at the end of the cooking process are e.g. one or more of the following sizes in question:

- Degree of cooking (e.g. for meat an indication of whether the meat should be "well done", "medium" or "rare", or for vegetables an indication of whether it should be crispy or soft)

- Final temperature (e.g. in the form of a desired core and / or surface temperature) of the food.

The selection of the cooking program can be done completely manually or (via suitable sensors) partially or completely automatically.

[0042] In addition to this selection of the cooking program, the user can select a process parameter of the cooking program. This can be the desired cooking time or the desired microwave power P. This

CH 712 395 B1

Process parameters can e.g. be entered explicitly (eg in minutes for t or as a percentage of the maximum power or in watts for P), or implicitly ("long", "medium" or "short" for or "no microwave", "medium microwave" or "maximum") Microwave »for P).

The control of the device then controls the cooking process depending on the selected cooking program G and the specified process parameter t or P. For this purpose, it uses a numerical model which links the sizes G, t and P together. The model is stored in the controller such that it can calculate the microwave power P from the given values of G and t, or the cooking time t from the given values G and P. To do this, the controller may be able to evaluate one or both of the following functions f () of g ():

t = f (G, P) p = g (G, t) (1) (2) The functions f () and / or g () can be e.g. as part of tests and stored in the control in the form of numerical parameters.

Fig. 2 shows an example of the relationship between microwave power P (Y axis) and Gardauert (X axis) for a specific cooking program.

As can be seen, the microwave power P generally drops monotonically with increasing cooking time.

A curve C1 of the type shown in FIG. 2, the parameters of which are stored in the control, can be used both for calculating equation 1 (for a given microwave power P) and for calculating equation 2 (for a given cooking time t) ,

For example, a certain cooking program with a microwave power P of 300 W can be cooked in a time t300, but with the microwave power P = 100 W a time t100> t300 is required.

As mentioned, corresponding data are stored in the control for several different cooking programs, which differ in the characteristic sizes of the food to be cooked at the beginning of the cooking process and / or at the end of the cooking process. For each cooking program, model parameters are also stored in the memory, which allow the microwave power P to be calculated as a function of the desired cooking time and / or the expected cooking time from the desired microwave power. This is shown in Fig. 2 by the further indicated curves C2, C3, which show the relationship P (t) for e.g. specify different types of food or food weights.

For example, Curves for several different quantities of food to be cooked. If a cooking program is now selected for a specific quantity of food, the control system can interpolate a precise cooking time prediction or optimally adjust the microwave power.

In addition, e.g. Curves for a different degree of cooking, for example for "bite-proof", "soft-boiled", "for puree" etc.)

Procedure:

1 shows a flowchart for a method according to which the cooking appliance can be operated.

In step SO, a user switches the cooking appliance on via the input / output means. The control suggests a default cooking program to the user. For example, this can be a conventional cooking program, e.g. Oven operation at 190 ° C convection or a cooking program with microwaves, or around one of the automatic programs mentioned above. The user can then accept this suggestion or select another cooking program. For example, he can select a cooking program from the "Entrecote", "Filet", "Vegetable", "Pizza" etc. programs and, if necessary, further refine this selection by specifying characteristic sizes for the start and / or end status of the food. For the present example, the user selects the "Entrecote" cooking program, with the addition that the entrecote should be "medium" at the end of the cooking process.

In step S1 it is checked whether further information about the cooking program is required or is known, e.g. in the sense of the characteristic quantities mentioned about the initial and final state in order to specify the cooking program more precisely.

To determine the amount of food to be cooked, e.g. a scale is available, and / or a cooking product sensor, which can be inserted into the food to be cooked by the user, can determine the starting core temperature of the food to be cooked. Alternatively, the user can also enter corresponding values via the input / output means.

In step S3 it is checked whether the user has activated the time mode or the performance mode via the input / output means. These two modes are described in more detail below.

CH 712 395 B1 [0057] If the user has decided on the time mode, then in a next step he must specify the desired cooking time t in which the cooking process must be completed via the input / output means. For this purpose, the controller calculates possible cooking times in step Z4, depending on the available data, from which the user can select one. The higher e.g. the measured weight and the lower the starting core temperature measured by the food probe, the greater the minimum cooking time that the control system can suggest to the user for selection.

The magnetron temperature of the microwave generator can also be included in the calculation of the possible cooking times. If the magnetron temperature is already at a high value when the desired process duration and / or microwave power is entered, the controller takes into account when calculating the cooking time that the cooking process cannot be carried out with full microwave power. The minimum possible cooking time will be extended accordingly.

In step Z5, the user selects the desired cooking time from the possible cooking times.

In step Z6, the controller adjusts the course of the cooking program according to the cooking time selected by the user. For this purpose, in the simplest case, it calculates the microwave power P according to the above formula (2).

If, for example, the user has opted for a long cooking time, the food to be cooked can be cooked in the "Entrecote" cooking program at a low cooking space temperature and without microwave power. If, for example, the user has opted for the shortest possible cooking time, the cooking program starts with a maximum microwave power in order to raise the food from the starting temperature to a certain temperature value. In order to prevent poor cooking results, the control can also reduce the microwave power as the core temperature increases, i.e. the microwave power P need not necessarily be constant over the entire cooking process. However, it is in any case dependent on the desired cooking time t and the selected cooking program G.

In principle, the cooking process can then run through with the microwave power P determined in this way and can be ended automatically when the cooking time t has expired.

A somewhat modified variant is shown in Fig. 1, in which the controller monitors the state of the food, e.g. by means of a core temperature sensor. The control then repeatedly checks during cooking in a step Z7 whether the desired cooking time t can be maintained under the current conditions. If the core temperature of the food to be cooked rises less quickly than predicted, the control can, for example, increase the microwave power or the cooking space temperature or also reduce the microwave power at a later point in time in order to maintain the desired cooking time. The controller also checks the magnetron temperature at the same time. If a critical temperature value is exceeded, the control reduces the microwave power and at most increases the cooking space temperature in order to be able to maintain the desired cooking time.

If the user has activated the power mode via the input / output means in step S3, the control calculates in step L4 a possible selection of microwave powers which are proposed to the user via the input / output means and from which he can select one , To determine the possible microwave powers, the control, as in the time mode, takes into account the information resulting from the characteristic sizes of the cooking program, e.g. the information known about the food. Is e.g. If the «Entrecote» cooking program is selected and the food is already at room temperature, for example, the control does not suggest high microwave outputs to the user, because otherwise an unsatisfactory cooking result could be expected.

In step L5, the user selects one of the possible microwave powers as the desired microwave power P. The controller then calculates the expected cooking time according to the above formula (1) in step L6.

The cooking time determined in this way can then be displayed by the control to the user via the input / output means, for example as an absolute value or as a deviation from the cooking process without microwave power. This makes it easier for the user to select the desired microwave power because the controller always draws attention to the remaining cooking time.

In principle, the controller can now start the cooking process and end it in a time-controlled manner after the determined cooking time has elapsed.

As in the time mode, the controller can repeatedly check during the cooking in step L7 whether the cooking process is proceeding as predicted. In the event of deviations, the control can recalculate the cooking time and display it to the user.

Remarks:

While preferred embodiments of the invention are described in the present application, it should be clearly pointed out that the invention is not limited to these and can also be carried out in other ways within the scope of the following claims.

CH 712 395 B1

Claims (10)

claims 1. Cooking device for cooking food, comprising - a cooking space to hold the food, a microwave generator for heating the food, a hot air generator and / or a heating device for heating the cooking space and / or a steam generator for supplying steam into the cooking space, a controller for controlling a cooking process, - a memory with at least one cooking program, Input / output means for inputting a process parameter and at least one cooking program, characterized in that the control has a time mode (Z4-Z7), the process parameter in the time mode (Z4-Z7) being a desired cooking time and the control being designed for this purpose, to select a quantity of microwave power supplied in the cooking process depending on the desired cooking time in such a way that the cooking process is completed in the desired cooking time and / or the controller has a power mode (L4-L7), the process parameters in the power mode (L4-L7) is a desired microwave power and the control is designed to calculate an expected cooking time for the cooking process depending on the process parameter and to display it on the input / output means. 2. Cooking appliance according to claim 1, wherein the input / output means are designed for inputting a quantity and / or type of the food to be cooked and the control is designed a) in the time mode (Z4-Z7) to determine the microwave power supplied depending on the amount entered and / or the type of food and / or b) in the power mode (L4-L7) to calculate the expected cooking time depending on the quantity entered and / or the type of food. 3. Cooking device according to claim 2, wherein the control is designed depending on the input of the amount and / or type of the food in the time mode (Z4-Z7) a selection of cooking times and / or in the power mode (L4-L7) a selection of microwave powers to propose about the input / output means. 4. Cooking appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein at least three different desired cooking times can be entered via the input / output means in the time mode (Z4-Z7). 5. Cooking appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein at least three different desired microwave powers can be input via the input / output means in the power mode (L4-L7). 6. Cooking device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the controller is designed to set the microwave power in the time mode (Z4-Z1) in such a way that a cooking result that is constant compared to a cooking process can be achieved without switching on the microwave generator. 7. Cooking device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the cooking device has a memory, - In which model parameters for determining the microwave power to be used in the time mode (Z4-Z7) are stored as a function of the quantity and / or the type of food to be cooked and as a function of the desired cooking time, and / or - In which model parameters for determining the cooking time to be calculated in the power mode (L4-L7) are stored as a function of the quantity and / or the type of food to be cooked and as a function of the desired microwave power. 8. Cooking device according to claim 7, wherein the controller has a plurality of cooking programs, which differ in the characteristic sizes of the food to be cooked at the beginning of the cooking process and / or at the end of the cooking process, the model parameters for the plurality of cooking programs being stored in the memory. 9. Cooking device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the controller is designed to calculate in the power mode a reduction in the cooking time for the cooking process with the desired microwave power compared to the cooking time of the cooking process without microwave power. 10. Cooking appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the controller is designed to take into account a magnetron temperature for determining the microwave power and / or for calculating the cooking time. CH 712 395 B1 CH 712 395 B1