CN111381503A

CN111381503A - Cooking method and cooking appliance

Info

Publication number: CN111381503A
Application number: CN201811622617.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 樊杜平; 陈建化
Original assignee: SEB SA
Current assignee: Zhejiang Supor Electrical Appliances Manufacturing Co Ltd; SEB SA
Priority date: 2018-12-28
Filing date: 2018-12-28
Publication date: 2020-07-07

Abstract

The invention provides a cooking method and a cooking appliance, wherein the cooking method comprises the following steps: acquiring food material information; determining the freshness of the food materials according to the food material information; selecting a cooking mode of the food material according to the freshness of the food material, wherein when the freshness of the food material is high, a conventional cooking mode is selected; selecting a pressure cooking mode when the freshness of the food material is low. According to the cooking method and the cooking appliance, the freshness of the food materials is obtained, and different cooking pressures are selected according to different freshness of the food materials for cooking, so that the food materials with different freshness can achieve a good cooking effect after cooking.

Description

Cooking method and cooking appliance

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of household appliances, in particular to a cooking method and a cooking appliance.

Background

With the improvement of living standards, cooking appliances such as electric cookers are increasingly used, and the degree of automation and intelligence of the cooking appliances is also increasing. Automatic cooking ware has appeared on the market at present in the existing market, is provided with the device of the storage edible material in the automatic cooking ware, and through the rotation of control motor, the drive is eaten the material and is transported the pipeline through eating during automatic entering into the culinary art cavity (being interior pot) of automatic cooking ware to realize the automatic function of eating the material of joining, made things convenient for the consumer to a certain extent.

The automatic cooker does not have a device for automatically acquiring the food material information, and cannot acquire the food material information. If the freshness of the food materials is not high, a good cooking effect cannot be achieved by adopting a conventional cooking method.

Therefore, there is a need for a cooking method and a cooking appliance that at least partially solve the problems of the prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the technical problems, the invention provides a cooking method and a cooking appliance, which can achieve good cooking effect of rice with different freshness after cooking by acquiring the freshness of food materials and selecting different cooking pressures according to different freshness of the food materials.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cooking method comprising: acquiring food material information; determining the freshness of the food materials according to the food material information; selecting a cooking mode of the food material according to the freshness of the food material, wherein when the freshness of the food material is high, a conventional cooking mode is selected; selecting a pressure cooking mode when the freshness of the food material is low.

In one embodiment of the invention, the food material information comprises a production date T0, a shelf life duration T1 and a number m of cooking cycles experienced by the food material.

In one embodiment of the present invention, determining the freshness of the food material according to the food material information comprises:

determining the duration △ T3 of the food material from the production date according to the production date T0 and the current date T2 of the food material;

determining an equivalent duration of the food material from the date of production △ T4 from the duration △ T3 of the food material from the date of production and the number m of cooking cycles experienced by the food material.

Comparing the equivalent time length △ T4 of the food material from the production date with the shelf life time length T1 to determine the freshness of the food material.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the pressure cooking mode is selected, the method further comprises:

judging whether the pressure in the cooking appliance reaches a preset pressure or not; and

controlling the heating module according to the judgment result;

if the pressure in the cooking utensil does not reach the preset pressure, controlling the heating module to continue heating;

and controlling the heating module to stop heating if the pressure in the cooking utensil reaches a preset pressure.

and when the pressure in the cooking appliance reaches a preset pressure, opening a steam channel of the cooking appliance for exhausting.

in the boiling maintaining period or the stewing period, the amount of each exhaust is increased or the frequency of the exhaust is increased.

the time of the boil maintenance phase is increased.

introducing steam into the cooking space in the cooking utensil in a boiling maintaining stage or a stewing stage.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cooking appliance comprising: the heating module is used for heating food materials; a steam passage for communicating an outside with a cooking space inside the cooking appliance; the switch module is used for controlling the opening and closing of the steam channel; the food material information acquisition module is used for acquiring food material information; the control module is used for determining the freshness of food materials according to the food material information and selecting a cooking mode of the food materials according to the freshness of the food materials, wherein when the freshness of the food materials is high, a conventional cooking mode is selected; selecting a pressure cooking mode when the freshness of the food material is low.

In one embodiment of the invention, the food material information comprises a production date T0, a shelf life duration T1 and a number of cooking cycles K experienced by the food material.

In one embodiment of the invention, the control module instructs the switch module to close the steam passage when the pressure cooking mode is selected.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises:

a pressure detection module for detecting a pressure within the cooking appliance;

the control module is also used for judging whether the pressure in the cooking utensil reaches a preset pressure according to the detection result of the pressure detection module and controlling the heating module according to the judgment result;

wherein the control module controls the heating module to continue heating when determining that the pressure in the cooking appliance does not reach a preset pressure; and controlling the heating module to stop heating when the pressure of the cooking utensil is judged to reach the preset pressure.

In an embodiment of the invention, the control module is further configured to instruct the switch module to open the steam passage for exhausting when it is determined that the pressure of the cooking appliance reaches a preset pressure.

In one embodiment of the invention, when the pressure cooking mode is selected, the control module is further configured to increase the amount of each discharge or increase the frequency of the discharge during a boiling maintenance period or a simmering period.

In one embodiment of the invention, the control module is further configured to increase the time of the boil maintenance phase when the pressure cooking mode is selected.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises:

a steam compensation module for introducing steam into a cooking space within a cooking appliance;

the control module is configured to instruct the steam compensation module to introduce steam into a cooking space within the cooking appliance during a boil maintenance phase or a simmer phase.

According to the cooking method and the cooking appliance, the freshness of the food materials is determined by acquiring the information of the food materials in the cooking process, and then different cooking pressures are selected according to the freshness of the food materials for cooking, so that the food materials with different freshness can achieve a good cooking effect after being cooked.

Drawings

The following drawings of the invention are included to provide a further understanding of the invention. There are shown in the drawings, embodiments and descriptions thereof, which are used to explain the principles and apparatus of the invention. In the drawings, there is shown in the drawings,

fig. 1 is a schematic structural block diagram of a cooking appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural view of a food material storage and barcode scanning module of the cooking appliance shown in fig. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a portion of the lid at the steam channel seal of the cooking appliance of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow diagram of a cooking method according to an embodiment of the invention; and fig. 5 is a detailed flowchart of a cooking method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without one or more of these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in order to avoid obscuring the invention.

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It is apparent that the practice of the invention is not limited to the specific details set forth herein as are known to those of skill in the art. The following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, however, the invention is capable of other embodiments in addition to the detailed description and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural block diagram of a cooking appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The embodiment of the invention provides a cooking appliance 100, and the cooking appliance 100 can be an electric cooker, an electric pressure cooker or other electric heating appliances. In addition, the cooking appliance 100 may have other functions such as cooking porridge and cooking soup in addition to the function of cooking rice.

The cooking appliance 100 according to the present embodiment may have various structures, and as an example, the cooking appliance 100 according to the present embodiment generally includes a pot body. The pot body may be in a generally rounded rectangular parallelepiped shape, a generally cylindrical shape, or any other suitable shape. An inner pot of generally cylindrical shape or any other suitable shape is provided in the pot body. The inner pot can be freely put into the inner pot containing part of the cooker body or taken out of the inner pot containing part, so that the inner pot is convenient to clean. The inner pot is used for storing food to be cooked, such as rice, soup, etc. The top of the inner pot is provided with a top opening. The user can store food to be cooked in the inner pot through the top opening or take cooked food out of the inner pot through the top opening.

The cooker body is provided with a cover body. The shape of the cover body basically corresponds to the shape of the cooker body. For example, the cover may have a rounded rectangular parallelepiped shape. The cover body is arranged on the cooker body in an openable and closable manner and is used for covering the whole top of the cooker body or at least the inner pot of the cooker body. Specifically, in the present embodiment, the lid body may be pivotably provided above the pot body between the maximum open position and the closed position by, for example, a hinge. When the cover body is covered on the pot body, a cooking space is formed between the cover body and the pot body (specifically, the inner pot of the pot body).

The cooking appliance 100 is also provided therein with a steam passage to allow gas in the cooking space to flow to the outside of the cooking appliance 100. Wherein, the one end of steam channel is provided with the steam inlet with the culinary art space intercommunication, and the other end of steam channel is provided with the steam outlet with external intercommunication.

A steam compensation module is further provided in the cooking appliance 100 for introducing steam into the cooking space within the cooking appliance. Steam can be for the cooking utensil self production steam of collection, also can be for the steam that external steam or steam compensation module itself generated, can make the edible material in culinary art space realize moisturizing fresh-keeping, improve the purpose of taste through leading-in steam.

A controller is also provided in the cooking appliance 100. The controller can be arranged in the cover body and can also be arranged in the cooker body. The controller implements various functions by controlling various modules in the cooking appliance 100.

The cooking appliance 100 may have various functional modules, and the cooking appliance 100 provided in the present embodiment is described below with reference to fig. 1.

As shown in fig. 1, the cooking appliance 100 provided in this embodiment includes a food material storage module 10, a food material information acquisition module 11, a food material adding module 12, a heating module 13, a water adding module 14, a setting module 15, an indication module 16, a switch module 17, a pressure detection module 18, a cooking cycle recording module 19, a communication interface 20, and a control module 21.

The food material storage module 10 is used for storing food materials with identification codes. The identification code carries food material information, and the food material information comprises information of food material types, such as rice types, food material production date T0, shelf life duration T1 and the like. The identification code may be a two-dimensional code, a bar code, or the like. Exemplarily, in the present embodiment, the identification code is a barcode. The food storage module 10 may have various structures, for example, as shown in fig. 2, the food storage module 10 includes a plurality of food storage bins 22, the food is stored in the food storage bins 22, the identification code is attached to the food storage bins 22, and the information of the food stored in the food storage bins 22 can be obtained by scanning and analyzing the information of the identification code. Also, the ingredients stored therein may be caused to enter the cooking space of the cooking appliance 100, for example, by puncturing a seal at the bottom of the ingredient storage bin 22. The food storage module 10 further includes an indicator light 23 and a motor (not shown), and the motor can drive the food storage bins 22 to rotate under the control of the control module 21, so that each food storage bin 22 can be shifted to the position of the food information acquiring module 11. The indicator lamp 23 is used to indicate information, such as a location of the food material storage bin 22 or storage information, under the control of the control module 21. For example, when the food material storage bin 22 is rotated to the position of the food material information acquiring module 11, the indicator lamp 23 is turned on to indicate that the food material information acquiring module 11 scans the food material storage bin 22 corresponding to the currently turned-on indicator lamp 23. Alternatively, the indicator light 23 may indicate the number of the ingredients in the ingredient storage 22 by different colors, for example, when the indicator light 23 is green, it indicates that the corresponding ingredient storage 22 stores the ingredients, and when the indicator light 23 is red, it indicates that the corresponding ingredient storage 22 does not store the ingredients. The food storage module 10 may be disposed at any suitable position of the cooking appliance 100, and in the present embodiment, the food storage module 10 is disposed in a cover of the cooking appliance 100.

The food material information acquiring module 11 is disposed in a circumferential direction of the food material storage module 10, and is configured to acquire information of the food material stored in the food material storage module 10. The food material information obtaining module 11 may adopt a scanning gun or a scanning module corresponding to the identification code. Illustratively, in the present embodiment, the food material information acquiring module 11 employs a barcode scanning gun, which acquires the food material information by scanning a barcode on the food material storage bin 22 or a barcode on the food material in the food material storage bin 22. Exemplarily, in the present embodiment, the food material information acquisition module 11 is also provided in the cover of the cooking appliance 100.

The food material adding module 12 is used for automatically adding the food material in the food material storage module 10 into the cooking space of the cooking appliance 100 through the food material channel. The food material adding module 12 may include a motor and a corresponding structural member, and the control module 21 controls the motor to start to drive the structural member to move, so that the food material in the food material storage module 10 is automatically added into the cooking space of the cooking appliance 100 through the food material channel.

The heating module 13 is used for heating food material in the cooking space of the cooking appliance 100. The heating module 13 may be provided in the pot body, which may heat the inner pot at the bottom and/or the side of the inner pot. The heating module 13 may be an electric heating tube, or may be an induction heating device such as a solenoid coil. In the structure in which the cooking appliance 100 includes a detachable base, the heating module 13 may also be provided in the base of the cooking appliance 100.

The water adding module 14 is used to add water into the cooking space of the cooking appliance 100. The water adding module 14 includes a water outlet communicated with the cooking space, a water inlet communicated with an external water pipe or a water tank, and a pipeline connecting the water inlet and the water outlet. The water addition module 14 may further include a water storage module (e.g., a water tank) disposed on the cooking appliance 100 and a valve and a flow meter disposed on the water storage module or the pipe connecting the water inlet and the water outlet. The water addition module 14 may also include a water pump for pumping an external or water tank of the cooking appliance 100 into the cooking volume of the cooking appliance 100. And, a flow meter may also be provided in the water pump for determining the amount of water added. The water adding module 14 adds a predetermined amount of water into the cooking space under the control of the control module 21, and a better cooking effect can be achieved by precisely controlling the amount of water added. The water adding module 14 can be arranged on the cover body or the cooker body of the cooker 100, or a part of the structure is arranged on the cover body and a part of the structure is arranged on the cooker body.

The setting module 15 is used for providing various cooking settings for the user, such as setting rice type, taste, timing time, appointment time, cooking mode, and the like. The setting module 15 may be various keys, a touch pad, or a touch screen. The setting module 15 may be provided on a lid, a pot body, or a base of the cooking appliance 100.

The indication module 16 is used for indicating cooking information or other related information or status, such as total cooking time, remaining time, to the user. The indication module 16 may include an LED lamp, a four-position eight-segment nixie tube, a buzzer/speaker or other devices for displaying the cooking time and status set by the user or during the cooking process, and for sounding or voice-prompting the cooking status of the user through the buzzer. The indication module 16 may be disposed on the lid, the pot, or the base of the cooking appliance 100.

The switch module 17 is used for controlling the opening and closing of the steam passage of the cooking appliance 100. The switch module 17 may include various structural members and actuators. Exemplarily, in the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, the steam passage includes a steam inlet a communicating with the cooking space, a steam outlet (not shown) communicating with the outside, and a vent c communicating the steam inlet a and the steam outlet. The switch module 173 includes a sealing member 24 disposed at the vent c and a driving member (not shown) disposed in the cover body to cooperate with the sealing member 24 to drive the sealing member 24 to seal the vent c or open the vent c. That is, when the vent c is opened, the steam passage is opened to the cooking space and the external air, and when the vent c is sealed, the steam passage is closed. In the embodiment, the sealing member 24 is a steel ball, and the driving member includes an electromagnet and a push rod (not shown), and when the electromagnet is powered, the push rod will be attracted to drop the steel ball, so that the steam channel in the cooking utensil is in a sealed state; when the electromagnet is powered off, the push rod is disconnected, the push rod of the electromagnet moves forwards to push the steel ball away, and therefore the steam channel in the cooking appliance is in an open state.

The pressure detection module 18 is used to detect the pressure within the cooking space/cavity. The pressure detection module 18 may be a variety of pressure sensors. The pressure detection module 18 may also be a temperature sensor, and the control module 21 converts the detected temperature into a corresponding pressure value by detecting the temperature of the boiled water.

The cooking cycle recording module 19 is configured to record information such as a number of cooking cycles experienced by the food material stored in the food material storage module 10. The cooking cycle recording module 19 may be various memory modules such as an EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) that does not lose information when power is lost. Specifically, the control module 21 may record the number of cooking cycles experienced by the food material in each food material storage bin 22 of the food material storage module 10, and store the number of cooking cycles into the cooking cycle recording module 19, for example, after the cooking appliance 100 is powered on to cook each time, the control module 21 adds 1 to the number of cooking cycles experienced by the food material not used in the food material storage module 10, and stores the number of cooking cycles into the cooking cycle recording module 19, and when the number of cooking cycles experienced by the currently used food material needs to be known, the number of cooking cycles can be read from the cooking cycle recording module 19.

The communication interface 20 is used to implement a networking function of the cooking appliance 100, and a current date and time can be synchronized through the communication interface 20. The communication interface 20 can include one or more wired or wireless communication interfaces. Such as a communications interface network interface card, wireless modem, or wired modem. In one application, the communication interface 20 can be a WiFi modem. In other applications, the communication interface 20 can be a 3G modem, a 4G modem, an LTE modem, a bluetooth component, a radio frequency receiver, an antenna, or a combination thereof. Exemplarily, in the present embodiment, the communication interface 20 is an NB-IoT communication module.

The control module 21 is used to control the above modules and other modules of the cooking appliance 100, so as to control various functions of the cooking appliance 100 and various cooking modes or programs. The control module 21 may be implemented as the above-mentioned controller, which may be various types of controllers, such as an MCU and the like.

Exemplarily, in the present embodiment, the control module 21 is configured to determine the freshness of the food material according to the food material information acquired by the food material information acquiring module 11, and select a cooking manner of the food material according to the freshness of the food material, wherein when the freshness of the food material is high, a normal cooking manner is selected; when the freshness of the food materials is low, a pressure cooking mode is selected, so that the food materials with different freshness can achieve a good cooking effect after cooking.

A cooking method applied to the cooking appliance 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is described in detail with reference to fig. 4 and 5.

Fig. 4 is a schematic flow diagram of a cooking method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 4, the cooking method provided by the present embodiment includes:

step S101, food material information is obtained. Illustratively, the food material information comprises a production date T0, a shelf life duration T1, and a number m of cooking cycles experienced by the food material. Taking the cooking appliance 100 shown in fig. 1 as an example, when the cooking appliance 100 is powered on to prepare for cooking, the control module 21 may control the food storage module 10 to rotate, and acquire the food information of each food storage bin 22 in the food storage module 10 through the food information acquisition module 11, and then may read the number m of cooking cycles experienced by the food in each food storage bin 22 in the food storage module 10 from the cooking cycle recording module 19, so that when a user selects a specific food in the food storage bin 22, the production date T0, the shelf life duration T1, and the number m of cooking cycles experienced by the food can be known.

And S102, determining the freshness of the food materials according to the food material information.

Exemplarily, determining the freshness of the food material according to the food material information is realized by the following steps:

firstly, the duration △ T3, △ T3-T2-T0 of the food material from the production date is determined according to the production date T0 and the current date T2 of the food material.

Then, an equivalent time length △ T4 of the food material from the production date is determined according to the time length △ T3 of the food material from the production date and the number m of the cooking cycles of the food material, wherein △ T4 is △ T3+ k 0m, k0 is a coefficient related to time and is used for representing the aging time of the food material for each cooking, and k0 is more than or equal to 3 and less than 20.

Finally, the freshness grade F of the food material is determined by comparing the equivalent time length △ T4 of the food material from the production date with the shelf life time length T1, and the closer the △ T4 is to the shelf life time length T1, the higher the freshness of the food material is, the fresher the food material is.

Illustratively, in the embodiment, the freshness is determined by the size of △ T4/T1, for example, when △ T4/T1 is less than 1/2, the freshness of the food material is considered to be high, otherwise, the freshness of the food material is considered to be low, for example, when △ T4/T1 is less than 1/3, the freshness of the food material is considered to be high, otherwise, the freshness of the food material is considered to be low, for example, when △ T4/T1 is less than 1/4, otherwise, the freshness of the food material is considered to be high.

Step S103, selecting a cooking mode of food materials according to the freshness of the food materials, wherein when the freshness of the food materials is high, a conventional cooking mode is selected; selecting a pressure cooking mode when the freshness of the food material is low.

It should be noted that, in this document, the conventional cooking manner refers to heating by a conventional heating method, that is, during cooking, pressure cooking is not adopted, and only the heating module is used to heat the food material and water in the cooking space/cavity, so that the food material is cooked by the action of temperature, and during this process, the steam channel of the cooking appliance is sealed. The pressure cooking mode is that a steam channel in a cooking appliance is sealed, then a heating module is started to heat food materials and water in a cooking space/cavity, the water is boiled after the water is heated for a period of time, because the cooking space/cavity of the cooking appliance is in a sealed state at the moment, the pressure is generated in the cooking space/cavity after the water is boiled, the food materials are cooked under the dual functions of temperature and pressure, and in the process, the pressure in the cooking space/cavity is kept below the preset pressure by controlling the heating module and the steam channel.

According to the cooking method of the embodiment, the conventional cooking mode is selected when the freshness of the food materials is high, and the pressure cooking mode is selected when the freshness of the food materials is low, so that the good cooking effect of the food materials with different freshness can be achieved after cooking.

Fig. 5 is a detailed flowchart of a cooking method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 5, the cooking method according to the present embodiment includes:

step S201, food material information of all food materials in the food material storage module is acquired. That is, the identification codes of all food materials in the food material storage module 10 are scanned by the food material information acquiring module 11, and then the identification code of each food material is analyzed to acquire information of each food material. Then, the number m of cooking cycles experienced by the food material in each food material storage bin 22 of the food material storage module 10 can be read from the cooking cycle recording module 19, and when the user selects a specific food material in the food material storage bin 22, the production date T0, the shelf life duration T1, and the number m of cooking cycles experienced by the food material can be known.

Step S202, determining the freshness of each food material according to the information of each food material. The determination method of the freshness of the food material is as described above, and is not described herein again.

Step S203, selecting a cooking food material according to the user setting.

Illustratively, the food material meeting the requirement is selected from the food material storage module 10 according to the food material category, cooking type or other parameters set by the user. And then may be automatically added to the cooking space/cavity by the food material adding module 12.

It should be understood that although in the present embodiment, the freshness of all the ingredients is determined first, and then the ingredients to be cooked are selected, in other embodiments, the cooking ingredients are selected first, then the information of the selected cooking ingredients is acquired, and the freshness of the cooking ingredients is determined according to the information of the cooking ingredients. Namely, step S203 is executed first, and then steps S201 to S202 are executed, except that in step S201, in S202, the above operation is executed only for the selected food material.

Step S204, judging whether the freshness of the food material to be cooked is low. That is, the freshness of the food material to be cooked is determined from the freshness of each food material determined in step S202, and then it is determined whether the freshness thereof is low.

The freshness level determination method is as described above, and is not described herein again. Of course, it should be understood that the foregoing is only an exemplary method for determining freshness degree, and other methods may be adopted in other embodiments of the present invention, for example, first determining the freshness degree of the food material, and then determining whether the freshness degree of the food material is lower according to the freshness degree of the food material. For example, the food freshness grade is classified into 4 grade, and the food freshness grade is considered to be high when the food freshness grade is 1 grade or 2 grade, and the food freshness grade is considered to be low when the food freshness grade is 3 grade or 4 grade.

If the freshness of the food material to be cooked is high, step S205 is entered, whereas if the freshness of the food material to be cooked is low, step S207 is entered.

Step S205, selecting a conventional cooking mode, wherein the food to be cooked is high in freshness and is fresh. The meaning of the conventional cooking method is as described above and will not be described herein.

And step S206, starting the heating module for heating, and cooking the food to be cooked through the temperature effect.

Step S207, selecting a pressure cooking mode when the freshness of the food material to be cooked is low and the food material is an old food material or a dry food material. The meaning of the pressure cooking mode is as described above, and is not described herein.

And step S208, opening the heating module to heat and seal the steam channel. The control module controls the driving pieces such as the electromagnet to suck so that the sealing pieces such as the steel ball fall down, a steam channel in the cooking appliance is sealed, then the heating module is started to heat food materials and water in the cooking space/cavity, and the water boils after being heated for a period of time. At the moment, the hot cooking space/cavity of the cooking appliance is in a closed state, so that pressure is generated in the hot cooking space/cavity after the water is boiled, and the food materials are cooked under the dual functions of temperature and pressure.

In step S209, it is determined whether the pressure P1 in the cooking space is equal to a predetermined pressure P2.

Illustratively, the pressure in the cooking space is detected in real time by the pressure detection module, and the control module determines whether the pressure P1 in the space is equal to the predetermined pressure P2 according to the detection result of the pressure detection module.

The predetermined pressure P2 may have different values according to the type of cooking and the type of cooking appliance. For a rice cooker type cooking appliance, for example, the predetermined pressure P2 may be 20-70Kpa, such as 20, 30, 50 or 70 Kpa; whereas for a pressure cooker, the predetermined pressure P2 may be 100 Kpa.

If the pressure P1 in the cooking space is equal to the predetermined pressure P2, the flow proceeds to step S210, otherwise, the execution of steps S208 to S209 is continued.

And step S210, controlling the heating module to stop heating when the pressure P1 in the cooking space reaches the preset pressure P2, and exhausting air as required.

When the pressure P1 in the cooking space reaches the predetermined pressure P2, the heating module is controlled to stop heating so as not to continuously increase the pressure P1 in the cooking space.

And whether to perform the air exhaustion may be selected according to factors such as a cooking type, a desired cooking effect, and the like. When needs carried out the exhaust, then open the steam passageway, make the steam in the cooking space discharge to the external world through the steam passageway, pressure P1 in the cooking space descends the certain degree rapidly this moment, can make the water boiling in the cooking space more violent through the exhaust, does benefit to old/dry food material and reaches the culinary art effect of expectation.

By increasing the amount of single steam exhaust (the steam exhaust time is prolonged to △ t being more than or equal to 1s), increasing the steam exhaust frequency (the interval between two steam exhausts is shortened to △ t being more than or equal to 1s), or simultaneously increasing the amount of single steam exhaust and the steam exhaust frequency, the peculiar smell or the stale taste of the fat rancidity brought by the aged rice or the rice with longer storage period after being oxidized is improved, and the relative movement of water molecules in the rice is increased, so that the bad smell is removed and the hardness and the mouthfeel of the rice are improved.

Since old rice or dry rice is harder than fresh rice, the time t of the boiling maintenance phase is increased, and the increased time △ t is illustratively 1-20min, such as 1, 5, 10 or 20 min.

It will be appreciated that the above-mentioned increase in the amount or frequency of venting per time, and the time of the boiling maintenance phase are relative to the fresh food material, for example if the fresh food material is vented for 2 seconds per time during pressure cooking, the time of venting per time of the old/dry food material during pressure cooking is 3 seconds or 4 seconds, the venting time being increased by 1 second or 2 seconds.

For example, in the present embodiment, in order to achieve the desired cooking effect of the old/dry food material, steam may be introduced into the cooking space in the cooking appliance during the boiling maintaining period or the stewing period during the pressure cooking process. For the cooking utensil with the steam compensation structure, the collection and utilization of self steam or the introduction of external steam can be realized, and the temperature of the steam can reach the characteristic of being more than or equal to 90 ℃. The steam compensation is realized after the process of identifying as dry rice or old rice. The steam intervention time can be after identifying old rice or dry rice, and the auxiliary mode of introducing steam is added in the boiling stage or the stewing stage of rice (or in both stages at the same time), so that the food material can be preserved and moisturized by introducing steam, and the cooking taste can be obtained.

In step S211, it is determined whether the cooking process is finished.

Illustratively, whether the cooking process is finished is determined by a set cooking time. For example, when the boiling maintaining time or the stewing time is reached, the cooking process is considered to be finished, otherwise, the cooking process is considered not to be finished.

If the cooking process is not finished, the steps S205-S206 or S207-S210 are continued.

If the cooking process is finished, entering a heat preservation stage.

And step S212, entering heat preservation. I.e., the temperature in the cooking space is maintained within the set keep warm temperature range.

It should be understood that the cooking method provided by the present embodiment is not limited to the cooking appliance shown in fig. 1, but may be applied to any cooking appliance capable of acquiring food material information, and the acquisition of the food material information is not limited to be obtained by scanning the food material storage module, and can also be obtained by user input, that is, the cooking method provided by the present embodiment may also be applied to a cooking appliance without a food material storage module or a food material information acquisition module.

In addition, another cooking appliance is provided in an embodiment of the present invention, which includes a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor, and when the processor executes the computer program, the steps of the method shown in fig. 4 or fig. 5 are implemented.

In addition, the embodiment of the invention also provides a computer storage medium, and the computer storage medium is stored with the computer program. The computer program, when executed by a processor, may implement the method of fig. 4 or fig. 5 as previously described. For example, the computer storage medium is a computer-readable storage medium.

According to the cooking method, the cooking appliance and the computer storage medium, the freshness of the food materials is determined by acquiring the information of the food materials in the cooking process, and then different cooking pressures are selected according to the freshness of the food materials for cooking, so that the food materials with different freshness can achieve a good cooking effect after being cooked.

Although the illustrative embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the foregoing illustrative embodiments are merely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention thereto. Various changes and modifications may be effected therein by one of ordinary skill in the pertinent art without departing from the scope or spirit of the present invention. All such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another device, or some features may be omitted, or not executed.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. It is understood, however, that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the invention and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. However, the method of the present invention should not be construed to reflect the intent: that the invention as claimed requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the detailed description are hereby expressly incorporated into this detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and all of the processes or elements of any method or apparatus so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where such features are mutually exclusive. Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise.

Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that while some embodiments described herein include some features included in other embodiments, rather than other features, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention and form different embodiments. For example, in the claims, any of the claimed embodiments may be used in any combination.

The various component embodiments of the invention may be implemented in hardware, or in software modules running on one or more processors, or in a combination thereof. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP) may be used in practice to implement some or all of the functionality of some of the modules in an item analysis apparatus according to embodiments of the present invention. The present invention may also be embodied as apparatus programs (e.g., computer programs and computer program products) for performing a portion or all of the methods described herein. Such programs implementing the present invention may be stored on computer-readable media or may be in the form of one or more signals. Such a signal may be downloaded from an internet website or provided on a carrier signal or in any other form.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of elements or steps not listed in a claim. The word "a" or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements. The invention may be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In the unit claims enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The usage of the words first, second and third, etcetera do not indicate any ordering. These words may be interpreted as names.

The above description is only for the specific embodiment of the present invention or the description thereof, and the protection scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and the changes or substitutions should be covered within the protection scope of the present invention. The protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of cooking, the method comprising:

acquiring food material information;

determining the freshness of the food materials according to the food material information;

selecting the cooking mode of the food material according to the freshness of the food material,

wherein, when the freshness of the food material is high, a conventional cooking mode is selected;

selecting a pressure cooking mode when the freshness of the food material is low.

2. The cooking method according to claim 1, wherein the food material information comprises a production date T0, a shelf life duration T1, and a number m of cooking cycles experienced by the food material.

3. The cooking method of claim 2, wherein determining the freshness of food material from the food material information comprises:

4. The cooking method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when the pressure cooking mode is selected, the method further comprises:

controlling the heating module according to the judgment result;

5. The cooking method of claim 4, wherein when the pressure cooking mode is selected, the method further comprises:

6. The cooking method of claim 5, wherein when the pressure cooking mode is selected, the method further comprises:

7. The cooking method of claim 1, wherein when the pressure cooking mode is selected, the method further comprises:

the time of the boil maintenance phase is increased.

8. The cooking method of claim 1, wherein when the pressure cooking mode is selected, the method further comprises:

9. A cooking appliance, comprising:

the heating module is used for heating food materials;

a steam passage for communicating an outside with a cooking space inside the cooking appliance;

the switch module is used for controlling the opening and closing of the steam channel;

the food material information acquisition module is used for acquiring food material information;

the control module is used for determining the freshness of food materials according to the food material information and selecting a cooking mode of the food materials according to the freshness of the food materials, wherein when the freshness of the food materials is high, a conventional cooking mode is selected; selecting a pressure cooking mode when the freshness of the food material is low.

10. The cooking appliance of claim 9, wherein the food material information comprises a production date T0, a shelf life duration T1, and a number of cooking cycles K experienced by the food material.

11. The cooking appliance of claim 9, wherein the control module instructs the switch module to close the steam channel when a pressure cooking mode is selected.

12. The cooking appliance of claim 9, further comprising:

13. The cooking appliance of claim 12, wherein the control module is further configured to instruct the switch module to open the steam channel for venting when it is determined that the pressure of the cooking appliance reaches a preset pressure.

14. The cooking appliance of claim 13, wherein when the pressure cooking mode is selected, the control module is further configured to increase the amount of each exhaust or increase the frequency of the exhaust during a boil maintenance phase or a simmer phase.

15. The cooking appliance of claim 9, wherein the control module is further configured to increase the time of the boil maintenance phase when the pressure cooking mode is selected.

16. The cooking appliance of claim 9, further comprising: