JP2002355172A - Rice cooker and warmer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cook porridge easily with the cooked rice kept warm in an inner pan of a rice cooker and warmer for cooking rice and warming the cooked rice. SOLUTION: Ingredients in an inner pan 1 where ingredients are put are heated by a heating means 2, and a controlling means 3 controls to cook rice and to warm the cooked rice. When water and seasonings are added to the cooked rice kept warm in the inner pan 1, and an input means 4 for porridge which starts cooking porridge begins to cook porridge, the controlling means 3 activates the heating means 2 to boil the ingredients in the inner pan 1 for a certain period of time and displays time necessary for boiling on a display means 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a jar rice cooker that operates for rice cooking and heat retention.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, most rice cookers have a function of keeping rice warm while keeping it warm. However, since the taste deteriorates when the temperature is kept warm, the number of households that cook and eat the rice in a porridge rather than eating the warmed rice as it is is increasing.

[0003] Conventionally, jar rice cookers have no function of cooking porridge, so they have been cooked in pots or the like.

[0004]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] When cooking rice kept in a jar rice cooker for porridge, take out the rice kept in a jar from a jar rice cooker, add water and seasonings and bring to a boil. There is a problem that it takes time and trouble to cook porridge.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a jar rice cooker in which rice is kept in an inner pot, so that porridge can be cooked as it is and porridge can be cooked easily. And

[0006]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, the food in the inner pan in which the food is to be put is heated by the heating means, and the rice cooking and the heat retaining operation are controlled by the control means. When water and seasonings are added to the rice kept warm in the inner pan and porridge cooking is started by the porridge input means for starting porridge cooking, the control means operates the heating means to operate the food in the inner pot. It boils for a predetermined time, and the boiling time is displayed on the display means.

[0007] With this, the rice cooker in which the rice is kept warm in the inner pot can cook the porridge as it is,
You can cook porridge easily.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is directed to an inner pot for holding food, a heating means for heating the food in the inner pot, and a control means for controlling the rice cooking and heat keeping operation. And a porridge input means for starting porridge cooking, and a display means for performing a display operation, wherein water and a seasoning are added to the rice kept warm in the inner pot, and porridge cooking is started by the porridge input means. The control means operates the heating means to boil the food in the inner pot for a predetermined time, and displays the boiling time on the display means. In addition, the control by the control means is started by the input from the porridge input means, and when the water is boiled and the food in the inner pot is boiled for a predetermined time (for example, 3 minutes), it is cooked as porridge and easily porridge cooking Can be. Here, by displaying the boiling time by the display means, it is possible to know the time until the porridge can be cooked, and it is possible to more efficiently perform kitchen work.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, when hot water is added instead of water, the control means reduces the heating output of the heating means. If the hot rice and seasoning are added to the warmed rice and input by the porridge input means, the heating output of the heating means is reduced to add water and seasoning to the warmed rice for cooking. You can cook porridge as you do.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, after the porridge cooking, the porridge cooking can be started again by inputting the porridge input means. In the case where it is difficult to prepare the porridge, the porridge can be cooked more softly to the user's preference by heating again by the control means in response to the input from the porridge input means.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided hardness input means for inputting the hardness of the porridge, and the control means controls the boiling time based on the input of the hardness input means. Is changed.
By changing the boiling time based on the input of the hardness input means, it is possible to cook porridge rice to a desired hardness, the hardness of the porridge can be easily adjusted, and the porridge rice of the desired hardness can be eaten.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, an inner pot 1 is installed in a rice cooker main body (not shown) to put food therein, and the inner pot 1 is heated by a heating means 2 to cook rice and keep warm. Is configured to be controlled by the control means 3.

The porridge input means 4 adds water and seasonings to the warmed rice in the inner pot 1 to cook porridge.
This is to start porridge cooking, which is input to the control means 3. Hardness input means 5 is for inputting the hardness of porridge, and is input to control means 3.

The temperature sensor 6 is attached to the bottom of the inner pan 1,
The temperature in the inner pan 1 is detected, and the boiling sensor 7 is attached to a lid (not shown) covering the upper part of the inner lid 1 to detect the boiling of the food in the inner pan 1 and input to the control means 3 respectively. ing. The display means 8 performs a display operation.

When water and seasonings are added to the rice kept warm in the inner pot 1 and porridge cooking is started by the porridge input means 4,
The control means 3 operates the heating means 2 to heat the food in the inner pot 1 and continues boiling for a predetermined time (for example, 3 minutes) after boiling, thereby cooking porridge and boiling. The predetermined time is displayed on the display means 8.

When porridge cooking is started by the porridge input means 4, the temperature in the inner pot 1 is detected by the temperature sensor 6, and when the detected temperature is equal to or higher than a predetermined temperature (for example, 60 ° C.), control means is provided. No. 3 judges that the hot water and the seasoning have been added to the rice kept warm in the inner pot 1, and the heating output of the heating means 2 is reduced.

Further, after the porridge cooking, the porridge cooking can be started again by the input of the porridge input means 4, and the hardness of the porridge is set by the input of the hardness input means 5 so that the time to continue boiling can be set. For example, it is changed to 2 minutes.

FIG. 2 is a specific circuit diagram of the present invention. A full-wave rectifier circuit 9 rectifies the voltage of a commercial power supply 10 and obtains a DC voltage smoothed by a smoothing capacitor 11. Heating coil 12
Constitutes the heating means 2 and constitutes an inverter circuit with the switching element 13 for oscillation control and the capacitor 14 for resonance, and supplies the high-frequency current by the inverter circuit to inductively heat the inner pot 1.

The microcomputer 15 constitutes the control means 3, and includes a drive circuit 1 via an oscillation control circuit 16.
7 is operated to drive the switching element 13 forming the inverter circuit. Porridge switch 1
Numeral 8 constitutes the porridge input means 4 and hardness switch 19 constitutes the hardness input means 5, each of which is input to the microcomputer 15.

The temperature sensor 6 is input to the microcomputer 15 via the A / D converter 20, and the boiling sensor 7 is input to the microcomputer 1 via the A / D converter 21.
5 is input. The liquid crystal display element 22 constitutes the display means 8, and the display unit 23 is formed of a light emitting diode, and is turned on when the hardness of the porcelain is set to be high.

The power supply circuit 24 includes the microcomputer 15
The oscillation circuit 25 generates a signal for operating the microcomputer 15.

The operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG. The rice cooking process is performed in step 26, and after the rice cooking is completed, the heat retaining process is performed in step 27. The operations in steps 26 and 27 are operations as a normal jar rice cooker.

Next, when water and a seasoning are added to the rice kept warm in the inner pot 1 to cook porridge, step 2
8 and subsequent operations are performed. At step 28, the presence or absence of the input of the hardness switch 19 is determined. If there is no input of the hardness switch 19, the process proceeds to step 30 and the hardness switch 19
Is input in step 29, the display unit 23 is turned on and the process proceeds to step 30.

In step 30, it is determined whether or not there is an input of the porridge switch 18. If there is no input of the porridge switch 18, the process returns to step 27 to continue the heat retention process. If there is an input of the porridge switch 18, go to step 31;
The output of the temperature sensor 6 determines whether the rice added to the rice kept in the inner pot 1 together with the seasoning is water or hot water.

In step 31, if the temperature of the water is 60 ° C. or higher, it is determined that the water is hot water. In step 32, the heating power of the heating coil 12 is set to a relatively low value.
If the temperature of the water is lower than 60 ° C., the heating power of the heating coil 12 is set to the standard heating power in step 33, and the process proceeds to step 34. In step 34, step 3
Heating is started with the power set in steps 2 and 33.

Next, at step 36, the boiling sensor 7
It is determined whether or not boiling has occurred based on the output of. If the boiling is not detected, the process returns to step 34, and if the boiling is detected, the process proceeds to step 36. In step 36, it is determined whether the display unit 23 is lit. If the display unit 23 is lit, that is, if the hardness of the porridge is set by the hardness switch 19, In step 37, the time for maintaining the boiling is set to 2 minutes, and the process proceeds to step 39. If it is determined in step 36 that the display section 23 is not turned on, the time for maintaining the boiling is set to 3 minutes in step 38, and the process proceeds to step 39.

At step 39, the boiling maintaining time is displayed on the liquid crystal display element 22, and at step 40, a timer is counted, and the boiling maintaining time is reduced by one minute every one minute. Then, in step 41, it is checked whether the remaining boiling time is 0 minutes. If there is still remaining time, the process returns to step 39 to continue the process. If the remaining boiling time has become zero, the process returns to step 27, and the cooking of the porridge ends.

If the porridge is softened a little more after the porridge cooking is completed, the porridge can be re-heated again by inputting the porridge switch 18 to make the porridge slightly softer.

In the present embodiment, the setting of the porridge before the porridge cooking is performed only by the setting switch 19, but it is needless to say that the setting can be made softer. Nor. In addition, although the induction heating method is used as the heat source, it goes without saying that other heat sources such as heating with an aluminum casting heater or heating with a gas are also effective. In this case, a liquid crystal display element or a light emitting diode is used as the display means, but it goes without saying that the same effect can be obtained with other display means such as a fluorescent display tube.

[0031]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the inner pot for holding the food, the heating means for heating the food in the inner pot, the rice cooking and the heat retaining operation are performed. Control means for controlling, porridge cooking input means for starting porridge cooking, and display means for performing a display operation, wherein water and seasoning are added to the rice kept warm in the inner pot, and porridge cooking by the porridge cooking input means When cooking is started, the control means operates the heating means to boil the food in the inner pot for a predetermined time,
The boiling time is displayed on the display means, so that water and seasonings can be added to the rice that is kept warm, and porridge can be easily made by input from the porridge input means, and the boiling time is displayed. By doing, you can know the time until you can cook porridge, you can work in the kitchen more efficiently,
A more convenient and easy-to-use jar rice cooker can be obtained.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when hot water is added instead of water, the control means reduces the heating output of the heating means. Even if hot water is added instead of seasoning and water, porridge can be cooked, and a convenient jar rice cooker that can be used for various uses can be obtained.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, after the porridge cooking, the porridge cooking can be started again by inputting the porridge input means. By heating again, it is possible to obtain a convenient jar rice cooker that can cook more softly and can respond to various tastes.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided hardness input means for inputting the hardness of the porridge, and the control means changes the boiling time based on the input of the hardness input means. By changing the boiling time based on the input of the hardness input means, the hardness of the porridge can be easily adjusted, and a user-friendly jar rice cooker that can respond to various tastes that can eat porridge with the desired hardness can be obtained. Obtainable.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a jar rice cooker according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the jar rice cooker in a partially blocked state.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the rice cooker;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 inner pot 2 heating means 3 control means 4 porridge input means 8 display means

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 4B055 AA05 BA34 BA36 BA42 BA65 BA71 CA09 CA71 CD42 CD51 DB01 GA07 GB03 GC13 GC24 GC36

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An inner pot for storing food, a heating means for heating the food in the inner pot, a control means for controlling rice cooking and a heat retaining operation, a porridge input means for starting porridge cooking, and a display operation Display means for adding water and seasonings to the rice kept warm in the inner pot, and start porridge cooking by the porridge input means, the control means operates the heating means to operate the heating means. Boil the food in the pot for a predetermined time,
A jar rice cooker that displays the boiling time on display means. 2. The jar rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein when hot water is added instead of water, the control means reduces the heating output of the heating means. 3. The jar rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein after the porridge cooking, porridge cooking can be restarted by inputting the porridge input means. 4. The jar rice cooker according to claim 1, further comprising hardness input means for inputting the hardness of the porridge, wherein the control means changes the boiling time based on the input of the hardness input means.