JP2009121737A - Cooking apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cooking apparatus for quickly cooling the heated cooked material. <P>SOLUTION: This cooking apparatus includes a sealing means 2 for partitioning a part of a cooking chamber, a pressure reducing means 12 for putting the space partitioned by the sealing means 2 in the pressure-reduced state, and a temperature detecting means 15 for detecting the temperature of a cooked material, wherein the space partitioned by the sealing means is controlled to reduced pressure to cause boiling of the cooked material based on the temperature of the cooked material, whereby the cooked material can be quickly cooled to a desired temperature by evaporation latent heat. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a cooking device that cools high-temperature foods to an appropriate temperature, or a cooking device that has a function of cooling foods to an appropriate temperature after heating.

  Conventionally, in order to cook food, various types of heating such as a gas stove, an IH cooker, a microwave oven, and an oven have been used. On the other hand, in cooling, operations such as leaving the heated food as it is at room temperature or immersing it in running water if possible have been performed. Furthermore, in order to cool it coldly, it was kept in a refrigerator for a certain period of time.

  In particular, baby foods and nursing foods are very hot immediately after cooking and must be kept at a suitable temperature that does not cause burns.

  However, it takes a long time to cool the food immediately after cooking at room temperature, and it is not easy to eat when you want to eat, especially when you want to give baby food for infants who can not wait Couldn't give. In addition, there is a method of preparing in advance in consideration of the time to be cooked after cooking, but a problem arises in that miscellaneous bacteria propagate during standing in the summer.

  In addition, when a cooling operation was required during cooking, such as potato salad, it took time to complete the cooling process. Moreover, when it stored in the refrigerator with the hot state after heat cooking in order to cool rapidly, the temperature in a refrigerator rose rapidly and the situation where even the foodstuff preserve | saved was heated was invited.

  In response to the above-described problems, a cooker that can automatically cool food after cooking has been proposed. As one of them, a fan device that blows outside air is provided in the cooking chamber, and cooking control means is provided to cool the food in the cooking chamber by operating the fan device after completion of heating cooking when predetermined cooking is selected. There is a microwave. In the microwave oven, the interior of the cooking chamber is blown by the operation of the fan device after cooking, and the food after cooking is cooled. However, since the air blown into the cooking chamber by the fan device is at a normal temperature, it takes a little longer time for sufficient food (for example, Patent Document 1).

In addition, in order to cool even faster than the above conventional example, the cooking chamber of the microwave oven is depressurized to promote moisture evaporation of the food after cooking, and the temperature of the food itself is lowered and cooled by the latent heat of evaporation at that time Has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 2).
JP-A-3-168532 JP 2007-236158 A

  However, the cooking chamber immediately after cooking is occupied with high-temperature air by steam generated when the food is warmed, and even if the outside air is blown into the cooking chamber, the high-temperature air in the cooking chamber is cooled first rather than the food is cooled. Otherwise, the food could not be cooled, and it took time to cool the food itself. In addition, the method of reducing the pressure in the cooking chamber, such as a microwave oven, has a problem that the cooking chamber is not completely sealed, and thus requires a large amount of equipment for pressure reduction.

The present invention solves the above-described conventional problems, and is configured to depressurize a part of the space in the cooking chamber, and by varying the pressure reduction level while detecting the temperature of the food in the cooking chamber that changes as the pressure is reduced. An object of the present invention is to provide a cooker that quickly cools the food itself using latent heat of vaporization generated by promoting evaporation from the food.

  In order to solve the above-described conventional problems, a cooker according to the present invention includes a cooking chamber for storing food, a removable sealing means for sealing a part of the space in the cooking chamber, and the sealing means. It is configured to include a decompression means for decompressing the enclosed space from the atmospheric pressure, and by controlling the decompression means so as to reach the vapor pressure at which water evaporation of the food occurs, the latent heat of evaporation is generated from the food, and cooking is performed. The food itself can be cooled regardless of the ambient temperature of the room. In addition, by making a part of the cooking chamber hermetically sealed, a large-scale pump for decompression and a large-scale facility for making the entire cooking chamber a pressure-resistant sealed structure become unnecessary.

  In the cooking device of the present invention, when the food temperature is reduced to the vapor pressure at which the boiling point becomes the boiling point, water is evaporated from the food, and the food itself can be quickly cooled using the latent heat of vaporization that occurs.

  The first invention is a cooking chamber for storing food, a removable sealing means for sealing a part of the space in the cooking chamber, and a decompression for reducing the space covered by the sealing means from atmospheric pressure. The system is equipped with a means, the space for decompression is reduced, a large-scale pump for decompressing and a large facility for pressure resistance and sealing of the cooking chamber are not required, and the decompression state can be achieved with a simple configuration. it can.

  2nd invention was covered with the cooking chamber which accommodates a foodstuff, the heating means which heats the said foodstuff, the detachable sealing means which seals a part of space in the said cooking chamber, and the said sealing means The pressure reducing means for reducing the space from the atmospheric pressure is provided. After the food is cooked, it can be reduced in pressure with a simple structure as it is, and the high temperature food can be cooled to an appropriate temperature.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided steam generating means for introducing steam into the sealed space covered with the sealing means, so that the vicinity of the food can be efficiently filled without the steam being diffused and the steam is generated in a reduced pressure state. Can be heated.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, even if the food temperature is lowered to 100 ° C. or less by detecting the temperature of the food and controlling the energization amount to the pressure-reducing means so as to obtain a pressure-reduction level at which boiling occurs at the detected temperature In the boiling state, the food itself can be quickly cooled by being deprived of the heat of vaporization as it evaporates.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when the temperature detected by the temperature detecting means reaches a preset reference temperature value, the cooking chamber is returned to atmospheric pressure, so that a desired appropriate temperature can be obtained.

  6th invention is equipped with one or more temperature detection means, and calculates the pressure reduction level in which boiling occurs at the maximum temperature value among a plurality of temperature values detected by the plurality of temperature detection means, and energizes the pressure reduction means. By controlling the amount, it is possible to detect temperature unevenness due to the portion of the food, and to prevent severe bumping at the highest temperature portion.

7th invention prevents that the water | moisture content of the foodstuff in a cooking chamber evaporates excessively by returning the said cooking chamber to atmospheric pressure when the pressure value of a pressure detection means reaches | attains the preset reference value. it can.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the present embodiment. For example, in the first embodiment, a cooking device having a heating unit will be described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the heating unit is also described in the first embodiment using microwaves. It can also be applied to an oven using a heater, a cooker that performs grill heating or steam heating alone or in combination.

(Embodiment 1)
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of a cooking device showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a water vapor pressure curve diagram, and FIG. 3 is a first embodiment of the present invention. The graph of the temperature and pressure in the cooking chamber of a cooking appliance, and the energization amount of a pressure reduction pump is shown.

  In FIG. 1, a sealing means 2 is attached to the cooking chamber 1, and a part of the space in the cooking chamber 1 is sealed. The part where the sealing means 2 comes into contact with the wall surface of the cooking chamber is composed of the sealing member 3, which is in close contact with the wall surface of the cooking chamber and is sealed. The sealing means 2 is made of a heat-resistant plastic such as polypropylene or polycarbonate that can transmit microwaves. Or you may comprise from the tempered glass raw material like Pyrex (trademark). A steam generating port 4 is provided on the lower surface of the space (sealed space) delimited by the sealing means 2, and an evaporation tank 5 is disposed below the steam generating port 4. When water in the water tank 7 is pumped up by the water pump 6 and dropped into the evaporation tank 5, the water is heated by the steam generating heater 8 on the bottom surface of the evaporation tank 5, and instantly becomes steam and steam is generated from the steam generating port 4. Supplied.

  The steam generating heater 8 may be thrown into the evaporation tank 5 and mounted like a heater. Further, the water pump 6, the water tank 7 and the heater for generating steam do not necessarily have to be disposed on the lower surface of the sealed space, and steam may be sent into the sealed space through the steam passage.

  The cooking 9 placed in the space covered with the sealing means 2 is heated by steam generated by microwaves or steam generated from the magnetron 10. Further, if the sealing means 2 is made of a heat-resistant material such as Pyrex (registered trademark) or Teflon (registered trademark), the heater 11 can be heated. A decompression pump (decompression unit) 12 is connected to the space partitioned by the sealing unit 2 to depressurize the sealed space. The pressure detector 13 detects the pressure (decompression) state of the sealed space. In addition, the cooking chamber 1 is provided with a leak valve 14 to release the pressure of the decompressed sealed space to atmospheric pressure.

  The cooking chamber 1 is provided with a temperature detection means 15 comprising an infrared sensor, and detects the temperature of the sealed space and the food. The temperature detector 15 may be provided outside the cooking chamber 1 and may detect the temperature of the cooked product 9 through a hole having a size that does not allow microwaves to leak into the wall surface of the cooking chamber 1. The decompression level calculation means 16 calculates a target pressure value in the space covered by the sealing means 2 based on the detection signal of the temperature detection means 15 and detects the target pressure value and the pressure detector 13. Based on the value, the decompression control means 17 controls the energization amount of the decompression pump 12.

  The operation of the cooker configured as described above will be described.

In this cooker, the food 9 can be put into the cooking chamber 1 and cooked by microwaves from the magnetron 10. Then, the cooked food 9 immediately after the cooking or the cooked food 9 cooked in another cooking device is placed in the cooking chamber 1, the sealing means 2 is attached to the cooking chamber 1, and the door 18 is closed. After that, a cold target temperature is set with a temperature setting button (not shown) and cooling cooking is started.

  As the cooling cooking starts, the leak valve 14 is closed, and the temperature value of the food 9 detected by the temperature detection means 15 is sent to the decompression level calculation means 16. The pressure (vapor pressure) at which boiling occurs at the sent temperature value is calculated by the reduced pressure level calculation means 16. For the calculation of this pressure, the relationship between the atmospheric pressure and the boiling point of water shown in the vapor pressure curve of FIG. 2 is used. In FIG. 2, the horizontal axis indicates the boiling point of water, and the vertical axis indicates the atmospheric pressure. The boiling point of water at atmospheric pressure (100 kPa) is 100 ° C., but when the atmospheric pressure is lowered, the boiling point is greatly lowered. For example, if the temperature of the cooked product is 90 ° C., boiling occurs when the sealed space partitioned by the sealing means is decompressed to 70 kPa. In this way, the pressure at which boiling occurs is calculated from the temperature value of the food 9 and sent to the decompression control means 17 as a target pressure value. Further, the pressure value in the sealed space measured by the pressure detector 13 is also sent to the pressure reduction control means 17, and the energization amount of the pressure reduction pump 12 is determined by comparison with the target pressure value. The vacuum pump 12 starts to operate according to the determined energization amount. When the inside of the sealed space is gradually reduced in pressure, the cooked product 9 starts to boil. Due to the latent heat of evaporation during the boiling, the temperature of the cooked food itself begins to drop.

  For example, referring to the vapor pressure curve in FIG. 2, if the temperature of the food is detected to be 90 ° C. and the inside of the sealed space is reduced to 70 kPa, boiling occurs, and the cooling effect is obtained by the latent heat of vaporization at that time. . When the cooked food starts to drop below 90 ° C., if it remains at 70 kPa, boiling gradually stops and the cooling effect cannot be obtained. Furthermore, in order to promote boiling to cool the food, the pressure in the enclosed space must be reduced. If the pressure is gradually reduced to 56 kPa, the cooking temperature will boil up to 80 ° C., so that a cooling effect due to latent heat of evaporation can be obtained. The pressure in the sealed space is gradually lowered so that boiling and evaporation occur according to the temperature drop of the food.

  An example of the control of the decompression pump at this time is shown in FIG. The left vertical axis of the upper graph shows the temperature change of the cooking chamber as a solid line with temperature. The right vertical axis indicates the pressure change in the cooking chamber with a broken line. The lower graph shows the change in the energization amount of the decompression pump, and the energization amount of the decompression pump 12 is controlled stepwise or on / off so that the pressure in the space defined by the sealing means 2 gradually decreases. While increasing. Alternatively, the leak valve 14 may not be completely closed at the start of cooling cooking, but may be gradually closed to lower the pressure in the cooking chamber. The pressure control as described above is continued until the temperature of the cooked food reaches (decreases) the target temperature set in the initial stage of cooling cooking. When the temperature value sent to the decompression level calculation means 16 reaches a preset target temperature and final cooling temperature (for example, 60 ° C.), the decompression control means 17 sets the energization amount to the decompression pump 12 to zero. The leak valve 14 is opened. The sealed space returns to atmospheric pressure, and the cooked food is cooled to a desired temperature.

  As described above, the pressure in the sealed space in a part of the cooking chamber is gradually lowered based on the temperature of the food that changes in temperature, the food itself is boiled, and the latent heat of vaporization at that time is used. The food can be quickly cooled from the hot state to the desired temperature. In addition, since the pressure state is changed over time so that the temperature of the cooked product becomes the boiling point, it is possible to prevent the shape of the cooked product from being destroyed by intense boiling rather than being excessively decompressed.

  In addition, although the case where the cooked food 9 after cooking was cooled was described in the above example, the unheated cooked food 9 is cooked in the sealing means and then automatically cooled to a suitable temperature. You can also

Moreover, the following usage methods are also possible as a heating in the cooking appliance of the said structure. That is, a sealing means can be attached in the cooking chamber 1 to steam cook the unheated food 9 in the sealed space. When the sealing means 2 is not provided, if the amount of steam generated is small, the steam does not hit the food and the cooking chamber is diffused and exhausted. However, the sealing means 2 divides the cooking chamber 1 into small portions. Thus, an effect that even a small amount of steam fills the sealed space and sufficient steam can be supplied to the cooked food can be obtained. After the steam heating, cooling cooking can be continuously performed to finish the cooked product at an appropriate temperature.

  Moreover, the vacuum low temperature cooking can also be performed by making the inside of the sealed space divided by the sealing means into a reduced pressure state and keeping the unheated food in the steam heating or microwave heating at 60 ° C. to 80 ° C. . Since it is hypoxic in the reduced pressure space, it is possible to prevent oxidation of the nutritional components of the food and discoloration due to brown.

  Furthermore, when cooling a cooked product having a large surface area and uneven temperature, it is desirable to provide a plurality of temperature detection means to control the pressure in the sealed space. One temperature detection means detects only a low temperature part, not a high temperature part of cooked food with uneven temperature. When the pressure at which boiling occurs at the low temperature value is calculated and the sealed space is controlled to be depressurized, bumping occurs in the high temperature portion, which is very dangerous and the shape is severely deformed. If the said several temperature detection means 15 is provided, the temperature of a foodstuff can be detected over a wide range and the above-mentioned bumping can be prevented. The decompression level calculating means 16 calculates the pressure at which boiling occurs based on the highest temperature value among the temperatures detected by the plurality of temperature detecting means to decompress the sealed space. If a plurality of temperature detecting means 15 cannot be provided due to the construction, it is preferable to detect a wide range of temperatures on the food surface by rotating the food by 180 degrees using an infrared sensor or the like.

  The pressure value of the pressure detection means 13 is set in advance (for example, 10 kPa) as a configuration for preventing excessive evaporation and boiling from the cooked product and the pressure resistance of the wall surface of the cooking chamber, and the set pressure value. When the pressure reaches the pressure, the energization amount of the decompression pump 12 is automatically set to 0, the leak valve 14 is opened, the pressure in the sealed space is released, and the pressure is returned to the atmospheric pressure so as to achieve safety. The steam generated inevitably from the cooked product can be prevented from deteriorating the decompression pump by discharging it from the trap portion branched from the connecting pipe connecting the cooking chamber 1 and the decompression pump 12.

  As described above, the cooking device according to the present invention is such that the space for decompression becomes a part of the cooking chamber so that the device for decompression does not become large, and boiling evaporation occurs based on the detected temperature of the food. By reducing the pressure of the sealed space, the cooked product itself is quickly cooled by the latent heat of vaporization. Therefore, it can be used as a home-use or business-use cooker having a function of cooling cooking or cooling rough heat.

Schematic configuration diagram of a cooker showing the first embodiment of the present invention Water vapor pressure curve Explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between the temperature of the foodstuff in the 1st Embodiment of this invention, the pressure of a cooking chamber, and the energization amount of a pressure reduction pump.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cooking chamber 2 Sealing means 3 Sealing member 4 Steam generating port 5 Evaporating tank 6 Water pump 7 Water tank 8 Steam generating heater 9 Cooked food 10 Magnetron (heating means)
11 Heater (heating means)
12 Pressure reducing pump
13 Pressure detector (pressure detection means)
14 Leak valve 15 Temperature detection means 16 Decompression level calculation means 17 Decompression control means 18 Door

Claims (7)

A cooking device provided with a cooking chamber for storing food, a detachable sealing means for sealing a part of the space in the cooking chamber, and a pressure reducing means for reducing the space covered by the sealing means from an atmospheric pressure. . A cooking chamber for storing food; a heating means for heating the food; a removable sealing means for sealing a part of the space in the cooking chamber; and a space covered by the sealing means at a pressure higher than atmospheric pressure. A cooker equipped with decompression means for decompressing. The cooker according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising steam generating means for introducing steam into a sealed space covered with the sealing means. Temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the food; pressure detecting means for detecting the pressure in the sealed space; pressure reducing level calculating means for calculating a pressure reducing level at which boiling occurs at the temperature detected by the temperature detecting means; and the pressure reducing level. The cooker according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a decompression control means for controlling an energization amount to the decompression means by a control signal of the calculation means. 5. The cooking device according to claim 4, wherein when the temperature detected by the temperature detection means reaches a preset reference temperature value, the inside of the sealed space is returned to atmospheric pressure. The pressure reducing level calculating means calculates a pressure reducing level at which boiling occurs at a maximum temperature value among a plurality of temperature values detected by the plurality of temperature detecting means. The cooker according to 4 or 5. The cooking device according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein when the pressure value of the pressure detection means reaches a preset reference value, the cooking chamber is returned to atmospheric pressure.

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