JP2024024852A - Food cooking equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To provide an apparatus that can efficiently heat and cook food having excellent taste. [Solution] A container 1 that can be filled with water vapor, and a container placed in the container that heats the water vapor in the container and A heating cooking device 100 comprising indirect heating means 3 for heating food raw materials with water vapor, and direct heating means 5-1 and 5-2 for directly heating the food raw materials arranged in the container. [Selection diagram] Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a food cooking device.

In cooking rice such as packed rice, a method of steaming under constant temperature conditions is widely used. For example, in Patent Document 1, hot water is produced by heat exchange between a chamber equipped with a conveyance device for conveying rice, a superheated steam supply device that supplies superheated steam into the chamber, and the steam discharged from the chamber. a heat exchanger; and a water sprinkling means for sprinkling hot water produced by the heat exchanger onto the rice in the chamber; the heat exchanger includes a cooling pipe through which water for heat exchange flows; A continuous rice cooking device is disclosed that includes a cooling tower that brings the water vapor into contact with the pipe, and an exhaust fan installed above the opening at the top of the cooling tower.

Patent No. 6474558

It is known that the flavor and texture of cooked rice can be improved by changing the temperature, pressure, etc., and this has been put to practical use in home rice cookers. However, in order to cope with mass production, the equipment and the like are large-scale, and no method has been proposed to improve the rice cooking characteristics on an industrially practical scale. In addition, when manufacturing packed rice by placing soaked rice in a container and sterilizing, pouring water, cooking, and packaging the container, the container is placed in a multi-stage gondola, etc., and placed in a steam-filled device for a certain amount of time. It was common to cook rice by letting it stay for a while. In this case, because there are temperature differences between parts of the gondola, it was necessary to supply more steam than necessary to match the taste. For this reason, a large amount of energy such as a large amount of steam was required in the rice cooking process. Although the device of Patent Document 1 is said to be able to achieve energy saving, there is no description regarding taste or the like. Therefore, there has been a desire for an apparatus that can efficiently heat and cook foods with excellent taste, but such an apparatus has not yet been achieved. In view of such circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus that can efficiently heat and cook foods having excellent taste.

The inventors have discovered that the above problem can be solved by an apparatus including indirect heating means and direct heating means. That is, the above-mentioned problem is solved by the present invention described below.

Aspect 1
a container capable of being filled with water vapor;
indirect heating means disposed within the container that heats water vapor within the container and heats food ingredients with the water vapor;
Direct heating means arranged in the container and directly heating the food raw material;
A heating cooking device equipped with.
Aspect 2
The apparatus according to aspect 1, wherein the food raw material is a starchy food raw material.
Aspect 3
The device according to aspect 1 or 2, wherein the food raw material is in the form of granules or noodles.
Aspect 4
the device comprises a transfer means for transferring the food material within the container;
The transfer means first transfers the food raw material to the top of the container in the vertical direction, and then transfers it to the bottom of the container.
The device according to any one of aspects 1 to 3.
Aspect 5
The transport means is
It has a function of repeating the process of transferring the food raw material from a certain position A almost horizontally to a position B, and then transferring it from position B vertically downward to a position C one or more times.
The device according to aspect 4.
Aspect 6
The apparatus according to any one of aspects 1 to 5, wherein the direct heating means is provided near the inlet for the food raw material.
Aspect 7
The direct heating means is selected from:
1) Heating means using conductive heat transfer; 2) Heating means using radiation heat transfer; 3) Heating means using latent heat of condensation; 4) The device according to any one of combinations of two or more of these.
Aspect 8
The apparatus according to aspect 7, wherein the heating means using latent heat of condensation is a heating means that directly injects steam to the food raw material.
Aspect 9
The apparatus according to any one of aspects 1 to 8, wherein the indirect heating means is a heat exchanger.
Aspect 10
The device according to any one of aspects 1 to 9, which is a rice cooking device.
Aspect 11
A method of cooking the food raw material using the apparatus according to any one of aspects 1 to 10, comprising:
filling the container with water vapor;
introducing the food raw material into the container filled with water vapor; and heating the food raw material using the direct heating means and the indirect heating means.
A heating cooking method comprising:
Aspect 12
12. The method according to aspect 11, further comprising a sterilization step.
Aspect 13
A food cooked using the apparatus according to any one of aspects 1 to 10.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an apparatus that can efficiently heat and cook foods having excellent taste.

A diagram showing an outline of the heating cooking device of the present invention Diagram showing the temperature change of water in the plastic tray in Example 1 Diagram showing one aspect of gondola transportation

The present invention will be explained in detail below. In the present invention, "X to Y" includes the end values of X and Y.

1. Heat Cooking Apparatus The heat cooking apparatus includes a container that can be filled with water vapor, an indirect heating means placed in the container that heats the water vapor in the container, and an indirect heating means placed in the container that heats the water vapor in the container. Direct heating means for directly heating. The device will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a heating cooking apparatus, in which 100 is a heating cooking apparatus, 1 is a container, 3 is an indirect heating means, 5-1 and 5-2 are direct heating means, 5' is a steam supplying means, 7 is a transfer means, 9 is an exhaust pipe, and 10 is a gondola on which food raw materials are loaded. As described later, 5-1 and 5-2 can also serve as steam supply means, and 5' can also serve as direct heating means. An arrow near the gondola 10 indicates the direction in which the gondola 10 is transported.

(1) Container The container 1 is a container in the device. Its size depends on the amount of food ingredients to be cooked. In one embodiment, the container 1 has a size that allows continuous heat treatment by installing a plurality to several hundred gondolas 10 that can store several to several dozen 200 g packed rice. The container 1 must be capable of being filled with water vapor. In one embodiment, filling the container 1 with water vapor means that by filling the container 1 with water vapor, the temperature inside the container 1 can be increased to 80° C. or higher, and the relative humidity can be increased to 70% or higher. Therefore, it is preferable that the container 1 be sealed or close to sealed.

The material constituting the container 1 is not limited, but examples thereof include metal materials such as stainless steel, fiber-reinforced plastics, and the like.

The container 1 has an inlet for taking food ingredients in and out. The inlet can be provided with a lid or the like, and it is preferable that the inlet be closed or close to closed so that it can be filled with steam during cooking. The cooking device 100 includes a steam supply means 5' that supplies steam into the container 1. The water vapor supply means 5' may be, for example, a pipe through which water vapor can flow, and which has a water vapor discharge hole on its circumferential surface. The steam supply means 5' can be installed only for the purpose of supplying steam into the container 1, but by injecting steam directly to the food raw material, direct heating by condensation heat transfer (latent heat) is performed. It is possible to use water vapor efficiently. That is, the steam supply means 5' may have a function as a direct heating means.

Although the shape of the container 1 is not limited, it can be a substantially rectangular parallelepiped having a ceiling, side walls, and a bottom. The bottom may be provided with a groove for collecting the drain.

From the viewpoint of heating efficiency, the container 1 preferably has a shape that allows food ingredients to move along the inner wall horizontally (in the horizontal direction in the plane of the drawing in FIG. 1) and vertically (in the vertical direction in the plane of the drawing in FIG. 1). .

(2) Direct heating means Direct heating means is means for directly heating food raw materials. The means is preferably selected from 1) heating means using conductive heat transfer, 2) heating means using radiation heat transfer, 3) heating means using latent heat of condensation, and 4) a combination of two or more of these.

1) Heating means using conductive heat transfer Examples of the means include a heater, a burner, and the like. These devices can directly apply heat to an object by bringing flame or the like into direct contact with the object.

2) Heating means using radiant heat transfer Examples of the means include far infrared rays, microwaves, high frequency irradiation, and the like. These devices vibrate the molecules of a substance by irradiating them with radio waves such as high-frequency waves, and the resulting frictional heat increases the temperature of the object.

3) Heating means using condensation heat transfer (latent heat) Examples of such means include means that utilizes latent heat due to phase transition of substances. Specifically, heating means using water vapor can be mentioned. When water vapor is applied to an object, a phase transition occurs instantaneously. In other words, saturated steam changes to saturated water, and in that instant, the latent heat it possesses is released, and the object is heated by this released latent heat.

Among these, a heating means using condensed heat transfer (latent heat) is preferable from the viewpoint of quickly heating the food raw material, and a steam injection means that directly injects water vapor onto the food raw material is more preferable. In the figure, arrows extending from the direct heating means 5 indicate the flow of water vapor.

As shown in FIG. 1, the direct heating means 5-1 is preferably provided near the inlet of the food material in the container 1 so as to be able to directly heat the food material. This is because if the food raw material is directly heated in the early stage of the cooking process, if the food raw material contains starch, gelatinization will proceed quickly and excellent texture or taste can be achieved. Furthermore, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, it is possible to provide direct heating means 5-2 so that steam can be further injected into the food material in subsequent steps. In this case, the direct heating means 5-2 can also serve as the steam supply means 5'. By arranging the direct heating means 5-2 at the top of the container in this manner, it is possible to efficiently and uniformly fill the container with steam while adjusting the amount of steam directly injected onto the product. Further, in order to adjust the heating conditions for the food raw materials in the process, it is possible to adjust the timing, direction, etc. of this steam injection.

(3) Indirect heating means The indirect heating means 3 heats the water vapor in the container 1, and this water vapor heats the food material, that is, indirectly heats the food material. Although the indirect heating means 3 is not limited, it is preferably a heat exchanger. A heat exchanger is a device that efficiently transfers heat from an object with a higher temperature to an object with a lower temperature. Specifically, the indirect heating means 3 is preferably a pipe through which heating fluid can flow. Preferably, the heating fluid is water vapor. In this case, the internal pressure within the pipe is preferably about 0.05 to 1 MPa, more preferably about 0.1 to 0.5 MPa, and still more preferably about 0.2 to 0.4 MPa.

(4) Transfer means Transfer means are means for transferring food raw materials. The transfer means is not limited, but may be stored and transferred in a gondola, a rack, etc., or may be a movable belt-like means such as a chain conveyor or a belt conveyor.

Although the transfer method is not limited, it is preferable to transfer the food raw material to the top of the container 1 in the vertical direction and then to the bottom of the container 1. Inside the container 1, the temperature is higher in the vertical upper part, so if the food ingredients are transferred in this way, the food ingredients can be sufficiently heated from the initial stage of the cooking process. The food ingredients can also be transferred vertically to the top of the container 1, horizontally along the ceiling of the container 1, and then transferred to the bottom. By horizontally transferring the inside of the container 1 filled with water vapor, the food raw materials can be heated uniformly and variations in the food raw materials can be prevented. Further, the transfer means performs a process of first transferring the food raw material to the top in the vertical direction within the container 1, then transferring it almost horizontally from the transferred position, and then transferring it toward the bottom of the container. It is preferable to have the function of repeating one or more times. Specifically, in this process, as shown in FIG. 3, the food raw material is transferred from a certain position A to a position B in a substantially horizontal direction, and then the food raw material is transferred vertically downward to a position C. Preferably, this process is carried out 2 to 10 times, more preferably twice. Since water vapor accumulates horizontally within the container, food materials are exposed to similar concentrations of water vapor during horizontal movement, and can be heated continuously under similar conditions. Effects such as being able to heat the product uniformly, adjusting the heating time, and saving space in the device are achieved. Note that position B may be located on a straight line parallel to the X direction from position A, or may be located in front of position A in the Z direction (direction perpendicular to X and Y) (towards the front of the page). It may be located at the back in the Z direction (in the back direction of the page). Furthermore, food ingredients can be transported in a spiral from position A through positions B and C.

(5) Food raw materials Food raw materials are raw materials for foods that become edible after being cooked. Although the food raw material is not limited, it is preferably a starch-containing food raw material. When food materials containing starch are cooked using the cooking/heating device of the present invention, the starch can be pregelatinized at an early stage, thereby improving the texture and taste.

The shape of the food raw material is not particularly limited, but it is preferably granular or noodle-shaped such as noodle strips or noodle strings. When the food material has this shape, water vapor easily enters between grains or noodles, improving heating efficiency.

Examples of granular food raw materials include rice, beans, wheat, cereals, corn, and the like. Examples of rice include non-glutinous rice, glutinous rice, brown rice, etc. Examples of legumes include adzuki beans, soybeans, etc. Examples of wheat include wheat, barley, rye, oats, etc., and cereals include millet and millet. , millet, etc. After washing the rice, beans, wheat, cereals, corn, etc., it is preferable to soak them in water for a certain period of time to absorb water. By performing such processing, the cooking time can be shortened. In particular, when water-absorbed rice is used as a food ingredient, the surface of the rice is quickly gelatinized, which has the advantage of preventing the rice from losing its shape. The amount of water absorbed at this time may be an amount commonly employed in the field. Mixtures of rice, beans, wheat, millet, corn, etc. can also be used as food raw materials. When the food material is rice, the heating cooking device is also a rice cooking device.

Examples of noodle-like food materials include noodles such as ramen, soba, udon, and spaghetti, noodle strips such as gyoza wrappers, dim sum wrappers, and the like.

It is preferable that the food raw material is filled into a container to be described later, and the container is inserted into the container 1 together with the container. The amount of food raw material to be filled into a container varies depending on the type of food raw material and the use of the cooked food to be produced. For example, when water-absorbed nonglutinous rice is used as the food raw material, it is preferable to fill the rice in an amount of 80 to 300 g, since this allows production of aseptically packaged cooked rice in an amount suitable for one serving.

The container has an opening for filling with food ingredients. The shape is preferably a substantially rectangular parallelepiped for reasons such as ease of filling with food ingredients. The size of the container varies depending on the type of the food material to be filled and the use of the aseptic packaged food to be produced. For example, when producing a sterile packaged food using 80 to 150 g of water-absorbed nonglutinous rice as the food raw material, the preferred size is 110 to 160 mm in length, 160 to 220 mm in width, and 10 to 60 mm in height. It is preferable that the container has a heat resistance of 110° C. or higher.

The container may also be mounted on a gondola as shown. Although the size of the gondola is not limited, it is preferably large enough to carry several to several hundred containers.

2. Manufacturing method The heating cooking method using the heating cooking device may include at least a step 1 of filling the container with steam, and a step 2 of introducing the food raw material into the container filled with saturated steam. preferable.
(1) Process 1
Water vapor can be filled using the above-mentioned water vapor supply means or water vapor injection means. The degree of filling is as described above. Food ingredients can be heated by convection in a state filled with water vapor.

(2) Process 2
It is preferable that the food raw material is introduced into the container 1 after being filled in a container as described above, and it is more preferable that the food material is introduced into the container 1 while the container is mounted on a gondola. It is preferable to use the above-mentioned transfer means 7 for introduction.

(3) Cooking process In a preferred embodiment, the food raw material is loaded into the gondola 10, introduced into the container 1, transported vertically upward, and heated by direct injection of steam from the direct heating means 5-1. Next, the gondola 10 is transported horizontally (to the right in the paper) along the ceiling. At this time, the steam injected from the direct heating means 5-2 heats the container. The food raw material is further heated by direct heating by the steam from the top of the container and by the steam heated by the indirect heating means 3. Next, the gondola 10 is transported vertically downward. During this time as well, the food ingredients are heated by the steam heated by the indirect heating means 3. Then, the gondola 10 is transported horizontally (to the left in the drawing) along the bottom, and is transported out of the container 1 through the opening. As mentioned above, this process can be repeated multiple times. The time for the cooking process is not limited, but in one embodiment is about 10 to 30 minutes.

(4) Sterilization step It is preferable that the heating cooking method further includes a heating sterilization step that is effective as a food product. The sterilization process can be carried out using a known device without using the heating cooking device. The heating temperature and time that are effective for food products are the temperature and time such that the F ₀ value, which is an index of sterilization strength, reaches 4 or more, preferably 4.5 or more, and more preferably 10 or more. The F ₀ value is the F value when the reference temperature Tr = 121.1°C and the Z value = 10 in the formula below that defines the sterilization strength F value. "Practice" p. 60-68, Saiwai Shobo, 1986).

F: Sterilization strength
t _T : Heating time (minutes)
T: Temperature inside the container (℃)
Tr: Reference temperature (℃)
Z: A parameter that indicates how much the death rate depends on temperature

3. Food By using this heating cooking device, it is possible to adjust the processing conditions while using stronger heating conditions than conventional ones, so the food cooked through the adjusted process has excellent texture. and taste. Although the food can be used in many foods such as room-temperature foods and frozen foods, sterilized and sealed foods are particularly preferred. Sterilized and sealed foods can be eaten as is or by heating them. In the case of packaged rice, it is preferable to heat the container together in a microwave oven to warm it to a temperature suitable for eating.

[Example 1]
(1) Apparatus A rice cooking apparatus 100 as shown in FIG. 1 was prepared. The device comprises a box-shaped container with a ceiling, side plates, and a bottom plate capable of collecting drain water. The device has a conveyor means 7 (conveyor chain) that circulates inside the container from outside the container (rice cooking chamber) along the inner wall of the container. Gondolas 10 were attached to the conveyor chain at equal intervals. One gondola 10 contained four containers filled with rice and boiling water prepared by the method described below.

(2) Rice 1) 100g of Koshihikari polished rice was weighed.
2) After washing the rice, a predetermined amount of water was added and soaked at 20°C for 70 minutes.
3) 98 g of soaked rice was filled into a plastic tray (trade name: Lamicon Cup, manufactured by Tokan Kogyo Co., Ltd., dimensions: 29 mm x 118 mm x 179 mm).
4) Pressure and heat sterilization was performed on the soaked rice under predetermined conditions using a pressure and heat sterilizer disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 6047320. Sterilization was performed in a pressure heat sterilizer at a temperature of 140° C. and a maximum pressure of 0.3 MPa.
5) 75g of water at 20-25°C was added to the plastic tray.
6) The plastic tray filled with the soaked rice and water was loaded onto the gondola 10.
7) Using the above device, rice was cooked under the conditions shown in the next section.
8) After cooking the rice, the plastic tray was sealed with a sealant, and a steaming process was performed to obtain cooked rice.

(3) Rice Cooking Conditions The interior of the rice cooking device 100 was filled with saturated steam using the steam supply means 5'. The temperature inside the container was 108°C. Next, the gondola 10 was introduced into the container 1 of the apparatus through the introduction port, the container 1 was transferred as shown in FIG. 1, and rice was cooked under the following conditions.
Test 1: Rice cooking time 15 minutes, direct heating means 5-1 OFF, only lower indirect heating means 3 ON, pipe internal pressure 0.25 MPa
Test 2: Rice cooking time 15 minutes, direct heating means 5-1 turned on, only the lower indirect heating means 3 turned on, pipe internal pressure 0.25 MPa
Test 3: Rice cooking time 18 minutes, direct heating means 5-1 turned on, only the lower indirect heating means 3 turned on, pipe internal pressure 0.25 MPa
Test 4: Rice cooking time 20 minutes, direct heating means 5-1 turned on, only lower indirect heating means 3 turned on, pipe internal pressure 0.25 MPa
Test 5: Rice cooking time 15 minutes, direct heating means 5-1 turned on, only the lower indirect heating means 3 turned on, pipe internal pressure 0.30 Mpa
In Tests 1 to 5, the treatment time of the heat killing treatment was 6 seconds.
Test 6: The same conditions as Test 2, except that the pressure and heat sterilization was 4 seconds Test 7: The same conditions as Test 2, except that the pressure and heat sterilization was 8 seconds The amount of steam is enough to spray onto the target object In this test, the amount was fixed at the same level.
Details of the conditions are shown in Table 1.

(4) Evaluation The sealing material of the obtained cooked rice was partially peeled off, and the whole container was heated at 600 W for 2 minutes in a household microwave oven. Three panelists who are exclusively involved in the production of cooked rice sampled the rice for 2 to 5 minutes after the end of microwave heating and conducted a sensory evaluation. The evaluation criteria are shown in Table 2, and the results of the sensory evaluation are shown in Table 3. Further, FIG. 2 shows the temperature change of the water in the plastic tray measured using a wireless data logger (manufactured by Madgetech).

[Comparative example 1]
A plastic tray filled with soaked rice and water was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1. The plastic tray was inserted into the container 1 of the rice cooker 100, and the inlet of the container 1 was closed and sealed. Steam was introduced into the sealed container 1 to keep the inside of the container 1 in a pressurized state, and the rice was cooked by heating for 30 minutes. After the rice was cooked, the plastic tray was removed. Next, the plastic tray was sealed using a sealant, and cooked rice was obtained through a steaming process. The thus obtained cooked rice was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1. The results are shown in Table 3.

As shown in FIG. 2, the temperature data for 80 g of water showed that in the case of direct steam ON (Test 2), the temperature increase rate was fast, and the maximum temperature was as high as about 99.5°C. On the other hand, in the case of direct steam OFF (Test 1), the rate of temperature increase was slow and the maximum temperature was about 96° C. and could not be raised completely. In addition, in Test 3, the heating time was long, so the high temperature was maintained even after 900 seconds, and in Test 5, although the transfer internal pressure was increased to 0.30 MPa, no major difference was observed in the temperature data. Ta.

If the steam is turned off directly at the beginning (Test 1), the temperature rise during cooking is slow and the temperature does not rise completely (approximately 96°C), and the rice is not sufficiently cooked (sufficient heating is not achieved and the rice is not gelatinized). was. When the steam was turned on directly (Test 2), there was no feeling of insufficient cooking, and it became clear that there was sufficient heating ability. The grains were firm and the rice cooked well. It became clear that early direct steam injection enabled rapid heating and cooking of rice.

It became clear that good rice cooking characteristics could be obtained by setting the rice cooking time to 15 minutes or more (Test 2). Therefore, we examined changes in the quality of cooked rice when cooking time was increased. As a result, as the cooking time was increased, the resulting cooked rice tended to become softer and more sticky, and its loosenability became worse. (Tests 2, 3, 4).

From the comparison between Tests 2 and 5, it was possible to change the temperature of the saturated steam inside the pipe by increasing the steam pressure inside the indirect heating means 3 (pipe). When the steam pressure inside the pipe was increased, the hardness of the cooked rice did not change, but the stickiness and loosening improved, and the texture of the rice slightly decreased.

It was found that the pressure and heat sterilization process performed before the rice cooking process affected the stickiness and texture of the grains. In this sample, it became clear that the sample heated for a longer time (8 seconds) had stronger stickiness and graininess.

(Consideration)
The above results suggest that it is possible to adjust the quality of cooked rice by combining the circulation of steam within the device and the installation of indirect heating. Specifically, the conventional device required about 30 minutes to cook rice, but with this device, the time was reduced to about 15 minutes. It was also suggested that energy consumption could be reduced by shortening the rice cooking time (30 minutes with the conventional method) and by using steam appropriately.

[Example 2] Cooking rice under conditions without a sterilization process Next, we investigated cooking rice directly soaked using the apparatus of the present invention without a sterilization process. Specifically, cooked rice was produced as follows.
1) 100 g of Koshihikari polished rice was weighed.
2) After washing the rice, a predetermined amount of water was added and soaked at 20°C for 70 minutes.
3) 98 g of soaked rice was filled into a plastic container (trade name: Lamicon Cup, manufactured by Tokan Kogyo Co., Ltd., dimensions: 29 mm x 118 mm x 179 mm).
4) A plastic container was filled with 75 g of water at 20-25°C.
6) The plastic tray filled with soaked rice and water was loaded onto the gondola 10, and the inside of the container 1 was transferred in the same manner as in Example 1.
7) Rice was cooked under the following conditions.
Cooking time: 30 minutes Steam pressure: 0.30MPa
Direct heating means: ON
Indirect heating means: Turn on top, middle, and bottom
Steam consumption: 7500g (total amount for 15 minutes)
8) After cooking, the plastic container was sealed and steamed to obtain cooked rice.

[Comparative example 2]
Rice was cooked by filling the container 1 with steam and steaming the soaked rice for 30 minutes. In this example, the above device was used as a conventional device, and after the inside of the container 1 was heated and filled with steam, a plastic tray filled with 100 g of soaked rice was inserted into the container 1. Thereafter, 75 g of boiling water was added to the plastic tray, the inlet of container 1 was closed, and the rice was heated in the steamer for 30 minutes. In this way, cooked rice was produced and taken out.

Although the cooked rice obtained in Comparative Example 2 had a sticky surface and a soft grain texture, it was sufficiently heated and could be eaten well. On the other hand, in the cooked rice obtained in Example 2, graininess remained and the rice was easily loosened. The texture of the grains themselves was relatively hard, and the appearance was clearly that of rice grains. The device of the present invention has a different heating temperature for the surface of cooked rice compared to conventional devices. As a result, the state of starch on the surface of the rice is also different, which is thought to be the reason for the above-mentioned difference. As described above, it has been revealed that the rice cooking device of the present invention can sufficiently cook rice and produce good cooked rice even without the pressure-heating sterilization step. In addition, since the heating temperature is different, it was suggested that it may be possible to produce rice with different physical properties than conventional steamed rice.

100 Cooking device 1 Container 3 Indirect heating means 5-1 Direct heating means near the inlet (can also serve as steam supply means)
5-2 Direct heating means during processing process (can also serve as steam supply means)
5' Steam supply means (can also serve as direct heating means)
7 Transfer means 9 Exhaust pipe 10 Gondola

Claims (13)

a container capable of being filled with water vapor;
indirect heating means disposed within the container that heats water vapor within the container and heats food ingredients with the water vapor;
Direct heating means arranged in the container and directly heating the food raw material;
A heating cooking device equipped with. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the food material is a starchy food material. The apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the food raw material is in the form of granules or noodles. the device comprises a transfer means for transferring the food material within the container;
The transfer means first transfers the food raw material to the top of the container in the vertical direction, and then transfers it to the bottom of the container.
Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The transport means is
It has a function of repeating the process of transferring the food raw material from a certain position A almost horizontally to a position B, and then transferring it from position B vertically downward to a position C one or more times.
Apparatus according to claim 4. The apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the direct heating means is provided near an inlet for the food raw material. The direct heating means is selected from:
3. The apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: 1) heating means using conductive heat transfer; 2) heating means using radiation heat transfer; 3) heating means using latent heat of condensation; 4) a combination of two or more of these. 8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the heating means using latent heat of condensation is a heating means that directly injects water vapor onto the food raw material. The apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the indirect heating means is a heat exchanger. The device according to claim 1 or 2, which is a rice cooker. A method of cooking the food raw material using the apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
filling the container with water vapor;
introducing the food raw material into the container filled with water vapor; and heating the food raw material using the direct heating means and the indirect heating means.
A heating cooking method comprising: 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising a sterilization step. A food cooked with the apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.