JPH0425785B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to a method for cooking mochi rice cake, particularly to a method for cooking mochi rice cake using a rice cooker.

(Conventional technology) In recent years, as a means of making mochi, mochi making machines that use rotary blades to knead the glutinous rice after it has been cooked have become commercially available. A method has been proposed in which this is heated by placing it in a microwave oven.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, although the mochi pounder is extremely simple, it is extremely uneconomical because it is used only a few times a year. Furthermore, microwave ovens are not common because they are expensive. Therefore, it is conceivable to focus on rice cookers that are widely used in ordinary households, knead rice flour made from glutinous rice with water to make raw mochi, and cook this in a rice cooker to make mochi. It became clear that rice cookers could not be put to practical use because of problems such as the rice cake burning before it was cooked, and the outside of the rice cake being cooked but the inside remaining raw.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to make rice cake using a rice cooker.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention precisely controls the power supplied to a rice cooker equipped with an electric heater during rice cooking, so that rice cakes are not burnt or the insides are raw. It is designed to prevent rice flour from becoming sticky. Specifically, it is made by kneading rice flour made from glutinous rice with water to make it sticky, and then putting it into the inner pot of a rice cooker. The power supplied to the heater of the rice cooker is increased in stages to heat the rice cooker, and after the temperature of the inner pot reaches a preset first set temperature, the power supplied to the heater is decreased in stages to heat the rice cooker. After the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot reaches 100°C, the power supply to the heater is controlled on and off to maintain the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot at the temperature. This is a summary.

The method includes: an inner pot that accommodates raw rice cake made by kneading rice flour made from glutinous rice with water; a rice cooker that heats the inner pot; and a temperature detection element that detects the temperature of the inner pot. The power supplied to the heater is increased in stages according to the detection signal from the temperature detection element, and after the internal temperature of the inner pot reaches a predetermined temperature, the power supplied to the heater is decreased in stages. This can be achieved by using a rice cooker comprising a control device that controls on/off the power supplied to the heater to maintain the temperature after the rice cake reaches approximately 100°C.

(Function) In the method of the present invention, first, raw mochi is placed in an inner pot and prepared for cooking, and then the power supplied to the heater is initially heated at low power, and then the power supplied is increased in stages. By heating the raw mochi, the temperature difference between the part of the raw mochi that is in contact with the inner pot and the part that is not in contact with the inner pot is minimized, the temperature rise of the whole raw mochi is made uniform, and uneven cooking is prevented. .

The power supplied to the heater during this process can be divided into two or more stages from 0 to full power, but there is no point in dividing the increase rate of power supply too finely, so it is usually divided into two stages. It is sufficient to divide it into stages or three stages. For example, if the power supplied to the heater is divided into two stages as in the example described below, the first power supply will be approximately 10% of the rated power of the heater, and the power supplied in the next stage will be approximately 10% of the rated power.
Just set it to 70%. In addition, when dividing the power into three stages, the first power supply should be 10% of the heater's rated power, then increased to 40%, and finally increased to 70%, but this is not limiting. It can be set arbitrarily. The reason why the maximum power supplied to the heater is set to approximately 70% of the rated power of the heater is because in the present invention, mochi is cooked in a rice cooker, so if the rated power of the heater is unchanged, the thermal power will be excessively high. This is because excessive heating can cause burning or sluggish cooking, and usually about 70% of the heater's rated power is equivalent to the full power for mochi cooking.

Also, the low power heating before full power is supplied is usually set to about 10 to 15 minutes. This is because if the time is too short, it will be difficult to make the temperature of the whole rice cake uniform, and if the time is too long, time will only be wasted and no special effect will be obtained.

By heating the heater by increasing the power supplied to the heater in stages, the temperature of the inner pot and raw rice cake rises gradually, but after the temperature of the inner pot reaches the first set temperature, Then, the power supplied to the heater is gradually reduced and heating is continued. Ultimately, this will allow the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot to reach 100°C slowly and prevent it from rising above that temperature, as well as prevent the formation of a film on the area where the rice cake is in contact with the inner pot. This is to do so.

Therefore, it is difficult to unambiguously determine the first set temperature because it differs depending on the part where the temperature of the inner pot is detected, but when that temperature is reached, the power supplied to the heater is reduced to zero. In this case, the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot does not reach 100℃ due to residual heat, but it is close to it, and when detecting the temperature near the center of the side wall of the inner pot as in the example, 70
It is set around ℃.

The rate at which the power supplied to the heater is gradually reduced can be set arbitrarily as long as the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot can be gradually brought close to 100°C, but for simplicity, it is recommended to first reduce the power supply to about 70°C of the rated power. % to less than half of that, for example, about 30% of the rated power as in the example
% by one step. In short, as the bottom temperature of the inner pot approaches 100℃, the temperature will increase by an additional 20%.
It may be reduced to 10%.

Next, when the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot reaches 100℃, the heater is controlled to turn on and off. This is to maintain the temperature at °C and steam the raw rice cake while at the same time sufficiently alphaning the starch contained therein.

In addition, when detecting the temperature of the heated object and controlling the heater on and off in this way to maintain the temperature of the heated object at a constant temperature, as is well known, the temperature at which the heater is turned off and the temperature at which the heater is turned off are determined. Normally, there is a difference of several degrees from the temperature at which the switch is turned on.
Therefore, even in the case of the present invention, the temperature at which the heater is turned off (that is, the heater off temperature) and the temperature at which the inner pot should be maintained are determined when the bottom temperature of the inner pot is 100°C.
℃, but in reality the temperature at which the heater is turned on is slightly lower than 100℃, so the bottom temperature of the inner pot fluctuates between 100℃ and several degrees lower than that, and the temperature at which the heater is turned on is slightly lower than 100℃. The temperature also varies between 100°C and slightly lower. Further, from the viewpoint of preventing temperature rise due to residual heat, the power supplied to the heater during on-off control is usually set to around 10% of the rated power of the heater.

In the example described later, the side wall temperature of the inner pot is detected and the power supplied to the heater is controlled based on the detected temperature. Therefore, the reference temperature for turning off the heater is when the bottom temperature of the inner pot is 100. ℃, the corresponding temperature is set at 85℃.Also, when the temperature at the center of the bottom of the inner pot is detected and the temperature is controlled using that detected temperature, the first set temperature is around 80℃, and the temperature is set to 85℃. The off control temperature is set at approximately 100°C, respectively.

The on-off control is carried out only for the time necessary to steam the raw rice cake and at the same time sufficiently alphanize the starch, and the time is usually set to about 20 minutes. This is because if the mochi is heated beyond this point, it will continue to be heated even after it is cooked, causing it to burn.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the method of the present invention is applied to an electronic rice cooker will be specifically described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a rice cooker, 2 is an inner pot, 3 is an outer pot, 4 is an exterior body that surrounds the outer pot 3, 5 is an outer lid thereof, and 6 is an outer lid 5 with a built-in heater 10. A heat dissipation plate 7 is fixedly attached to the center of the heat dissipation plate 6, and an inner cover fitting protrudes into the inner pot 2 through the center of the inner cover 8, and 9 is a heat dissipation plate for heating the inner pot 2. 11 is a heat-retaining heater fixed to the upper side wall of the outer pot 3, and 12 is a power supply unit consisting of a known constant voltage power supply circuit.

The center of the bottom of the outer pot is in contact with the bottom of the inner pot 2,
A second temperature detection element TH2 consisting of a thermistor is disposed to detect the temperature, and a first temperature detection element TH1 is provided on the side wall 3a of the outer pot 3 and comes into contact with the side wall of the inner pot 2 to detect the temperature of the inner pot. It is arranged.

A control device storage box 15 is disposed on the front side wall of the exterior body 4, and a control device 16 including a microcomputer 17 is disposed inside the box.
The control device storage box 15 is provided with a start switch SW1 for starting or stopping the rice cooking operation, and a selection switch SW2 for selecting the rice cooking mode.

As shown in FIG. 2, the control device 16 includes a memory (ROM) in which a rice cooking program is written, and
A driver 1 that drives a microcomputer 17 including a CPU and heater control triacs 20 and 21 connected to the microcomputer 17
8, a rice cooking heater 9 and a heat retention heater 10,
11.

The triax 21 is connected in series to the warming heaters 10 and 11, and is turned on and off according to the temperature of the inner pot 2 in response to a signal from the microcomputer 17 when keeping warm or cooking rice cake, thereby keeping the temperature of the inner pot 2 constant. maintain. A start switch SW1 and a rice cooking mode selection switch SW2 connected in series with resistors R ₁ and R ₂ are connected to the input ports S ₁ and S ₂ of the microcomputer 17, respectively, and AD converter input terminals K 1 and K 2 are connected to the input ports S ₁ and S ₂ of the microcomputer 17, respectively. First and second temperature sensing elements TH connected in series with resistors R ₃ and R ₄ , respectively
1, TH2 is connected.

When cooking mochi using a rice cooker with the above configuration, rice flour made from glutinous rice, such as glutinous rice flour,
After kneading Shiratamako or Mijinko with an appropriate amount of water, make Namamochi 30 and put this into Inner pot 2.
In the rice cooker, the rice cooking mode is selected by pressing the rice cooking mode selection switch SW2, and after adding raw rice cake 30, the rice cooking operation is started by pressing the start switch SW1. The operation of the microcomputer 17 during this rice-cooking operation is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG.
The result will be as shown in the figure.

That is, at the same time as the start switch SW1 is turned on, a count is started (step S1), and the inner pot 2 is heated with the first set power, for example, 10% of the rated power of the heater (step 2). Note that in this embodiment, power is supplied only to the heat-retaining heaters 10 and 11. After heating starts, for a predetermined period of time, e.g. 13
The same state is maintained until a predetermined period of time has elapsed, and a signal is output from the microcomputer 17 (step S3), and the driver 18 also supplies power to the rice cooking heater 9 based on the signal, resulting in a medium-sized rice as a whole. The inner pot 2 is heated with the second set power, for example, 70% of the rated power (step S4).

Even while the power supplied to the heater is being increased in stages in this way, the first temperature sensing element TH1
The side wall temperature T of the inner pot detected in is input to the microcomputer 17, and the detected temperature is set as a first set temperature T ₁ stored in advance in a memory or the like, for example.
When it is determined in step S5 that the temperature has reached 68℃,
Proceeding to step S6, the power supplied to the rice cooking heater 9 is reduced to a third set power that is lower than the second set power, for example, 30% of the rated power, and this state is detected by the first temperature detection element TH1. The inner pot side wall temperature T to be set is the second set temperature T ₂ , for example,
The temperature is maintained until the temperature reaches 85°C (step S7). This second set temperature is set to be the temperature when the temperature of the raw rice cake 30 reaches 100°C.

When it is detected that the side wall temperature T of the inner pot 2 has reached the second set temperature _T2 , counting starts (step S8), and the power supplied to the heater is maintained at 85°C. The temperature of the rice cake 30 is maintained at 100°C (step S9).
S10).

After the side wall temperature T of the inner pot 2 reaches the second set temperature _T2 in step S10, for a preset period of time,
For example, when it is determined that 20 minutes have elapsed, the power supply to the rice cooking heater 9 and the warming heaters 10 and 11 is stopped, and the rice cake cooking ends.

Note that the completion of cooking may be notified by a buzzer or the like based on a signal when it is determined in step S10 that a predetermined time has elapsed. Furthermore, after the rice cake is cooked, the mode may be shifted to the keep-warm mode in the same way as when cooking normal rice. In this case, in the heat retention mode, the heat retention heater control triac 21 is controlled so that the inner pot side wall temperature T detected via the first temperature detection element TH1 is maintained at 70°C. In addition, in this keep warm mode,
When the start switch SW1 is pressed, the machine enters a stopped state.

(Effects) As explained above, in the present invention, rice flour made from glutinous rice is kneaded with water to make raw rice cake, which is put into the inner pot of a rice cooker and the power supplied to the rice cooker is gradually controlled. At the same time, the supplied power is gradually reduced so that the temperature of the raw mochi does not exceed a predetermined temperature, and the raw mochi is steamed while being maintained at the predetermined temperature. You can use an inexpensive rice cooker to make mochi with a quality equal to or higher than that of a microwave oven, without the rice being cooked raw.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a schematic cross-sectional side view showing an example of a rice cooker used in the method of the present invention, Figure 2 is a block diagram of its microcomputer, Figure 3 is its flowchart, and Figure 4 is the power supply during rice cooking. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between a change in the temperature of the inner pot and a change in the inner pot temperature. 1-Rice cooker, 2-Inner pot, 9-Rice heater, 1
0, 11 - Heat retention heater, TH1 - 1st temperature detection element, TH2 - 2nd temperature detection element, 17 - Microcomputer, SW1 - Start switch, SW
2-Rice cooking mode selection switch.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. After kneading rice flour made from glutinous rice with water to make it sticky, put it into the inner pot of a rice cooker and heat it while gradually increasing the power supplied to the heater of the rice cooker. After the temperature of the inner pot reaches the first preset temperature, the power supplied to the heater is gradually reduced to continue heating until the bottom temperature of the inner pot reaches the first set temperature.
A method for cooking mochi rice cake, characterized in that, after reaching 100°C, the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot is maintained at the temperature by on-off controlling the power supplied to the heater.