Oven with high power radiant cooking elements and methods of developing, optimizing, storing, and retrieving recipes for the operation of the oven

• US 5,877,477 A
• Filed: 12/18/1996
• Issued: 03/02/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ACP of Delaware Incorporated (ACP)
• Original Assignee: Amana Co LP (Daikin Industries Ltd)
• Inventors: Petty, J. Scott, Cook, Edward R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Paschall, Mark H.
• Application Number:
  US08/769,616
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 219/483-486, 219/508, 219/509, 219/497, 219/492, 219/506, 219/411, 219/711, 219/720, 219/719, 219/412, 219/413, 99/325, 99/333, 99/443 C, 99/326, 99/331, 99/328, 99/335
• US Class Current: 219/506
• CPC Class Codes: F24C 7/087 of electric circuits regulating heat

Abstract

An oven with high power radiant cooking elements which are capable of operating at different intensities is disclosed for cooking food quickly with infrared radiation. The conduction of this infrared radiant energy varies substantially from food to food. Accordingly, the user of the oven must develop a unique data base or recipe for each food. A recipe consists of a number of stages each of which defines the output intensity of each cooking element for a period of time. A method is disclosed for the real time development of a recipe by varying the intensity of the cooking elements during the cooking cycle, optimizing the developed recipe to reduce the number of stages, storing the optimized recipe in memory and retrieving the optimized stored recipe for future use.

Claims

1. An oven using infrared radiant energy for cooking food comprising

at least two infrared radiant energy elements each capable of operating at different intensity levels;

control means for setting the initial intensity level of each of said infrared radiant energy elements and changing the intensity level of said infrared radiant energy elements during cooking;

clock means for setting the overall cooking time and measuring the time at each change in intensity level of said infrared radiant energy elements;

memory for storing said initial intensity levels, as a first stage in a recipe, said overall cooking time, said time at each change in intensity level and said changed intensity level as another stage in a recipe; and

optimizing device for determining that the number of stages exceed a predetermined limit and eliminating the number of stages above the limit based on the stored time of the stages.

2. An oven as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

a screen for displaying the intensity level of each of said radiant cooking elements and said cooking time.

3. An oven as set forth in claim 2 wherein said memory comprises:

a temporary memory for storing said initial intensity levels, said cooking time, said time at each change in intensity level and said changed intensity level during the cooking cycle; and

a permanent memory for storing said initial intensity levels, said cooking time, said time at each change in intensity level and said changed intensity level for subsequent retrieval and use in controlling the oven.

4. An oven as set forth in claim 3 wherein said control means comprises:

input control means capable of receiving input from the user of the oven; and

intensity control means for setting the intensity level of said radiant elements.

5. An oven using radiant energy for cooking food as set forth in claim 1 wherein said clock means and said memory are part of a microprocessor.

6. An oven using infrared radiant energy for cooking food comprising:

at least two infrared radiant energy elements each capable of operating at different intensity levels;

input control means for receiving instructions for initially setting the intensity level of each of said radiant energy elements, changing the intensity level of said radiant energy elements during the cooking cycle and setting an overall cook time;

a microprocessor for storing said initial setting of said intensity levels of each of said radiant energy elements as a first stage in a recipe, said overall cook time, said changes in intensity level of said radiant energy element during the cooking cycle and the time at each change in intensity level as another stage in the recipe;

a screen for displaying said initial intensity levels of said radiant elements, said cook time and the changes of said intensity levels during the cook cycle; and

an optimizing device for determining that the number of stages exceed a predetermined limit and eliminating the number of stages above the limit based on the stored time of the stages.

7. A method of developing a recipe capable of controlling an oven using radiant energy for cooking food, said oven having at least two radiant energy cooking elements each capable of operating at different intensity levels comprising the steps of:

(a) setting the initial intensity level of each radiant energy cooking element;

(b) setting the overall cook time;

(c) storing the initial intensity levels of each radiant energy element and a time equal to zero in temporary memory as a first stage in the recipe;

(d) storing the overall cook time in temporary memory and initiating the cooking cycle;

(e) changing the intensity level of one of said radiant energy elements during the cooking cycle;

(f) determining the time in the cooking cycle at which the change in intensity level occurs;

(g) storing the changed intensity level and the time the change occurred in temporary memory as another stage in the recipe;

(h) repeating steps e through g until the overall cook time elapses or power to the radiant energy elements is shut off;

(i) optimizing the recipe by deleting the number of stages that exceed a predetermined limit and have the shortest time; and

(j) storing each stage of the recipe in permanent memory.

8. A method of developing a recipe as set forth in claim 7 further comprising:

(i) adding time to the overall cook time before step i;

(j) repeat step h until expanded overall cook time elapses or power to the radiant element is shut off.

9. A method of developing a recipe as set forth in claim 7 further comprising:

optimizing the number of stages before step i by deleting stages which operate for a period of time below a predetermined value.

10. A method of developing a recipe as set forth in claim 9 further comprising:

(k) retrieving the stored optimized recipe from memory; and

(l) operating the oven pursuant to the retrieval recipe.

11. A method of developing a recipe as set forth in claim 7 further comprising:

(m) retrieving the stored recipe from memory; and

(n) operating the oven pursuant to the retrieval recipe.

12. A method of optimizing a developed recipe having a plurality of stages and used for controlling an oven having radiant elements to cook food comprising:

determining the number of stages in the developed recipe;

determining the number of stages that must be deleted so that the total number of stages does not exceed a predetermined limit;

determining the minimum duration of a stage so that an appropriate number of stages can be deleted;

deleting from memory each stage having a time duration below the minimum; and

storing the remaining stages in permanent memory.