Method for controlling a cooking process by using a liquid

A method of controlling a cooking process using a heating element to transfer cooking power to a liquid in a cooking vessel, comprising:

• beginning at a start of the cooking process, transferring an initial power to the cooking vessel, said initial power being at least 70% of a maximum allowable power that can be transferred to the cooking vessel by said heating element;
• continuing to transfer said initial power to the cooking vessel until boiling of the liquid therein at its boiling temperature is detected via a vibration sensor at a boiling time elapsed from the start of the cooking process;
• beginning at the boiling time, reducing power transferred to the cooking vessel from said initial power to a simmer power that falls within a simmer-power range between a maximum simmer power level and a minimum simmer power level, both of which being below the initial power;
• establishing a simmer temperature marginally below the boiling temperature by measuring the temperature of said liquid at simmering time occurring at a predetermined interval after said boiling time;
• and
• regulating the simmer power within said simmer-power range according to a closed control loop to maintain the temperature of said liquid within a predetermined temperature range whose upper bound does not exceed said boiling temperature and which bounds said simmer temperature, said closed control loop being based on feedback from at least one of said vibration sensor sensing vibrations in the liquid in said cooking vessel, which vibrations are correlated to a proximity of said liquid to the simmer temperature, or a temperature sensor sensing the temperature of said liquid.