Microwave cooking method and control means

Abstract

There is disclosed a method, and apparatus for practicing the method, of controlling microwave cooking. A temperature measuring probe monitors the temperature of a comestible during cooking which is interrupted at a predetermined time in the cooking cycle and the comestible is permitted to equilibrate to a true temperature. This true temperature is detected and the cooking is resumed in a manner responsive to the detected, true temperature, e.g., the input power level is selected based on the differential value between the true and desired final temperatures, whereby the rate of cooking is reduced when the true temperature is close to the final temperature to permit the comestible to coast to the final temperature, insuring against over-cooking. The direction of the temperature error between the instantaneous and true temperatures can also be used to control the cooking process as, for example, the power level can be reduced if the instantaneous temperature is less than the true temperature. In other embodiments, the true temperature of the comestible can be determined at one or more predetermined times during an initial portion of the cooking cycle to determine the rate of cooking of the comestible and this information can be used to estimate the completion time of cooking, and/or to control the cooking process to conform to a preselected cooking pattern.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.