Methods and systems for heat treating a food product
Methods for heat treating food products include controlling a temperature of a heating element to a maximum temperature correlated to a desired temperature for the food product. A sensed temperature of the heating element may be used to control the maximum temperature. An oven includes a heating element and a temperature sensor configured to sense the temperature of the heating element, and a controller that limits the temperature the heating element based on output from the temperature sensor.
1. A method for cooking a pastry food product or a meat or fish food product from a not-fully-cooked state to a fully-cooked state, the method comprising:
cooking the pastry food product or meat or fish food product from a not-fully-cooked state to a fully-cooked state in an oven with an electrically energized heating element primarily by thermal transfer of heat from the heating element through heated air in the oven to the food product by natural or forced air convection heating while a temperature of the heating element is controlled not to exceed a maximum temperature defined as the sum of:
(a) a predetermined temperature selected from the group consisting of:
(i) for the pastry food product, a temperature X that is less than a burn temperature of a surface of the pastry food product, and
(ii) for the meat or fish food product, a temperature Y that is a desired internal doneness temperature of the meat or fish food product, plus
(b) a predetermined droop offset that is an inherent loss of heat energy involved in the transfer of heat from the heating element to and through the air and is characteristic of the oven design; and wherein the temperature X is not more than 425° F., the temperature Y is not more than 180° F., and the droop offset is not more than 30° F.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heating element is exposed to air in the oven that contacts a surface of the food product or a cooking utensil containing the food product.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heating element comprises a resistance heating element.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heating element comprises an induction heating element.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising preheating the oven with a preheating element at a temperature higher than said predetermined temperature.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the not-fully-cooked state is a frozen state.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the not-fully-cooked state is a raw state.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature of the heating element is controlled using feedback from a sensor that senses the temperature of the heating element during the cooking.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the sensor contacts the surface of the heating element.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature of the heating element is maintained in a range of ±5° F. during said cooking.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the food product is the pastry food product and the predetermined temperature is temperature X.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the food product in the not-fully-cooked state comprises frozen pastry dough.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the sum is no more than 400° F.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the temperature X is between 275° F. and 375° F.
15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising inputting the temperature X to the oven by way of an interface that identifies an outside surface brownness of the cooked food product.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the food product comprises a plurality of food product units of different sizes.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the food product comprises a plurality of food product units having different contents.
18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the food product is the meat or fish food product and the predetermined temperature is temperature Y.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the food product is retained in the oven until an internal temperature of a predetermined portion of the food product reaches temperature Y.
20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the food product is retained in the oven until an internal temperature of the entire food product reaches temperature Y.
21. The method of claim 18 , further comprising further cooking the food product to a further-cooked state after reaching said fully-cooked state.
22. The method of claim 18 , further comprising inputting the temperature Y to the oven by way of an interface that identifies a desired degree of doneness of the food product.
23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oven is a general purpose oven.
24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heating element is part of a fan heater.
25. The method of claim 4 , wherein the induction heating element comprises at least part of an internal wall of the oven.
26. The method of claim 11 , wherein the food product is selected from the group consisting of cookies and cakes.
27. The method of claim 19 , wherein the food product comprises a cut of meat.
28. The method of claim 19 , wherein the food product comprises a fish filet.
29. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heating element comprises an upper heating element at a top of the oven.
30. The method of claim 29 , wherein the heating element further comprises a lower heating element at a bottom of the oven.
31. The method of claim 30 , wherein the temperature of the lower heating element is controlled to be higher than the temperature of the upper heating element while the food product is cooked from the not-fully-cooked state to the fully-cooked state.
32. The method of claim 31 , wherein the food product is cookies.
33. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oven is free of heating elements at a bottom of the oven.
34. The method of claim 5 , wherein the temperature of the heating element is controlled not to exceed said maximum temperature throughout an entire time the food product is in the oven after the preheating until the food product reaches the fully cooked state.
35. The method of claim 11 , wherein the pastry food product is retained in the oven and the temperature of the heating element is controlled to within 5° F. said maximum temperature for an extended period of time after the food product reaches the fully cooked state.
36. The method of claim 11 , wherein the droop offset is not more than 25° F.
37. The method of claim 11 , wherein the droop offset is not more than 15° F.
38. The method of claim 36 , wherein the temperature X is not more than 400° F.
39. The method of claim 38 , wherein the temperature X is not more than 375° F.
40. The method of claim 18 , wherein the meat or fish food product is a fish food product, the temperature Y is not more than 160° F., and the droop offset is not more than 25° F.
41. The method of claim 18 , wherein the meat or fish food product is a beef, pork or lamb meat food product, the temperature Y is not more than 160° F., and the droop offset is not more than 25° F.
42. The method of claim 18 , wherein the meat or fish food product is a pork or poultry meat food product, the temperature Y is not more than 170° F., and the droop offset is not more than 25° F.