Abstract
The optimum cooking times for vegetables cut into cubes, rectangular blocks and slabs of vegetables were calculated with en equation for predicting hardness. The energy consumption was measured with a temperature-controlled induction heating (IH) cooking system. The results show that heating should be continued until the center temperature of the sample reaches 70°C when the sample weight is more than 1/3 of the total weight. Using residual heat reduced energy consumption more than by using heat of the water temperature increase term. Most of this reduction was due to radiant heat. The energy consumption was reduced by using residual heat, the difference in energy consumption was being low among samples. Predicting the hardness showed that using residual heat resulted in uniform hardness and prevented vegetable collapse. The more water was used in cooking, the more heat was released and the less latent heat was consumed. Cooking Japanese radish consumed more energy to obtain the optimum hardness than the other vegetables.
