Cooking medium management system

摘要

A cooking medium management system and method from manipulating a cooking medium during cooking operations. The system has a controller generating a lock-out signal and a transfer signal, and selectively generating one control signal selected from the group consisting of a discard signal, a fresh fill signal, a drain signal, a filtration signal, and a polish signal. The system also has a cooking medium transfer pump and a transfer conduit for transferring the cooking medium to and from a frypot, wherein the transfer pump activates in response to the transfer signal. The system further includes a lock-out device, which receives the lock-out signal and disables a fryer heater. Moreover, this system includes a discard device, which receives the discard signal and includes the frypot, the drain pan, a drain valve and a cooking medium drain. The frypot and the drain pan are placed in communication with the transfer conduit via the drain valve. Subsequently, the drain pan and the cooking medium drain are placed in communication with the transfer conduit to discard used cooking medium. In addition, the system includes a fresh fill device, which receives the fresh fill signal and includes the frypot and a cooking medium source. The frypot and the cooking medium source are placed in communication with the transfer conduit to fill the frypot with fresh shortening. The system also includes a filtration device, which receives the filtration signal and places the frypot and drain pan in communication with the transfer conduit to filter the cooking medium. Finally, the system includes a polish device, which receives the polish signal and places the frypot and the drain pan in communication with the transfer conduit in response to the polish signal, fills the frypot to a predetermined level, and places the frypot and the drain pan in communication with the transfer conduit for a predetermined time period, and places the frypot and the drain pan out of communication with the transfer conduit after completion of the predetermined time period.