Starting from mid-July 2006, Hitachi Appliances, Inc. will release in series the "MRO-BV100," "MRO-BX10" and "MRO-BS8," its oven range series featuring a superheated steam generator. The company claims the BV100 can increase the amount of "umami components" such as inosinic acid and glutamine acid contained in foods. Street pricing for the BV100, BX10 and BS8 is expected to be ¥110,000, ¥90,000 and ¥60,000, respectively.
To differentiate these products from its competitors', Hitachi Appliances explored ways to allow the umami components, such as inosinic, guanylic and glutamine acids, to proliferate. Focusing on the fact that these components contained in foods increase and decrease in line with temperature change during cooking, the company invented a food temperature control technology to increase the amount of umami components. Typical foods containing these components are dried bonito for inosinic acid, shiitake mushroom for guanylic acid and kelp for glutamine acid.
To be more specific, the oven series cooks foods so the food temperature quickly rises over 50 degrees but remains below 80 degrees. It is because "inosinic and guanylic acids are destroyed when continuously cooked with the food temperature kept at lower than 50 degrees," and "glutamine acid increases when continuously cooked with the food temperature kept at lower than 80 degrees." When cooking "grilled herb chicken," for example, the oven cooks the food using both its microwave (electromagnetic wave) and standard oven (heater) functions in parallel so the food temperature reaches 50 degrees sooner, compared to other pervasive ovens. Then the oven removes "excessive" fat in the food using superheated steam while maintaining the food temperature at lower than 80 degrees at the same time. As a final step, the oven "slowly cooks" the food to increase the amount of glutamine acid using its oven and grill (far-infrared heating) functions. Compared to cooking with a frying pan, this cooking technology boosts the amount of inosinic and glutamine acids by about 1.6 and 3 times, respectively (comparisons using the abovementioned grilled herb chicken).
Atsushi Takano, Nikkei Monozukuri
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