Patent ID: 6123013
Filing Date: 2000-09-26
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
An instrument for measuring the stage of cooking of pasta in a cooking liquid, the instrument comprising:a gripper (112) immersed in the cooking liquid, the gripper including a squeezer (12) to retain and elastically compress a sample of the pasta (30), the squeezer (12) comprising a stationary contrasting element and an elastic compression element which includes elastic means with a fixed setting, the elastic compression element being movable with respect to the stationary contrasting element in a manner functionally correlated to the progressive loss of consistency of the sample of the pasta (30) as cooking proceeds,an electrical circuit (34) having at least one contact (33) and a signal (37), the position of the contact (33) being correlated to a predetermined state of cooking of the pasta;a monitoring rod (20) attached to the elastic compression element and emerging from the cooking container;a pivoting element attached to the monitoring rod (20) and cooperating electrically with the at least one contact (33) to close the electrical circuit (34) in response to movement of the monitoring rod (20) as the cooking of the sample of the pasta (30) proceeds to the predetermined state of cooking of the pasta (30), thereby activating the signal (37).