Patent ID: 8709260

Claim:
A method for automatically filtering cooking medium in a cooking vessel, the method comprising the steps of: draining the cooking medium from a cooking vessel; filtering the cooking medium through a filter; supplying the cooking medium from a fill manifold to the cooking vessel with a supplying mechanism, wherein the fill manifold is disposed on a fluid communication path between the filter and the cooking vessel and comprises a first opening configured to permit cooking medium to enter the fill manifold, a second opening configured to permit cooking medium to exit the fill manifold to the cooking vessel, and a third opening connected to an expansion chamber having a first end adjacent the third opening; sensing a pressure of cooking medium supplied to the cooking vessel with a pressure sensor, wherein the pressure sensor is adjacent a second end of the expansion chamber and the expansion chamber is inclined such that the second end is disposed above the first end to preserve an air-charge for reducing build-up of deadhead pressure and prevent immersion of said pressure sensor in the cooking medium, the sensing step comprising: sensing the pressure of cooking medium at a first interval; sensing the pressure of cooking medium at a second interval; and determining a change in the pressure of cooking medium between the first interval and the second interval; controlling the supplying of filtered cooking medium based on the sensed pressure of the filtered cooking medium being supplied to the cooking vessel; wherein the step of controlling comprises halting said supplying step when sensing that the change in the pressure of cooking medium is a pressure drop that is greater than or equal to a predetermined pressure drop threshold.