Heat transfer in meat patties during double-sided cooking

Abstract

A simplified mathematical model was developed to predict the temperature profiles during meat patty cooking by double-sided pan-frying. Conduction was considered the main mechanism for heat transfer, and enthalpy formulation was used to avoid the discontinuity problem of the phase change during melting. The energy involved for vaporizing water was considered using appropriate boundary conditions. The model was solved according to a method based on an explicit finite difference approximation and was validated by comparing predicted and experimental temperature profiles obtained at 163°C and 204°C at the bottom platen and 177°C and 221°C at the top platen, respectively. The experimental and predicted data were in good agreement. The model was used to examine the sensitivity of patty cooking to different process conditions.