New cooking methods

[snousle]

Just picked up a freestanding Vollerath induction burner. It uses magnetic fields to heat iron cookware without getting particularly hot itself. Very space-age, unusually safe to use, and it's cooking performance is impressive. I've got a catering event next week with just an office kitchen - sink and microwave but no stove. So it will be useful right away. Quick facts:

- About five hundred bucks including tax
- Rated at 1800 W
- Actually draws somewhere around 1650W, but the KillAWatt meter I plugged it into goes all squirrely and shows all kinds of numbers so I'm not sure.
- Heats 2 kg water from 9.4C to 46.0C in 4 minutes, for an effective heat transfer of 1280 watts
- This is only slightly less than the burners on my Southbend restaurant range, running on propane
- It has a remarkably accurate thermostat! Not sure how it works, but it will keep a pot of water at almost exactly the temperature you dial in - I've now tested this at 120, 160, and 180 F and it's accurate to within just a few degrees. theotherqopc might find this interesting as it is obviously useful for sous-vide cooking.
- Only ONE of my stock pots turns out to be of ferrous material. None of the good ones will work. :-(
- It is going to be very useful for keeping my little prep-station dishwashing basin nice and hot.

On the other end of the technology scale, and less than one tenth the price, I also got one of these:



This is a StoveTec biomass stove. It also has an effective heating capacity of about 1300 watts, but it runs on sticks. Nice dry madrone sticks work especially well. These are so simple, reliable and easy to use that I am considering replacing my CampChef with these for camp cooking.

Both of these are amazing appliances and I recommend them highly.