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.

Comments

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

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.

Wow! I'm guessing this device may be generating all sortsah noise into your power lines. EAAGH!

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Makes sense - the basic idea involves an electromagnet running on high frequency AC; the rapidly changing magnetic field heats the metal. Creating that high frequency AC could easily produce noise that might freak out the Kill-A-Watt.

House Wiring 101

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Wow! To give you an idea, the highest consumption portable electric heater for most homes is 1500 watts. This is usually considered to be to most allowable consumption design for 110.

Most circuit breakers are rated at 20 Amps, or 2000 watts, so you can run a heater and a few other things, like a TV.

But, 1800 pushes that limit. Anything drawing that much current would have been better wired for 220 Volts.

For most 110 house circuits, the cooker will have to be on it's own dedicated plug.

[chefxh.livejournal.com]

When I was studying with Chef Rhoda Yee, her new kitchen at CCA had not been built. We cooked with woks on induction burners hooked to cords strung from the ceiling. Likewise the skills course at the very beginning. You're right, they are amazing tools.

[theotherqpc.livejournal.com]

induction burners are LOTS of fun, and you tend to see them a lot in pastry kitchens - they don't throw off excess heat that could, for instance, melt chocolate, and the even heating is great for working with sugar. they're now making induction wok burners with concave surfaces, too.
the quick-and-dirty test to see if your cookware is induction-compatible is to see if a refrigerator magnet will stick to it.

Re: House Wiring 101

[snousle.livejournal.com]

It is not rated for home use, it's a commercial device. They make them as high as 3500W, but presumably they use 220V plugs. In any case, with all new circuits I'm pretty sure it will be OK!

Whatever happened to the Rainbowtron?

[(Anonymous)]

Does the 'tron from a couple of years ago still work?

Re: Whatever happened to the Rainbowtron?

[snousle.livejournal.com]

It still works, it's pretty much unbreakable. If I had known about the StoveTec stove, everything would have been different! It has it's uses, i.e. it's a great smoker, but as far as using fuel efficiently it's a bit of a dog. It was also vastly more expensive than the StoveTec.

The plan for the big Rainbowtron is to see if it works at ultra-high temperatures (i.e. full of charcoal) without melting, which would be good for large stir-fry batches. This may be a "destructive test".