Kitchen Tools - Page 17

It's "cheap" and feels cheap. I don't think it has good longevity. It's not a work horse anymore like the "original" ones were.

Well, Cuisinart was always a marketing company. They were selling Robot Coupes for the home in the US market. If you look at the good ones, they generally say Cuisinart by Robot Coupe. The last "good ones" were made in the late '80s before Cuisinart's bankruptcy and takeover by Conair. They have been OK for the last few years, but the ones in the 90s were very problematic. The best machine available now is Magimix, which is a Robot Coupe for the home market. I don't know if you need one to make cornbread or whatever, but if you want one like foodguy's, and not like the ones you and I had as we got our first real houses, you go with them.

it's had an interesting history. it was invented by this guy named carl sontheimer, who had worked for NASA. met him a couple times, back in the day, really fascinating. inventor and a great cook. he had a magazine for a while called something like "pleasures of cooking". the cookbook that came with my cuisinart was by james beard and had some really great recipes. still use the food processor strudel dough every once in a while.

So if I want an even sear, go with cast iron?

If you want something that will hang on to heat and not spike up and down, cast iron is great. This can make it great for searing because the temp of the pan won't plummet when you put your steak or whatever in it.

However, it is very uneven, you may find one part of your meat is browning faster than other parts.

A good, thick sandwiched steel pan (like All Clad) is my choice because it is more even while still being thick enough to hang onto heat. But cast iron is not a bad choice.

My experience with uneven heat comes from a burner being to small or not heating the pan slowly. A slowly heated pan spreads the heat and eliminates most of what you are experiencing.

Second, a mega thick cast iron pan like a Hackman shields the cooking surface from the characteristics of the iron. My Hackman cast iron frying pan is more than 1/2 thick between the cooking surface and the bottom of the pan. I've never experienced any unevenness with it when heated slowly on a large distributed burner. This said, that fucker takes a light year to cool down.

Definitionally, any uneven heat comes from not heating a pan across its full surface--if you could heat all of a pan at the same time, it wouldn't be uneven, no matter what the pan was made of. A pan that heats evenly will distribute the heat through the full surface of the pan.

All this said, I love my cast iron, use it all the time, and it is great for searing. But I do recognize that it's very uneven. Take the cast iron and heat it over the same flame as my all-clad, and the all-clad will heat evenly every time, while the cast iron gets a hot spot in the middle and is cold around the edges.

I'll concede much of what you say, my Mauviel's are impeccable, but all the same I can only hope my grandkid's grandkids use my Hackman, I adore that pan.

Try heating a cast iron on an electric surface... you'll see its very even. On gas its a harder sell, but again, that Hackman is so thick you'll not see that level of unevenness. A chef I knew suggested heating a cast iron in the oven and then using it.

so.... bringing an old topic back up again, what's the current prevailing wisdom on an entry-level immersion circulator? I've looked at the Sous Vide Supreme but it looks on the small side, not enough to do a larger meal for 8 or so ppl, or am I wrong on that front? If I go with a PolyScience unit, how vital is an insulated bath?

Not vital at all. Get a circulator. Wrap the container (at least the top opening) with foil.

what's the best unit to buy?

I thought you didn't like all of this new fangled stuff, Doogie.

no, I was a skeptic, but y'all fools persuaded me I needed to drop another few hundred bucks on something.

How long will one of my cast iron pans need in the circulator to achieve an even searing temp?

Depends. Will you be using it to make cornbread?

no, I will be attempting to set a new Guinness record for most chicken thighs cooked simultaneously