Best brand for fridge, stove, dishwasher, hood....

[lefty]

I have a Bosc DW and I can't begin to tell you how much I fuckin' hate this machine. I've basically stopped using it and now do my dishes by hand. If I wasn't selling my house I'd take a sledgehammer to it.

My BIL has an expensive Wolf induction stove (he told me 7K+) and I feel timid cooking with it. I like to move and slam a pan around and I'm always worried I'll scratch the surface. It broke down with 18 months and he's now on his second one.

lefty

 

[Douglas]

Originally Posted by foodguy

that's not quite what i was saying. what i was saying was that the effect of higher btus is to let you get to searing temperature more quickly, not to give you a better sear. The other issue is that in most kinds of cooking, the pan is not the final conductor of heat ... it's the cooking medium (water or oil). With water, it's clear ... no matter how many btus you pump into the pan, the temperature is never going to get above 212. with oil, it's not so clear. but most cooking oils have smoking points in the 400-degree range, so effectively you're never going to get the pan much hotter than that. at least that's how it seems to me.
I agree with your point on water. The beautiful thing about latent heat is that as water reaches its boiling point (212F) you can keep pouring heat in and the water doesn't keep rising in temperature, even before it boils away. So when you add food, provided you've added enough heat and kept it at a steady boil for a while, the heat that is sucked up by the food that's been added doesn't necessarily reduce the water temperature - that's the latent heat going into the food. With oil, the reaction is much different. Smoke point is not boiling point, and I don't honestly know if the oil holds its smoke point temp like water holds its boiling temp. But unlike water, which you can keep at a boil before adding the food, you can't keep heating the oil - it smokes and smokes. So when you add the food, inevitably the temperature of the oil drops because some of that heat is soaked up by the food. But there's a reason you had the oil at a certain temperature - that's the temp you wanted to get the right sear going. Now, you can just wait (with a low power burner) for the oil to come back up to temp, but that can take a while, and all through that waiting time the food itself is cooking, albeit at a lower temp than desired. In deep frying, you want that outer browning reaction happening at the surface of the food, and you also want the inside of the food steaming from its own water content. The result is the inside cooks appropriately and quickly, without too much of the oil penetrating the food itself. The result is a nice, well-cooked fry that isn't overly oily, soggy, or otherwise overcooked in the middle. So it's important that the oil temp revert back to its optimal temp very, very quickly. As you've pointed out, this is especially important in Chinese cooking, where vegetables are meant to retain their crispness without too much oil absorption. It's why most people's attempts at Chinese food can't possibly rival their professional counterparts. But I've seen other foods cooked in a similar fashion - cauliflower is wonderful when it's been flash sauteed at high heat for a short time. You can achieve that with a low-power burner, but you can only saute a very small batch at a time. The same holds for any kind of deep frying. Anyways, we've strayed awfully far from the main point, which is that technique is most important and just buying the fancy equipment is no substitute for knowing what you're doing. But all I'm saying is that, in particular for deep frying and flash sauteeing, the only substitute for the raw power of a high BTU burner is to cook in very small batches. EDIT: actually, the more I think about it, the more I think I'm wrong about the latent heat in water. The latent heat is going towards transforming some of the water into steam. The water that's left isn't "storing" the heat, so no matter how long you keep the water at a boil, the temp will still drop when you put cold food in. This really only means that having a high heat source that restores the temp quickly is also important for poaching and boiling as well as frying.

 

[Artisan Fan]

I use Calphalon cookware on gas burners which works very well. I find the Calphalon to be pretty uniform in its heating. Very durable as well.

 

[pinchi22]

Originally Posted by foodguy

... the subzeros we have at my place of work are the banes of my existence. virtually no warranty and in regular need of repair. we've got a kenmore, on the other hand, that works perfectly well.

lol. My aunt replaced her trusty old Kenmore with a shiny Subzero. It soon proceeded to leak over her new, expensive hardwood floor. She had to cancel her vacation to supervise the workers who had to replace the entire floor.

 

[Manton]

I bought a new SZ five years ago and have not had a single problem with it.

 

[foodguy]

Originally Posted by Manton

I bought a new SZ five years ago and have not had a single problem with it.

republican conspiracy. that's the only reason i can come up with.

 

[itsstillmatt]

11 years for me. Not one service call.

 

[foodguy]

what did i tell you?

 

[michael3469]

Our SZ is about 9 years old and has had no problems so far. Is it possible that their quality has declined over the years and it is with the newer models that we hear all the horror stories. Similarly I heard that Viking quality has gone down, while Wolf even though made by the same company is still good albeit overpriced.

 

[cjlizzard]

LG no question

 

[pg600rr]

Originally Posted by Rambo

Why do you need one of these pro style home ovens? Are you a chef? Would a GE or a Whirlpool be so terrible?

yes

 

[otc]

Originally Posted by Manton

I was told that regular All Clad won't either.

I like gas and would not know how to cook without it.

Induction is cool, its not the crapfest that is resistive electric heat.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Induction is sweet, but it seems like you really have to pay for it to get any kind of quality. Plenty of inexpensive (and plenty of expensive) ****** products out there. I've thought about dropping a grand or two on a single induction burner that I can take with me wherever I live, b/c apartments with electric ranges are killing me.

Electric ranges seem to be an issue in chicago due to the strict fire codes...The key is that you either have to stay with short, old buildings/walkups or very new all concrete construction.

Classic Chicago apartments will almost always have gas due to their age but a lot of the mid-century high rises are full-electric. Even some pretty high-status luxury buildings are no-gas. New developments like up in streeterville and in the steaming mess that is south loop are much more likely to have gas available.

 

[pg600rr]

just got back from checking out the bluestar... was kinda dissapointed in the look, really didnt like the open burner with the white electric starter things in each burner, looked kind of cheap imo.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by foodguy

what did i tell you?
If you keep calling me a Republican, I will continue to use my LA Times Sub Zero voodoo doll to great effect.

 

[zjpj83]

I have so many fridges and freezers! Whenever I buy new ones, the old ones just get put elsewhere (e.g. garage). Also have two kitchens. Basically I could feed an army out of my house if I had too. Lots of food FTW.