justenb

Hey there, You never did respond to my questions on Oct 4 2003, 01:00 PM, and Oct 3 2003, 10:58 AM .. but while you mentioned sitram, one of my questions was: is sitram profisserie the same as Sitram Professional? And is sitram Catering the same as Sitram Collectivite?

is there a difference between Sitram Profiserie and Sitram Professional? The store I was at had some pans that said Profiserie and some that just said "Sitram Professional"...

Darn... I am from Canada so I guess this definitely wasn't a Grand-Gourmet paderno.. The store owner didn't even know what Grand-Gourmet was! Oh well. Hey, here's a question about Cast Iron: I have a lodge seasoned cast iron pan.. all I use it for is searing/browning stuff. Most of the time I heat it up in a 500 degree oven, then put it on the stove top, sear a piece of salmon in it for a minute, then put it back in the stove for a few minutes to complete the cooking. Salmon comes out great.. Just wondering about the pan itself though. If all I'm doing is searing/browning for this and always using such high heat, I imagine that the seasoning isn't gonna last too long.. But should I even care, if all I do is use it to brown/sear ? I don't use this pan for sauteing or anything like that...

what kind of things can you use the stainless lined heavy copper curved sauteuse evasée for? Just wondering if I were to give this as a gift, what kind of stuff you can make in such a pan?

just out of curiosity.. I was in a restaurant equipment store today where they had hundreds and hundreds of commercial pots/pans for really great prices.. I took a look at the sitram professerrie fry pan and saw the huge aluminum base that is attached to the bottom. I then saw a Paderno fry pan and noticed it had a base that was just as thick as the one on the sitram profisserrie pan. However, the Paderno pan didn't say anything like "Paderno Grand Gourmet"; it had nothing on it except a tag that said "Paderno". I'm wondering , is this just a plain paderno pan that uses a simple 2mm aluminum base, or is this a very good Paderno pan - since its base looks almost identical to the one on the sitram profisserrie? Any sure way of knowing? Perhaps the paderno's base looks as good as sitram's, but really isn't.. I'm not sure. The Paderno was definitely cheaper, so I wanted to buy it, but wasn't sure if I'd regret it.. Also, for boiling water.. when you say that disc-bottom is overkill for this task, I assume you mean that I will not be really soaking up the benefit of the bottom disc. hey, just another question: for boiling potatoes.. is it preferrable to boil potatoes (cut up for the purpose of making mashed potatoes) in a tall pot of small width, or a shorter pot that is of larger width? (just curious..)

Thanks for the reply. Now, what would the advantage of a straight-gauge fry pan versus a disc-bottom fry pan? Assuming the disc-bottom fry pan has a good base (lets assume at least 5mm aluminum), then I'd say for frying foods, wouldn't that be enough, or is straight-gauge much better in this case? Back to boiling water: Making pasta, or hard-boiled eggs, or boiling potatoes.. since all of these things boil in water, does the pot I use to perform those tasks need a heavy base of 5-7mm aluminum, or is 2mm aluminum good enough for those simple things?

I'm wondering wether or not straight gauge or disc-bottom is better for making rice? Another question I have is this: can someone really notice the difference in performance of a saucepan that has a disc-bottom 2mm base aluminum versus a straight-gauge 2mm aluminum design? When trying to get water to boil inside a pot/pan, can one put the temperature setting on an electric stove to "high", even though the pot manufacturer states that using their cookware on high will discolor the base? It seems silly to put a pot on medium heat and wait for it to boil just so that it doesn't discolor!