Melic

my 2 or 3 cents ... I had to replace my stove last year. My choices were: electric or electric. No gas, no countertop unit and build-in-the-oven-somewhere else. Just a plain ol' range. I'd recalled that sometime in the foggy past, Jenn-Aire or someone had built an electric 2 x 2 range - 2 induction burners and two radiant burners, but my appliance store (not a chain) said, not available anymore. The owner pointed to another guy in the store. "See him," he said, "he knows how to fix induction burners, which when they break are very, very complicated to repair." Bottom line: I went ahead and bought my new ceramic top stove (as I said, no choice there - and I was scared to death of the thing for a couple of weeks, but that's another story ...). Along the way I have picked up 2 portable induction burners, an Iwatani (1800 watts) and a smaller, more portable Sunpentown (1200 watts) which I both use in the kitchen and drag along with me (well, one of them) when I'm tasked to bring a dish to someone else's dinner. I love them, and I can't wait until a really good plain ol 2x2 functional stove becomes not only widely available but widely available and very reliable. Plus, I'll have to wait some time to justify replacing a new stove, won't I? As for the step-up, rather than continuous control, I believe CookTek's burners have continuous control even now, although I've had no problems with the step-up settings. They're subtle enough for me. Now, as for cookware, most of mine, except for the copper, is induction capable anyway. I've kept it in mind for several years now not to buy something new that isn't induction-capable, unless it's copper. I've also just seen a device that looks rather like a round griddle, made by Mauviel and called an "induction interface," that's supposed to permit you to use your non-induction-capable cookware on an induction burner. Alas, cooking.com carried them, discounted them something like 2/3 off, and now they're out of stock ... before I could snag one for experimental purposes. Yes, induction burners hum. But I guess it's no more alarming than the first time I turned on my convection oven and wondered, who's landing a jet in my kitchen? I'm pretty sensitive to high frequency noise myself, but these two induction burners don't seem to bother me. Or maybe I'm just becoming hard-of-hearing and haven't noticed it yet!

I confess!! I have a Cybernox frypan ... and I love it! Admittedly, between the lower price *and* the discount at the time (2004 - I went back and looked) and factoring in the proportion of the Amazon.com $25 off an order of $125 or more, I only paid about $10 more than the Profiserie model of the same size would cost. I got a beautiful crust on my burnt offering du jour last night - with no added fat, and the sacrifice just slid right out of pan. The microscopic residue that was left (I didn't deglaze, btw) swished out with hot water. Has the nice thick base, and like its Profiserie cousins hanging out in my Cabinets With Too Much Stuff, it also works on my induction burner. To each his or her own, I guess.

Bummer ... I think the Berghoff was the only downtown Chicago restaurant we ever ventured to when I was in college there, a couple of generations ago. I still think about the place often, and wish there was something like it near me (I was taken to a German restaurant recently somewhere in the D.C. suburbs ... in a strip mall ... old guy singing German drinking songs, accompanying himself on an electric keyboard ... the waitresses were German folk- costumed ... but they all were speaking - Spanish). Marshall Fields becoming Macy's - a double blow. When my parents drove me out to Chicago the beginning of my freshman year, they took me to tea at the Walnut Room. I think I'll just go swill a cup of Geritol now...

Le Creuset's site's FAQ say that it's suitable for induction: <a href="http://www.lecreuset.com/usa/content.php?name=FAQ#heatsource">What heat sources can Le Creuset be used on?</a>. quote: All! You can use Le Creuset cast iron with confidence on whatever heat source you choose - Induction, halogen, ceramic, gas, electric ring and solid plate, and solid fuel (e.g. Aga, Rayburn). ********** IIRC when I had a Sunpentown burner (I have a higher wattage Iwatani now) one limiting factor was the capacity of the pan (I don't remember if 8 quarts was the max or was too big). I used my 5.5 quart le Creuset pot on it without a problem, but I made soup, which only took a couple of hours, or chili ... ditto.

Last month, when I got mine, amazon had them on sale for 19.99. I just re-checked my old orders to see if that price was correct. Don't hit me ... I figured that at that price, I could use it as a doorstop and come out ahead. I'd previously bought one at, I don't know, 30 something dollars a year ago and given it to someone, so I haven't actually tried the thing yet.

I have Corian in the bathroom, but got Silestone for the kitchen ... I've had the Corian for 15+ yrs, and it's ok for the vanity, but honestly it doesn't look so great after all these years - it does need a buffing, too. I could have had either granite or Silestone for the kitchen - the prices were comparable, but I went with the Silestone because the pattern I chose worked best with the travertine floor I already had. And we're talking a *lot* of Silestone; including a really double-wide peninsula. The install was ... well, I don't even know how they did it, with these heuuuge heavy pieces, but it's gorgeous. Yes, you don't have to seal it. Scorchability? I have Other Arrangements for landing hot pots next to the stove - which is why my 15 year old white formica countertops (which disappeared in the kitchen makeover) were still pristine. Yes, there's a seam ( or maybe 2) but it's invisible, truly. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, both the way it functions and the way it looks.

I have the doufeu. I bought it mainly because I liked that it's all one piece (so nothing can really break off), but because of the handle placement, you always have to use 2 hands to take off the lid. Other than that, my food comes out great in it, but I'm not sure if the basting spikes have anything to do with it, since I have nothing to compare it with. ← I have the doufeu, too, and have had it for many years. I also don't know if the basting spikes (or the recessed lid water/ice cube routine) have anything to do with how the stuff I cook in it comes out - I bought the piece because, I'll admit, it was awfully exotic and intriguing at the time, and since I wanted an oval cast iron dutch oven anyway, it was a two-fer Besides, it was red ... The only thing I can compare it with is my 5 quart round le creuset, which doesn't have the same accomodate-a-hunk-o-meat-or-fowl shape as the oval does. Stuff comes out embarassingly great from both pieces. I just can't figure out how someone can haul one of the *really* big, filled dutch ovens in and out of the oven without doing serious damage to some human moving part A big brisket in the large le creuset buffet pan/braiser nearly kept me from ever straightening up again... but gosh it was good.

I feel better now. I've been wondering about the Advantium. Two years ago I had to replace my dead range hood/microwave combo. I opted for a microwave/convection hood combo instead of the Advantium/microwave hood combo simply because of the cost differential. The convection combo was maybe only $100 more than a straight microwave; the advantium combo was hundreds more than that. Now I've just replaced the old stove and was wondering if I should have re-replaced the hood with a matching ss advantium/microwave. I think I'll stick with what I've got. It seems like it would buy me less functionality than the micro/ convection combo for a small cosmetic change only (black to ss, and my new stove is black and ss anyway). I'm sure I'll figure out some way to spend that saved money ...

I just got a new fridge - KA, and lo and behold, the meat drawer is at the very bottom of the fridge, with its own temperature controls. The veggie drawer is above it, with its own humidity controls. My old fridge was configured just as you pointed out, although I simply disregarded the labels and put the meat in the bottom-most container, to avoid the raw-meat-juice-as-salad-dressing problem ... Oh, and more to the topic, I've only aged a roast once in the fridge, since I'm lucky enough to be near a family-owned grocery that sells locally raised, 28 day aged meat.. Not surprisingly, it has some devotees and some folks who won't buy it because it doesn't stay cheery cherry red long enough, or so the store folks told me. I try to cook my stuff by 1 day after the sell by date - I'm obviously more worried about chicken and ground beef than I am about steaks and roasts. So I guess the answer to the question about how long to keep meat in the fridge is - depends on the kind of meat

your mystery pan must be a "polaris"/"hackman",and they don't make copperware anymore. i've got a 24cm saute pan and a smallish rondeau from that manufacturer. they're 2mm copper + s.s., and though that is a bit flimsy compared to 2.5mm they're very decent pans. surely not ikea, as ikea is swedish, anyway i, too, take 'em where i can find 'em. mostly salvation army and thrift shops. at least for the moment, mauviel 2.5mm remains a dream. ← aha! Thank you! I just looked at the Hoyang-Polaris website (no, I don't know how to do the special "o") and they look like the culprits to me. Well, they're Norwegian at least. I also suspect my little pan is 2.0 mm, since it is heavy for its size. I'd take a picture of it, but I just had new appliances installed yesterday *before* the new countertops and backsplash, and the current, um, ambience isn't anything I'd like to memorialize in a photo Assuming I could even find my camera in this mess... Good luck on your copper quest. It's amazing what ends up in thrift shops sometimes. Go figure.

I have stuff from everyone. What I have bought recently depended on who had the best price at the time; nothing more. Falk: largest low casserole (like a saute pan with 2 loop handles) and a 9.5" frypan. I love the Falk pieces, except for the casserole lid, which is a huge disappointment. I'd never get another Falk lid again. Sorry. They're not brushed, and this lid needed a serious cleaning which was very hard to do given the exhortation *not* to use any scrubby thing on it. I'd been eyeing a large casserole for about a decade, I swear, before I got it. Mauviel: 3 quart curved saute. No lid, because the lid to my Mystery Saute pan (see below) fits it. Dunno if it's 2.0 or 2.5. Iron handle. Bourgeat: 4.5 quart curved saute and lid, bought after the Falk or I wouldn't have bought the Falk lid. So why did I buy the Bourgeat lid? Because it was only $8 more and I figured I could use it if something happened to the Falk lid, which is highly likely. Oh, and a 3.75 qt saucepan. Iron handles. Mystery Saute Pan. Ok, someone help me out here, because I've never been able to find out what happened to this company, aside from the fact that the corporation was dissolved in 2003, according to Canadian records on the Internet. It's a 24 cm saute pan (3 qt) - 2.5 mm thick (yeah, I got out the callipers. but hey I can hardly lift the thing), stainless lined, but (1) with a brass handle that's (2) welded, not riveted on. I bought it at least 21 years ago in a local kitchen store that's long since closed. On the bottom is stamped a little logo of a beaming sun and "coventry coppers 1980 mntl, canada" The lid says nothing. I've periodically looked around for info ever since I first went on line, but aside from that statement of corporate dissolution I found this year, apparently I'm the only one in the universe who has one of these pans Oh, I just remembered - my favorite, absolutely favorite, handy small saucepan (can o' soup size) is stainless lined ... with a stainless handle (Sam's comment below about stainless handles should give me a clue about how thick the copper is) that is stamped on the bottom "Norway." Norway???? I guess this is really mystery pan #2. Somehow I think it may have come from the first Ikea around these parts oh, maybe 20 years ago. oh well, you take 'em where you find 'em.

Tin Lizzie! I don't know if these kits are still sold (Julia Child mentions them here) - but I have 2 or 3 of them up on the laundry room shelf. I bought them in Zabar's maybe 15 years ago and never used them. Kit contains a square of tin and a bottle of acid flux. The package says Copper pots need re-tinning? Voila! Tin Lizzie Tin Lizzie Copper Pot Re-Tinning Kit. A safe, easy, inexpensive, do-it-yourself way to re-tin worn copperware. Complete instructions and everything you need to re-tin a 9 inch pot bottom interior. Save $$$ ... trim and use to patch 4 or 5 mildly worn pots. Aux Cuisines Inc 43 Saddle Ranch Lane Hillsdale, New Jersey 07642 © 1976 Susan Lyon. Reading the instruction sheet through the plastic bag - You scour the inner bottom surface with a soap pad and dry it, dip a cotton ball into the acid flux and wipe it over the worn area, cut a small piece of tin to size and put it on the worn area, have a folded paper towel ready, heat the pan to high (tin begins to melt at 450) and watch your piece of tin begin to melt and disappear into the scratched part, (it won't stick to places that haven't had flux applied) - wipe over the area, move the excess tin to a side of the pan and pour it out onto a piece of tin foil (I think she means aluminum foil :) ) heat up the pan again until it melts again, smooth the excess, and allow the pan to cool naturally. Oh, and don't cook the first subesquent couple of times with high heat. I never tried the kits. I've long ago retired my old tinned stuff, which were table service pieces (given to me by my mom a really long time ago, when even those pieces were profoundly exotic and I was the only person I knew who had any copper cookware at all).

I can't believe I just saw Mauviel Copper Nonstick frypans at cooking.com. Cuprinox Style. The 9." nonstick is ... $234.95. The 11" is ... $269.95! In stock ... indeed. This is what you *don't* want to get - I hope! (I'm still trying to get my mind around what the target market is for copper nonstick, and it isn't a pretty thought.) For that kind of money, you could buy the 9.4" and 11" Falk copper frypans *and* 5 sets of the 8" and 10" Calphalon Commerical nonstick frypans that used to be on closeout at amazon.com (I think they finally sold out), but I've seen them still at Bed Bath and Beyond and in a local department store. $39.95 for the 2. I'd recommend picking up a couple of packs of those Calphalon nonsticks if you can find them. Everybody swears by them. I have a Bourgeat nonstick (the one with the nonstick on the inside and the outside) that I've had for years and it's still going strong. But don't feel bad about melting stuff. Not long after I got an electric teakettle, in my usual state of morning uncionsciousness I filled the kettle ... and then placed it *on the stove burner.* mmmm, acrid smoke. One ruined teakettle. One ruined burner. The woman at GE just laughed when I called to order the replacement burner - she said my story didn't even rate among all the tales she's heard of what people do to their stoves. Oh well. And there's always the scanpan frypan. It's good, too. Anyway, try the Calphalon My dad hasn't been able to ruin the ones I got for him yet! That's as good an endorsement as anything can get!

In the interest of Science I got the try-me chef's pan from bb&b - now all I have to do is find an unsuspecting college kid to give it to! Thinner than my old "Commercial Aluminum Cookware" (calphalon before it was calphalon), nothing even semi-non-stick about it, cleans up well, but so does all of my good cookware, which also is either dishwasher-able or more substantial in gauge or heavy copper, whatever. Hey, I scrambled eggs in it ... with butter, and it was still pretty sticky. Those same eggs do much better in every single one of my non-nonstick (is that a term?) pans. To be honest, I just went to W-S to eyeball and heft the other pieces; they seemed heavier than the try-me, but the salesperson whispered to me, "Honestly, I'm not impressed with this stuff." shhhh !!!

Thank you! I'm very new to the forums - and since my Mom was from Farmerville (Monroe was a childhood let's-get-dressed-up-and-go-shopping-at-the-Palace treat when we Yankees would venture south for a visit) I will now proceed to read everything you've ever posted here In my possession: not a family cookbook, alas, but "Favorite Recipes from Historic Farmeville - Home of Lake D'Arbonne" published in 1966 by Farmerville Chapter No. 207 Order of the Eastern Star. Hardback bound, but all the pages were typed on typewriters ... and illustrated with contributors' drawings. Gift from my grandmother in 1974. Interspersed among the recipes are bits on the history of Farmerville. Not a sophisticated recipe in the mix , but I recognize the names of so many of the contributors ...