paulraphael

Here's my recipe; the exact quantities are just a convenience. The only thing you have to be precise about is the temperature. You need a decent instant-read thermometer. 250g sucrose 120g water (approx) 0.25 – 0.5g citric acid or cream of tartar (tartaric acid) Mix ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. When it boils wash away any sugar crystals stuck to the side of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Additional water has no effect on the final outcome. Without stirring, boil the mixture to 237°F (114°C). Remove from heat and cover. Let it cool until it’s easy to handle. transfer to plastic container. Store in fridge; should last at least 6 months. End result should be about 83% sugar, 17% water.

Have you ruled out making it yourself? It's easy for small quantities and all I ever do. You'll never get as high a percentage of the sugar inverted as they do in the factory brands. But unless you're doing something ultra-precise it shouldn't matter.

What's a typical home burner like? My understanding is that woks were originally used on pretty big wood fires. A lot of power! That's why restaurant wok burners are north of 60,000 BTU/hr.

It's a curious technology, but would seem to have a problem. It's combining a fundamental weakness of electric (constrained input power) with a fundamental weakness of gas (inefficient power delivery to the pan). 3000 watts is equal to about 10,000 BTU/hr of power—if the electronics are 100% efficient, which they can't be. We know that flames at this power level are anemic. High quality home ranges put out 150% to over 200% of this. Restaurant ranges over 300%. With induction, 3000 watts is serviceable, because the total efficiency, including transfer of heat to the pan is about 90%— vs. 40% to 45% for gas. This means it's roughly equivalent to 20,000 BTU/hr—a respectable power level. The input power constraint comes from the wiring in your house, and the expense (or possibility) of upgrading it. Look at it this way: for a 4 burner range with electric oven, using 3000 watt burners and a 4500 watt oven, you need a circuit that can deliver 16,500 watts. Here are the limits of different wiring schemes: Dedicated 120v 20 amp: 2000 watts 240v 50 amp: 12,000 watts (this is about the most you can have without upgrading your house wiring) 3-Phase 208v 44–60 amp: 14,000 to 20,000 watts (if it's possible to get this where you live, you'll pay the cost of a major renovation just to get it hooked up). I mention the last one because this is what you need for a truly burly commercial induction range—a level of power you could also get with any 3/4" gas pipe. With the equivalent from electric flames, you'd have the expense of this high-wattage wiring, and then you'd be throwing half that capacity away.

For me, the big advantage of using resistive heat instead of induction is it open the possibility of a magnetic stirrer. I use my lab hot plate with my stainless-lined copper pans. They'd also work with pyrex or anything else that's non-magnetic (I realize this greatly limits cookware choices, especially these days).

What about grease coating the blower housing and the blower itself? This is where I've seen videos of the cleaning process and felt like the whole idea was problematic.

Have you cleaned it? What was that like?

Quick addendum ... That Prestige hood I mentioned above is discontinued. They're no longer making anything in a functional size. Another company called Trade-Wind makes a solid looking contender. I've looked deeper into commercial hoods; they seem viable if you have space / tolerance for something 48" wide or more. Anything smaller would mean custom fabrication. Be aware that commercial hoods all work with remote blowers—either inline (installed in the duct, probably in an attic) or a powered roof exhaust fan.

Here's some updated research ... I'm slowly planning a kitchen and looking at all the options. Ventilation is the hardest problem I'm facing, because every domestic range hood is designed primarily for esthetics. Even the ones that aim for a "commercial" esthetic copy the visuals while ignoring the engineering of functional commercial hoods. If you have a big enough range to justify a 48" wide hood (I don't) then by far the best option is a commercial hood by Accurex, CaptiveAire, Hoodmart, Advanced Hood Systems, or someone similar. If you don't want the commercial look, and you have $$$ for the project, you can just buy the mechanism and have a carpenter build a custom enclosure for it. It can be wood, doesn't matter—as long as the dimensions are right. Some of these hoods are available with a built-in makeup air system that will make system design easier. I don't believe you'll have to find a restaurant hood installer to design and build the system. Any good HVAC contractor who understands the engineering and can read the specs should be able to do this. Next best option, and the most reasonable for more of us, is a barbeque hood installed indoors. These are pretty much the only products that the domestic hood makers design to actually do the job. This is the route I'd like to go. Options include Proline, Tade-Wind, Victory. Maybe also Prestige (I can't tell if this company is still in business ... they don't answer, so I've crossed them off my shortlist). These outdoor hoods all raise the intake baffles above the bottom rim of the hood. They're also deeper from front to back (30" to 36", rather than the usual 22"-24"). This all creates more capture volume—the empty space that's the secret to making a hood work; it's the difference between capturing some of the smoke and grease coming off your pans vs. all of it. It also lets the hood be installed higher above the range: 42" instead of the usual 36" limit (which for me means not having to stoop to avoid banging my head). Commercial hoods are designed like big upside down shoe-boxes; they have huge capture area. This is why they can be way up above the cook's heads, be nearly silent, use much less powerful blowers for a given size, and be nearly 100% effective. Nothing escapes into the kitchen. Regular domestic hoods are designed more like ceiling vents; they let a bunch of the smoke and grease into the room, and clear it out eventually. The BBQ hoods are kind of in the middle. They're almost as effective as a commercial hood, but because of the reduced capture volume, require big powerful loud blowers. Be sure to research and budget for makeup air. If you're installing 1200+CFM blowers it's not optional. Unfortunately this is another rabbit hole; I haven't done the work on it yet. So far I can say: it looks boring! TL;DR: For my purposes, a BBQ hood looks like the best option. Until I do this project I'll rely on opening the windows and listening to my girlfriend's coughing fits and accusations that I'm giving us both cancer.

I'm not sure what the best method is with ICC. Does it let you create a custom ingredient? If so I'd just create your own custom strawberry, using this simple formula that I outlined on the blog post: I use the Nutritionist V. Database, which assumes an average brix of 6.9. [Or use your own preferred source if you have one that's more accurate for the fruit you source] If I measure 8.5, then this is 1.23 times the average. Use this as your conversion factor. Multiply the total solids, the POD (sweetness) and the PAC (freezing point depression) by this factor. The software I built has a brix field, so it does this automagically ... I've been lucky enough to not have to wade to deeply into brix calculations in a long time.

My avatar just had a cup of AI coffee and said it was the best ever.

I sauté over very high heat with a neutral oil, going for lots of color on the beans without letting them loose all their crunch. Let them sit a while between tosses so color can develop. Toss in the pan with salt and pepper, or (usually) sriracha. Optionally a little mango chutney. Fast, easy, super tasty. If you don't have a good hood (I don't) it's also smoky.

I believe so. It might just have some weatherproofing you don't need.

I'm not convinced any of their products besides ranges are particularly good. I didn't mention brands because my research is from a couple of years ago, and isn't compete. I found this problem difficult enough that I've been kicking it down the road. I'll revisit when I'm ready to actually rebuild the whole kitchen. Here are my old notes, all for a 42" wide hood, which is probably adequate for a 36" range: Prestige Pro-Line “High Capacity” 42” PLHC42300 - 42"W x 30"D x 18"H Largest containment area I've found in domestic hoods 1200CFM / 10” duct Lights at top of crown instead of front light bar May be mounted up to 42” above cooking surface Best WPD38I42SB 42” 13000CFM 27” Deep—seems ideal Internal blower INCLUDED 3” extension available to increase capture area Proline 42” PLFW 832.42 2000 cfm 25.5” deep Internal single or dual blower (1000/2000) The very best hoods are made by CaptiveAire and Accurex. These are commercial products, so it may be hard or impossible to find someone who will install it for you (but not as hard as with something dangerous like a commercial range). They also specialize in larger sizes, so finding something that fits your design can be harder. CaptivAire https://www.captiveaire.com/catalog/list.asp?cattypeid=64 Accurex https://www.captiveaire.com/catalog/list.asp?cattypeid=64 I haven't yet investigated the option I mentioned in the earlier post (getting a bare insert that fits into custom cabinetry). I assumed this would be too expensive, but now know a carpenter to ask about this.

The most important elements are the aperture dimensions the and capture volume. The aperture dimensions are the width and depth of the actual opening of the hood (if there's a light bar or something, this doesn't count.). The capture volume is this multiplied by the depth. The Aperture dimensions need to be larger than the active area of the range top. Ideally, you'd calculate a line from the edge of the range that tilts out 10° from vertical (both to the side and to the front of the range). So the higher the hood, the larger it should be. You will almost never see them specified large enough. The capture volume is also critical; it creates a buffer where plumes of smoke and grease can be trapped before the fans are able to suck them away. No hood blower is powerful enough to keep up with big plumes of smoke and atomized grease without an adequate buffer. The good news is that if you have ample capture volume, you can get away with less air flow. Next time you visit a restaurant kitchen, take a look at the design of the hood. In most cases it will be large, and have 12" to 18" height. That height is mostly taken up by empty space; it's all about the capture volume. These big dimensions let the hood be mounted very high (so even your tallest, most ridiculous chef hat won't bump into it. You can even have the Pope come over and cook for you). And the hood will probably be quiet. Commercial kitchens can be loud places, but the hoods usually just sound like a whisper. Because with that design, they don't need massive airflow. You do need to consider air flow, but not in the way the salespeople tell you. The flow rate number that matters much more than CFM is the linear speed of the air, measured in feet-per-second. You want the air to be moving upward at a fast enough rate to influence the path of the grease and smoke. And you need the air to be moving over the louvers in the vent at a high enough speed to function properly. If the air is moving too slowly, the grease and the air don't get separated by the louvers, and the grease goes up the vent, coating the sides of everything and increasing the risk of fire. Cleaning out a long greasy 10" duct is a horrible job. If the air moves over the louvers at a high enough speed, the louvers change the direction of the air quickly enough, and the grease particles get centrifuged out in to the grease collection area, which is only slightly miserable to clean (it's designed to be cleaned; most louvers can also go in the dishwasher). There are formulas for calculating necessary linear air speed based on your dimensions.