2 hours ago, Dex said:
Big slab of aluminum or copper sounds just fine to me for searing.
For searing, I'd consider the Searzall over using the Control Freak with any sort of pan. Unless you're trying to cook the food at the same time.
For searing on the Control Freak, if you're looking for a very fast sear then using a copper or aluminum pan may not cut it simply because they're usually good at transferring/distributing heat more than they are storing it (with higher-mass/thicker pans storing more, of course). When I drop a sous vide steak on a piping hot copper pan for instance, the pan temperature dives quickly before starting to ramp up again--defeating some of the instant sear I was going for.
Preheating a cast iron searing stone (in the oven ideally, for pervasive heat) and then using the Control Freak to replenish the heat level may be a good pick. But honestly the Control Freak is a medium-wattage induction burner; I'm not sure that it's really meant for high-speed searing.
2 hours ago, Dex said:Do you know of a better pan comparison than that one? Superficial as it may be, only head to head evenness test I've seen. I don't want to buy all the pans to do it myself.
Now you're talking about the adventure I went off on for a while, buying 2 pans each from like a dozen sets of pans and testing them out with various cooktops and infrared cameras. Sigh. It was fun but, yeah, not something I'd recommend for everyone.
