Yes, pan reverse sear.
Speaking of sauce, my meager contribution to this thread will be my favorite hot sauce.
Highly recommend, frequently give this out as a gift. Goes great on meats, veggies, sandwiches.
Link: Zombie Apocalypse Hot Sauce | Torchbearer Sauces | HEATONIST
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in exchange, I’ll offer mine. Basically anything from this store. You can go into their brick and mortar shop and taste test them, and I’ve never found one I don’t like. My favorite is the spicy avocado. Small local business, too.
Awesome, looks promising, will order the Avocado and a few others and report back with results.
they aren’t burn-down-the-house hot, but they are all really flavorful and interesting.
One of those isn’t like the others.
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If you’ve never been arrested for punching someone…
Made a rack of spare ribs over the holiday weekend. First time I’ve done spare ribs with the sternum and riblets (?) attached. The bark tore a bit as I tried to get them out of the smoker, but man these turned out great.
Mrs Catface used leftover rib meat in the black beans for rice and beans later in the week, which was also a pro move.
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Check out YouTube videos about how to prep your new skillet before you use it. I regret not sanding mine down to get rid of the rough finish it came with from the factory, but both of mine are non-stick after 15 years of use.
Cast iron pan question:
I made an interesting discovery today. I’ve got an induction cooktop and one of the reasons is that it is faster and more powerful than gas. And for most applications that has been exactly my experience.
One thing I’ve been doing lately before searing something on the cast iron pan is checking the temp with an infrared thermometer prior to starting. Generally the highest I can get my pan is about 550F after it has been sitting on the burner for a while (>15 min on highest setting). So once I get to 550, I know it’s about as hot as it’s going to get. That normally takes 5-10 min. I’ve never actually timed it to see how quick it gets there. Normally I just leave it on, do some other stuff, and then check back in 5-10 min, and it’s generally at that temp.
A few days ago I pulled out our scanpan large skillet and got a reading on it just to see where it was at. It got to 625F very fast (definitely less than 5 min).
Is it just me or does this seem weird?
It’s expected. Induction burners use a magnetic field to induce an electric field in the cookware, and that electricity is where you get your heat. Cast iron is a relatively poor conductor of both heat and electricity. Scanpans look like they have aluminum cores, which conduct heat and potentially electricity much better. The better conduction is going to give you higher heat.
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Well, only magnetic metals work on the cooktop, so what can possibly be better than a giant block of iron?
The scanpan is one that is specially modified for use on induction cooktops, but still how did they manage to outperform a giant piece of metal that is highly sensitive to a magnetic field?
Not magnetic: electric conductors. A sheet of copper would heat up very quickly, and it’s not magnetic.
Edit: a quick glance and this isn’t exactly correct. A magnetic material helps at lower frequencies, which are common on most induction cooktops.
The big difference, then, is almost certainly the aluminum core of the pan distributing heat faster and more efficiently. Cast iron is a very poor conductor of heat.
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No that’s definitely wrong. Copper doesn’t work on an induction stove.
“Since induction technology uses the power of magnetism, the cookware piece itself must be magnetic and have a flat bottom . For this reason, cookware made from aluminum, copper or glass, including Pyrex will not work on its own”
From: Cookware, Pots & Pans Safe To Use With Induction Cooktops
I’ve also tried it. We have some nice copper pots that we used to use with our old gas. Tried them out on the induction. Doesn’t get hot at all.
Most induction tops will not heat copper or aluminum vessels because the magnetic field cannot produce a concentrated current; “all metal” induction tops use much higher frequencies to overcome that effect.
Pure copper most definitely can work, but it’s more difficult to get the heat out of the induced electric field at lower frequencies.
Even that doesn’t seem to explain the speed. The magnets should heat up the iron directly which is why everything is generally fast. I can boil a giant pot of water much faster than any gas stove because of the direct effect of the magnets on the metal.
For the scanpan, it would have to heat the metal that would then have to conduct that heat to the aluminum. So it would stand to reason that would take longer than the magnets directly heating the iron.
Also if aluminum is better at conducting heat, which is it preferred (I think) to sear a steak on cast iron rather than aluminum when using a gas stove.
I think the “most” there really means vast majority (edit: or perhaps all but one or two).
I don’t think these all metal ones are widely available. At least not when I purchased. All the ones that looked at seemed to be the more common low frequency type.
Not at all, sounds normal. Any burner can only put out so much energy, your induction hob is just more powerful.
But why is it faster than a cast iron pan on the exact same cooking surface?