Thread: Cooking pads
View Single Post
  #127 (permalink)   Report Post  
bigwheel bigwheel is offline
Senior Member
 
Location: Foat Wuth
Posts: 1,161
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Press View Post
In article ,
bigwheel
wrote:

Quinch;1855230 Wrote:
I've recently switched to an electrical stove, and there's something
that bugs the living daylights out of me. Namely, heat transference.

The elements are metal, and so are the pans. Neither of these is
particularly pliable, which means that there's very little actual
surface contact between the two, so there's probably a hell of a lot of
heat loss.

So my question is, is there anything to help with that, like some sort
of soft, heat-conductive pad that goes between the two to help with heat
transference {for the computer-wise, basically thermal paste, except in
solid form}.

Or anything else that works, really.

Regards,

Quinch


Never heard of many folks worrying about that kinda stuff. If the
elements are touching the bottom of the pan..not too much heat is going
to be lost. Have you got any good cookware? That should help more than
anything. Making sure the pan construction contains one of our two best
available heat conducting metals i.e. copper or aluminum. I have a giant
high dollar All Clad brand SS stew/bean/chili pot which has a waffle
bottom made of Aluminum. Its a cooking marvel. lol Cast iron is
tolerable but not as good as the other two. Solid SS has terrible
conductive properties. Now the cats meow is hard anodized aluminum. That
is what the big boys and girls use. They tend to be proud of those when
you go to buy one. Kindly keeps us posted as event's unfold themselves.


The anodizing is no help for cooking, only for looking good.
Best exterior is unadorned aluminum. None of it is any good
unless there is a sandwich filling of pure aluminum or copper
on the bottom and running up the sides. That is where the value
and price increase.

--
Michael Press
On anodized aluminum pots the aluminum construction is what helps for heat distribution..not the anodizing. No need for a sandwich on the bottom if the whole thing is made from aluminum. The anodizing is most useful on the inside to prevent reactivity with acidic foods such as those containing tomatoes or vinegar etc. Those foods cooked in bare aluminum or cast iron vessels can wind up tasting real funky and metallic due to the reactivity issue.