On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:07:57 +0100
"jacqui{JB}" > wrote:

> "eupeptic" > wrote in message
> ...
>=20
> > I discovered this great site a few days ago
> > and thought some of you out there might be
> > willing to aid a fellow baker in need of your help...
>=20
> Mm-hmm, sure you did.
>=20
> > He also has a website in the works if you'd like
> > more information: www.bakersedge.com
>=20
> Um, no. The world does not need one more useless novelty pan that'll
> be used once and then shoved in an already overfilled cabinet.
> Really, truly. No.


What, you still haven't gotten rid of that vertical chicken roaster
thing? Or that saut=E9 pan with the little chimney in the middle? Ooh, do y=
ou
have one of those vented things that's supposed to let you grill on your
stovetop?=20

That "Perfect Pancake" thing was hitting the thrift stores within about
6 weeks of the commercials, must have something to do with the fact that if
you follow their directions to the letter it takes 7 minutes to make one
pancake. Maybe that's why they give you two of 'em?=20

I'm trying to figure out how i missed being told that the mini-loaf
racks were useful. You know, like a muffin tin but rectangles. I know what
restaurants and bakeries use them for, but they don't buy the quarter-sheet
size.=20

The muffin-top pan. Yeah. Makes muffins without the bottom half. It
delivers what it promises, but, somehow nobody cares once they've seen it
do it once. This one is at least thin.=20

The good thing about those flexible silicone pans is that you can wad
them up and shove them in the back of the drawer.=20

All these are of course significantly less evil than the small
appliances that only do one thing. I saw a quesadilla maker yesterday, and
I've been using my oven, like a chump!

Personally, I'm a little annoyed that I can't find a waffle iron that
comes with alternate dies to turn it into, say, a panini grill.=20

OK, I'm sorry, apparently usenet exists so that we can give people
advice. Here's some advice:=20

Experienced bakers don't want novelty products. We have a good idea what
we're doing with traditional pans, and feel that a novelty pan will take us
away from what we already do well into something that's unknown. It doesn't
matter if it has the potential to make us the most superior baker in the
world, if it's weird rather than solid and predictable we'll avoid it.=20

Heck, at least half of us don't even use spring-form pans, and if ever a
gimmick pan succeeded in becoming mainstream it's the spring-form.=20

Recently, there was an article about Dow Corning's effort to improve
upon their bakeware. The problem they're having with their research is that
when they do market research, everybody says that the reason they like
their particular 9x13 (or thereabouts) pan is because it's the one they
know how to use.=20

They also say things like "it heats evenly" "it doesn't burn my
casserole" or "it's easy to clean" but the truth is most of these come down
to operator performance rather than the qualities of a given pan. You can
make a casserole without burning it in a thin-wall steel 13x9 but not the
exact same way you do it in pyrex. Cafeterias do it in disposable aluminum
pans all the time.=20

The people who want your product are people who are self conscious about
their performance. They subconsciously wish that some product could make
them better at whatever it is they're doing.=20

I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that they are people who are not
well acquainted with the temperature controls on their oven and have been
baking things that are either burnt on the outside or perfect on the
outside but under-baked at the center. None of the regulars here have this
problem. It turns out that we regularly scare these people away. Perhaps
there are some recipe forums on websites somewhere that might be more
excited about a pan that will finally allow them to bake the perfect snake.

Preying on the weak. Welcome to reality.=20