I still lust over the Viking induction hob, but I'm not about to pay >$600 for
it. So... following the earlier discussion here, I ordered the Wolfgang Puck
induction hob from HSN, for 99.95 minus 15% for a coupon. It took a little over
a week to get here.

We quickly found out that very little of our cookware will work with it. All my
Griswold cast iron is, of course, fine. And, as expected, none of my copper pans
work. My two Tramontina clad saute pans are fine, but a similar clad 4-qter is
not. My All-Clad 1qt. saucier and 4-qt. pot are fine, but the 7qt. All-Clad
pasta pentola is not, and I had really wanted to use that one for deep-frying.
8;(

It works great. Straight power control (400, 600, 800, 1000, 1400 watts); time
control; and temperature control, from 150 to 400 deg. F in 50 degree steps.
Initially, I was disappointed that it didn't offer 25 degree steps, particularly
325 and 375, for frying, but that turned out not to matter.

The "mat" that comes with it is just an induction-ready heat diffuser. It works
well with all types of cookware setting on it, whether the cookware is induction
ready or not, even my ceramic teapot.

Last night, we deep-fried two batches of hush puppies. We put a piece of
parchment paper over the entire top of the hob, for ease of clean-up -- perfect.
The warm up is very quick, with no overshoot.

I set it to 400 degrees, and we started dropping batter five scoops at a time as
soon as the oil reached 380 on the infrared thermometer. Through eight batches
of puppies, the oil remained between 368 and 375 at all times. I never had to
drop the control down to 350, as I had expected I would.

It was great -- no extra heat in the kitchen, no mess (a little scorching of the
parchment paper from the hot pot), and a perfect result. We are sold.

A big thank-you to whomever it was who first mentioned this unit.

-- Larry

On Aug 7, 11:49*am, pltrgyst > wrote:
> I still lust over the Viking induction hob, but I'm not about to pay >$600 for
> it. So... following the earlier discussion here, I ordered the Wolfgang Puck
> induction hob from HSN, for 99.95 minus 15% for a coupon. It took a little over
> a week to get here.
>
> We quickly found out that very little of our cookware will work with it. All my
> Griswold cast iron is, of course, fine. And, as expected, none of my copper pans
> work. My two Tramontina clad saute pans are fine, but a similar clad 4-qter is
> not. My All-Clad 1qt. saucier and 4-qt. pot are fine, but the 7qt. All-Clad
> pasta pentola is not, and I had really wanted to use that one for deep-frying.
> 8;(
>
> It works great. Straight power control (400, 600, 800, 1000, 1400 watts); time
> control; and temperature control, from 150 to 400 deg. F in 50 degree steps.
> Initially, I was disappointed that it didn't offer 25 degree steps, particularly
> 325 and 375, for frying, but that turned out not to matter.
>
> The "mat" that comes with it is just an induction-ready heat diffuser. It works
> well with all types of cookware setting on it, whether the cookware is induction
> ready or not, even my ceramic teapot.
>
> Last night, we deep-fried two batches of hush puppies. We put a piece of
> parchment paper over the entire top of the hob, for ease of clean-up -- perfect.
> The warm up is very quick, with no overshoot.
>
> I set it to 400 degrees, and we started dropping batter five scoops at a time as
> soon as the oil reached 380 on the infrared thermometer. Through eight batches
> of puppies, the oil remained between 368 and 375 at all times. I never had to
> drop the control down to 350, as I had expected I would.
>
> It was great -- no extra heat in the kitchen, no mess (a little scorching of the
> parchment paper from the hot pot), and a perfect result. We are sold.
>
> A big thank-you to whomever it was who first mentioned this unit.
>
> -- Larry


Hi, Larry,
Did you say what pan you ended up using,
What size pan?
And how much oil, what kind?

I know ;-) this is not the food group, but just following up with
questions of interest to me - and maybe others reading this.

I bought 5 large containers of grape-seed oil at Costco, Grape-seed
has a good smoke-point and doesn't lend itself to overpowering the
product (I suppose similar to why others chose canola.). I used it
for tosterones (twice fried plantains).
Dee-licious.

Dee Dee

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 09:56:07 -0700 (PDT), Dee Dee > wrote:

>Hi, Larry,
>Did you say what pan you ended up using,
>What size pan?
>And how much oil, what kind?

For these hush puppies, we used a 3.5 qt. All-Clad stainless casserole, about 8"
diameter, and canola oil about two inches deep.

>I bought 5 large containers of grape-seed oil at Costco, Grape-seed
>has a good smoke-point and doesn't lend itself to overpowering the
>product (I suppose similar to why others chose canola.)

I like grapeseed oil better than any other for frying, but I can only find it in
quart-sized containers, if at all.

-- Larry

On Aug 7, 2:29*pm, pltrgyst > wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 09:56:07 -0700 (PDT), Dee Dee > wrote:
> >Hi, Larry,
> >Did you say what pan you ended up using,
> >What size pan?
> >And how much oil, what kind?
>
> For these hush puppies, we used a 3.5 qt. All-Clad stainless casserole, about 8"
> diameter, and canola oil about two inches deep.
>
> >I bought 5 large containers of grape-seed oil at Costco, *Grape-seed
> >has a good smoke-point and doesn't lend itself to overpowering the
> >product (I suppose similar to why others chose canola.)
>
> I like grapeseed oil better than any other for frying, but I can only find it in
> quart-sized containers, if at all.
>
> -- Larry



Thanks, Larry.
I can't recall if you are close to Costco or shop there; but just so
you know, they have it in "plastic" bottles (I would prefer glass),
and it says 100% pure, and the size is 2qt. 4 oz. $9.89 ea.

I haven't been to any mid-eastern or asian stores lately to price it,
so I don't know how that compares in price.

Dee Dee