Trying their darndest to get speed out of a gas burner

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tomturbomatic

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Williams Sonoma has introduced their rapid boil pot with a finned aluminum bottom to pull more heat out of a flame. That is going to be an easy thing to keep clean, NOT. The obvious answer is to get induction cooking if you want to boil water fast. A 3000 or 3500 watt induction unit boils water super fast and the pan can go in the dishwasher, unlike the rapid boil pot.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/prod...ODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-NoMerchRules
 
I have both glasstop and gas ranges by Frigidaire, purchased in 2002. I was surprised, at the time, to find I far preferred the electric. It boils water much faster---and keeps a tall pot of water boiling harder---and it bakes more evenly than the gas range.

However...I've been trying to use the gas range more the past few months to balance out the life expectancy of the two. While I've found using the convection setting improves evenness of baking things like muffins and cookies, nothing improves the burners. So much of the energy is wasted out into the room.

Having said that, I'd love to hear a user review if someone here purchases one of these new, finned WS pasta pots!
 
I have tried induction burners, did not notice any significative saving of time in matter of boiling water, this compared to my old double crown, westinghouse gas cooktop that I had until not many time ago.
Now I got an electrolux gas cooktop, and while it is not as good as the old westinghouse for sure it is pretty good compared to most modern ones I can see around.
I am not a big fan of induction anyway, i think food does not taste the same as if it is cooked using regular conduction methods ...maybe it's only me, but I find cooking being different.
Gas cooktops made nowadays at least over here seems to provide much less heat than they used to, making boiling water for pasta and frozen veggies long (also having to wait so long for it to re-take boiling resulting in sticky nasty pasta ), and griling in a pan an hard task to avoid pan to loss immediately it's heat and not keep up the temp during cooking resulting in meat releasing water....getting kinda shoe flange.
Frying large quantities of stuff, also becomes a problem......
Anyway, I can see this finned bottom good for boiling and frying purpose only....it may help to speed up things a bit under certain circumstances with a gas burner, but I think not that much to have "WOW "difference
But as pointed out it may result very hard to clean on the other hand....and alu is not the generally alkaline degreasing products' best friend...
I'd have preferred if it was stainless....
I am usual to scrub, actually must to do so with the crappy DW i have, with soap pads and comet powder (here in italy you do not get comet, but Vim and calinda are the most known powder cleanser) always, even the lightest mark must be scrubbed in order to keep the really clean as I want them to be...

[this post was last edited: 4/23/2014-12:32]
 
Gene, use the hell out of the electric and keep the gas for backup in power failures. The gas range, with all of the ignition devices, will be a more expensive range to maintain if you use it than the electric so let it age in place and be ready for emergency use when you have no alternative.
 
I am quite satisfied with electric cooking, especially the coil type burners and glass..,
The coil type is not very common in Europe even though In UK I could see it was..
While in Europe electric cooking is bigger and more common only in certain countries, and sure less common than it is in the USA, for istance in France (nuclear), perhaps germany and Norway (norway is really lucky having geysers) and UK, here in Italy due to high costs of electricity, electric cooking is something you can even forget...
You may find few people having induction now as it use some less energy than an electric conduction, but they're really a few, and this is never the most advisable and economic choiche being gas sooo cheaper than electricity...
Also, just think that the average basic/regular wattage given per house house here in italy is of 3300 watts ie 3,3 kwh, power meters comes with a max absorbition of 3,3, if you exceed it, it will automatically shut off...
They're swindlers, they well know that very few other than singles ( I am single and have my difficulties meeting this range) may keep up with this limit...
I remember us, my sister could not dry her hairs if we had the dishwasher running at the sime time, i could not iron while I was roasting in the oven and every common situation where a family needs to use more than 3,3 kwh in a damn moment...
You of course want more power?
No problem, be ready for a technician to come, spend two minutes with a infrared device to tell your damn meter to allow more than, 4,5 kwh or 6 kwh, (btw, we have computerized meters from 10 years now, and I can confirm they are not trustworthy as the old ones with the round thing that turns) and spend 250 for his two minutes in your house...
It is not ended, in every bimonthly ( here bills are either bi-monthly ot tri-monthly, never monthly) bill you'll get, you'll be charged with a surplus for the increased request, which is 50€ for 4,5 limit and 80€ for the 6kwh.....
So you can well understand why electric cooking whenever conduction or induction cannot, unfortunately, be an advisable option over here...
[this post was last edited: 4/23/2014-16:10]
 
I grew up gas, and had no issues with getting things boil fast.... last time I had a gas stove was before 2000.

Now I have a newer gas stove, and I have to agree.. Boiling takes longer. :-( That's the only thing I don't like about it. Otherwise, normal cooking, love the control of the hat.

I think the reason why it's taking longer is the burner style. The flames are shot out more side ways, so the heat isn't going right up onto the pot like the old style burners.
 
If You Want One of These Pots:

I would counsel a little patience, and keeping your eyes open at the thrifts in a year or two. Williams-Sonoma gadgets have a long history of being discarded by overprivileged owners, who get rid of them when it's discovered that using and maintaining them takes work, no matter how enticing the ad copy or how pretty the catalog photos.

Keeping one of these pots clean is not going to be fun. And if it's dirty, it's not going to be a welcome sight in a la-di-dah $150K "designer" kitchen.

"With the rich and mighty, always a little patience."

- The Philadelphia Story, 1940
 
A friend of mine works for WS, one day a week for the last decade or so. He has "specialized" in becoming quite well versed in the cookware department where he's usually assigned. His thoughts on this pot pretty much fell in line with the thrift store theory.

Isn't there a water kettle with the gas - heat channeled base as well?

Feh. No gas cooking unless it's the only possible option.
 
Greg, are you talking about the chromed copper teakettle with the sidewalls extending below the water compartment's base and a big ring of coiled copper around the perimeter in the space between them to gather heat? There are holes around the perimeter. When I saw one, it just demonstrated the problem with heat from the flame escaping instead of going into the pan.

Sandy, you are so on the money with your comment.
 
WS Rapid Boil Stock Pot

They lost me when they said it was recommended that it be hand washed, Cookware that does not go into the DW gets no place in my kitchens.

I wounder if they warn you that having this extra heat-sink on the bottom of the pot will cause a big increase in the amount of carbon monoxide created when it is being used?.

It is NEVER a good idea when cooking on a gas flame to let the flame touch the bottom of the cook-ware being used as doing so greatly increases the amount of CM created. This is the reason that newer gas burners have the flame shooting out to the sides more, this helps minimize CM production.

Of coarse you should always use a good VENTED TO THE OUTSIDE of your home hood when using a gas burning cooking appliance, EVEN WHEN JUST BOILING WATER.
 
I generally don't put cookware in the DW because that can damage both the exterior and interior finishes.

If the finned bottom pot is used just for pasta, then I don't see the fins getting all that dirty in the first place. If you're using it to cook chili, then yeah, it could get grimy. But who needs to bring chili to a rapid boil in the first place? It's far better cooked slow.

It is true that modern sealed gas burners seem to be less efficient than older open gas burners. Their flames tend to spread out horizontally more than the open burners. Some mfgs have tried to compensate for this with multiple rings of jets on the sealed burners. Haven't tried one but it could be the answer. Me, I drilled out the main jet on a small burner on my Frigidaire gas cooktop in order to get more BTU's in a smaller flame circle. It works quite well for 90% of my cooking. There's a bigger, higher powered burner in the back center of the cooktop for pasta and such.

At one point I timed how long it takes the big gas burner to bring a big pot of water to a rolling boil vs the 8" flat coil Frigidaire electric range. As I recall, it took the gas burner 20 minutes. It took the electric burner 15 minutes. Both would require some planning in advance to cook pasta for meal. The difference was not enough to make me chuck the gas cooktop.
 
I can go along with John--if the pan can't go into the dishwasher---I don't want it no matter what the price.WS things are ALWAYS expensive!!If they sell something that can be dishwashed-then I am more interested-do think the heat sink thing is sort of silly-better to use the sink to DISSAPATE heat rather than absorb it.
 
The pan that can also HYPNOTIZE you-gently rotate the pan and look into that pattern---YOU ARE UNDER MY POWER!!!Interesting cookware,though.-So the idea of cookware for gas isn't new as WS thinks.
 
I think the main reason that WS does not recommend washing the pan in a dw is the fact that the aluminum base will get ugly quickly and they don't want customers returning the pan based on cosmetic reasons. At least if they tell buyers not to put it in the dw, they can't be held liable when someone tries to return a pan with a corroded base, although they probably would take it back anyway to preserve good customer relations.
 
cookware in dishwasher

My mom was the same as me, if it can't be put in the dishwasher, then it has no purpose, reason, use in my kitchen--with exceptions such as cast iron skillet. My next oldest sister was here for Christmas dinner. We both have Revere Ware about the same age--acquired 1977-1980. She never pouts her in the dishwasher. While cooking she commented how her cookware looked dull compared to the shine on mine. I didn't say anything, but thought, if you'd use your dishwasher more and put your pots in there, they'd probably look a lot better.
 
Exactly the opposite experience here...if I put pots and pans (Farberware in this case) in the DW they come out with hard water spots. It just takes a moment to handwash and I get to play in the suds as a bonus. ;)

They're very shiny, too. Maybe it depends on other factors...hardness of water, perhaps?

I'm not saying there's a right and wrong, this is just my experience.
 
Cookware in the DW:

I'm not telling anyone what to do, but I personally am not a fan of washing cookware in the DW. There are several problems:

Dishwashers are not good at removing starch film - that whitish film that's left inside when you cook rice, etc. Dishwashers are not very popular in Japan for this reason; their cuisine uses rice a lot.

Dishwashers are not good for Bakelite handles. Well, dishwasher detergents are not good for Bakelite handles. This is because Bakelite (real Bakelite, not some cheapo black plastic) is made of wood flour bound with phenolic resin. The wood flour is organic, just like food soil, and dishwasher detergent can't tell the difference between organic material it's supposed to attack and organic material it's supposed to leave alone.

I also don't find dishwashers to be all that good at removing the brown deposit left after sauteing.

I'm a Farberware fan and collector (the late James Beard used to say it was the best cookware going for the money), and I hand-wash. I follow up with Cameo Stainless cleaner and a blue Scotchbrite scrubber to remove gunk, and I use Brillo on the bottom. Makes for very lustrous, attractive cookware that cooks like new.
 
I'm also in that camp.  Most of my cookware is either Corning ware or Revere Ware.  I do have a number of nice industrial aluminum baking pans that I also put in the dishwasher.  I do find that enzyme based detergents (the new powders) cause less discoloration that anything with chlorine in it as fas as aluminum is concerned.
 
Sorry, I'm a dishwasher person, too. If it can't go into the dw, I don't buy it. For years I used cheap 'Tools of the Trade' stainless steel cookware I'd bought at Macy's. Worth twice the price. They heated evenly and nothing ever stuck to them. if they're still around when I move, I'm def buying a set.

Do NOT ask me about the Magnalite cookware I've inherited.... :-(

Jim
 
If only my BSH dishwasher would clean like a dishwasher is supposed to..for ex like an old school US whirlpool kenmore etc... or at least like our Rex used to, I'd put everything in the dishwasher...
With them never had a problem in removing rice statch or browned pans from meat or sauteing...
Never experienced stuff ruined by the dishwasher anyway, but I see how detergents may attack certain materials,I usually dislike stuff with plastic handles etc, having gas burners they often gets out the fire crown or overheat due to the next fire, and burn or melt, heat ruin them badly with the time anyway so i remove them.
I have mostly stainless of which many Alessi , a few alu and all the rest is VTG enameled cookware....
I was given a few Lagostina items with plastic covered handles but I usually unscrew them...and avoid like plague modern non-stick stuff with wholly plastic handles...
Everyone of them gets perfect in the dishwasher, well they don't get ruined...
I also put wooden cutting boards, wooden spoons, wood handle knives, believe it or not even wooden pan mats and they comes out like new, well for awhile...while cutting boards and knives are still very okay after more tham 10 years of life, i can see how cheap non coated wooden spoons often gets weakened and start to peel off and finally crack, but they cost 1€ so who cares if after sone months they are trash? Good quality coated wooden spoons seems not to be much affected...but they cost 2€ so, are practically comparable to 1€ ones.
Aluminum almost never goes in, have few stuff of alu anyway and a few items of oven ware all the rest stainless, , I drink american coffee, but often guests wants an italian style coffee and have a couple of moka coffee makers, one alu and the other stainless, I always use the stainless even if they say mokas should not be washed with detergents as they absorbe detergent aroma, i find it being BS..... have nothing but a few small pans made of alu that I use rarely....
But everythng in my house goes into, so count me in as well....
[this post was last edited: 4/27/2014-09:06]
 

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