Cordless "Induction" Frying Pan?

[kelticwizard]

This forum has a lot of foodies and a lot of engineers, so this is probably the place to bring this issue:

I have an electric range. It makes cooking some dishes harder.

A couple of years ago my sister gave us the following frying pan:
Berndes 9.5-in. Cucinare Skillet.

A 9.5" Berndes "Induction" frying pan. It has an extremely heavy bottom.

Well, it's a great pan, you can cook with it at a lower setting than other pans and it will cook faster and better.

Only thing is, from what I can glean about "induction" cookery, it's the electric heater that has the induction mechanism-there are induction ranges and induction cookware with a plug. But it is hard to see how a cordless skillet can have an induction mechanism.

I suspect that the pan works so nicely because the heavy bottom does something with the heat, not because of some induction mechanism. But I don't know this to be fact.

The reason I am asking this is that I want one of these in the 6" size to help with something I make very often but which comes out uneven. Unfortunately, the company does not make a 6" version-only an 8" version which would be kind of big.

There are other brands on the market with heavy bottoms on the cookware, I'm sure some of them have a 6" size. But if the performance of the pan is because of this induction mechanism as opposed to the mass of the extra large bottom, it would be a waste of time to buy them and I might as well put up with the too-large 8" size.

Does anyone know if a cordless frying pan can have induction action?

 

[Ron E]

Does anyone know if a cordless frying pan can have induction action?

I think this is an "induction" frying pan in the same way that headphones and speakers in the 80's and 90's were called "digital".

Induction cooktops are the rage because they have instant heat and are easy to clean. The pan, if it has a heavy bottom, cooks well because it has a heavy bottom. I believe induction pans just need to have a fairly conductive and magnetic bottom, so glass or all aluminum pans won't work. Cast iron works, but can scratch the surface.

 

[kelticwizard]

Much thanks, Ron E. That certainly clears it up.

 

[454Casull]

Much thanks, Ron E. That certainly clears it up.

On an aside, many people like vintage cast iron as opposed to the newer Lodge Logic stuff because old cast iron tends to be extremely smooth and not pebbled in texture. This comes not from the seasoning but from the actual casting/finishing process.

The solution is to take your Lodge Logic iron (which is otherwise perfect) and throw it on an end mill with a large facing bit. Re-season and you have yourself the ultimate griddle.

 

[Andrew Eckhardt]

In lieu of heavy machine tools you could always hit it with some silicon carbide paper in a palm sander.

 

[kelticwizard]

454Casull, Andrew:

Thanks for the advice. Fact is, I am having some trouble finding 6" frying pans with a heavy bottom on the internet, (haven't yet checked the stores in person), so cast iron might well be the way I have to go. If I do, your resurfacing suggestions will be most useful.

 

[scott wurcer]

In lieu of heavy machine tools you could always hit it with some silicon carbide paper in a palm sander.

On my list of things to do, I have a full set of mirror grinding abrasives. Once you are down to 405 emery it is very smooth. Take an old plate glass table top or glass door from the trash and grind the pan against it. Silicon carbide grit is cheap and readily available. Artists use it to prepare surfaces to mull paint pigments.

EDIT - Usually you use a slurry of water and the grit. I would think 220 silicon carbide (Carborundum) is as far as you would need to go.

 

[Ron E]

On my list of things to do, I have a full set of mirror grinding abrasives. Once you are down to 405 emery it is very smooth. Take an old plate glass table top or glass door from the trash and grind the pan against it. Silicon carbide grit is cheap and readily available. Artists use it to prepare surfaces to mull paint pigments.

EDIT - Usually you use a slurry of water and the grit. I would think 220 silicon carbide (Carborundum) is as far as you would need to go.

Got Grit
Not affiliated, but I am grinding an 8" F/8 mirror for fun, although it has sat in a box for a few years now - I'm on 15 micron grit.

 

[auplater]

15 micron??

Got Grit
Not affiliated, but I am grinding an 8" F/8 mirror for fun, although it has sat in a box for a few years now - I'm on 15 micron grit.

That's only 1200 grit... wife's busy on the faceter with amethyst down to 50,000 diamond paste...

Hopefully I'll get started on some of the 8 pounds of facet grade amethyst material.. (18K carats) if I can ever stop rebuilding all this lapidary equipment.

Just found several thousand carats of ruby rough in an estate we bought earlier this year... along with CZ and synthetic and natural sapphires

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John L.

 

[scott wurcer]

Got Grit
Not affiliated, but I am grinding an 8" F/8 mirror for fun, although it has sat in a box for a few years now - I'm on 15 micron grit.

Got bottles of 5u, and 3u left from 1964. Needless to say at $85 for a finished 8" F/8 I had a backup plan. Still in service at a neighbors house up in Maine, unbelievable images (the one "they" made not mine). My mother threw out the diamond polishes that my father had "borrowed" from the lab, part of his job was preparing samples and analysing them before BIG castings (he worked on Big Allis). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Allis

 

[454Casull]

454Casull, Andrew:

Thanks for the advice. Fact is, I am having some trouble finding 6" frying pans with a heavy bottom on the internet, (haven't yet checked the stores in person), so cast iron might well be the way I have to go. If I do, your resurfacing suggestions will be most useful.

I forgot to mention something. Flaxseed oil is supposed to be the best oil to season cast iron with, and you'll need to season the iron after it's been machined. I would recommend using flaxseed oil as a lubricant for the machining process just so you don't have to clean it off. Also, make sure that the cutting tool has been properly cleaned, and runs slowly so that heat doesn't build up.

When finished, wipe it all out, re-wet it with more oil, and wipe that off until no more "gray" remains on the towels. This way, the iron is never allowed to rust, and all the oil is good stuff.

EDIT: Then again, if you end up with a very smooth finish, a little oiled sandpaper would take care of any flash rust.