Induction Heat

Our New Induction Heat Burner

Cassete Feu My Mother used Catering

We just bought a couple induction heat burners to cook tomorrow night in a kitchen that has no stove or oven. My Mother used Cassette Feus, which amounted to fancy French camping stoves or portable butane burners–Barely an upgrade from Sterno. Our new induction heat burners operate on the same technology that a lot of metal work uses. We barely understand and the picture below is the inside of one of our machines. The digital world is frightening sometimes... I mean when something gets hot, I want to see flames... And when something gets Hotter, I want to see bigger Flames! Analog Flames!!

What happens is when a flat bottom pan, that is electrically conductive (conducive to magnetics), hits the surface of the induction burner, an oscillating current is applied to a copper coil which produces an oscillating magnetic field. This electromagnetic field sends energy through the metal thereby creating resistance–heat. This process will only work on pots and pans that a magnet will stick to... we spent most of the evening sticking magnets to our favorite pans. (I guess its safe to say that if cooking is the wonderful mix of art and science we definitely fall on the art side of things.) Fortunate for us we have a love of cast iron in le Creuset cookware and the French saute pans we brought home from Rupperts.

I am not going to even pretend to fully understand–however what is interesting is that different from standard electric flat stove tops, these burners are much more efficient in terms of energy. They heat up super fast And get very hot–John used them for a short time when he worked at Marlow and Sons in Brooklyn.

We are looking forward to the gig tomorrow night... Here is a peek at the menu... and the inside of our new machine...

Passing
Roasted Sweet Potato with Polyface Chicken Salad

Seated
Green Salad with Polyface Egg, Chives and Banyuls Vinagrette

Grilled Beef Brisket with Braised Turnip, Carrots Leeks, Potato, Barley and Wilted Chard
(vegetarian alternative available)

Chocolate Cake with Roasted Pears and Ginger

Cookies
Macaroon
Gingersnap
Rosemary Oatmeal

The Inside of Induction Heat Burner