Let the PAN do the cooking
If you are a food-happy, gadget-loving cooker (like us!), or if you have one such person on your holiday gift list, here’s an awesome, handy and super hi-tech gadget: a portable induction burner. Here’s the scoop on induction burners: they don’t generate heat. Instead, they use a powerful magnet (which means you have to use pots with iron or steel in them) that actually heat the molecules of the pot itself. Whoa. Did we just blow your mind?
It blows ours.
So induction cooking, because it isn’t generating heat which gets dissipated before it even reaches the pot, is super energy efficient. And it’s safe because it’s only really hot when the pot’s on it (though it will get warm from heat transference after a pot has been cooking on it.)
This is a great device to add an extra burner when you’re preparing for a party (or, say, Thanksgiving). Or move it out to the dining room for a little table side flambe action. Or use it as a portable burner if you need to take your cooking on the road (read: road trip!). Or if your girlfriend kicks you out and you just need a one pot jobby to stave off hunger.
The one on the left is the top of the line Mac-daddy Viking 15×12 Induction Burner. Good for impressing friends and good if you want some real cooking power. 15,000 BTUs of cooking power for a mere $500. Cough.
For more reasonable budgets, there’s a well-rated, more reasonably-priced portable induction burner by a company called Max Burton. It will reach 11,500 BTUs, has a smaller cooking area, but is great for the price.
BUY THE VIKING MAC-DADDY INDUCTION BURNER
BUY THE MAX BURTON INDUCTION BURNER
[...] In Japan, this style is called Nabemono and is usually don in a donabe pot over a flame, or even an induction burner (the clay has a high iron content so this will [...]