heat vs. cotton

If it's all cotton, it will wash up well with other laundry.

So ... wool? Maybe a felted wool?

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[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

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Flat top electric range. YUK. That's the other half of the problem. Crummy range.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Paul, I think you are rather determined to give us firefighters some serious busines, the answers given have been quite correct. Keep fabric AWAY from fire. Fire will grow 4X per minute. By the time you decide that its gonna burn we are going to have job security...

Actually, my nickname is Chamoisee. LOL.

I TOTALLY agree! Don't know why my hubby had to have this stupid flat top electric range. He doesn't do the cooking! I HATE IT WITH A PASSION. I keep canning stuff on it hoping to break the darn thing.

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http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

My husband scorched up two of my potholders using them to move a hot charcoal chimney, so don't count on cotton not burning.

What you need is a new skillet, not an insulator. Get one with an aluminum core and stainless inside and out - I have one that's from All-Clad, one from Calphalon, and both clean up like nobody's business and heat evenly everywhere. You can get cheaper ones, just make sure they are well made and stainless inside and out.

I tend to agree that the most of the problem arises from the kind of range being used.

We used to hear reports on a fairly regular basis that the flat topped range surfaces would crack or break if heat was concentrated on top of them such as when using large canners.

If you use some means to hold the heat you may damage the stovetop.

Is this the kind of efficiency you were looking for?

I would suggest Reverewear pans. They have the copper bottoms and heat evenly.

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The older ones seem to be better than the new ones. Same for Farberware. Whenever I find decent old ones of either at thrift stores I buy them. When my kids are ready to set up housekeeping I have enough to share.

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God bless,
Bonnie
Opportunity Farm
Northeast Washington

"While we have the opportunity, let us do good to all." Galatians 6:10

my dad had a 1/2" thick piece of aluminum plate scrap(from building airplanes) that he used on the propane campstove(put the pot on top) to even out the heat. Mass, heated properly, will even out heat.

You can get a round 2 layer perforated metal thing at rv stores that you put on the burner to help even out heat--this works on a propane stove. I use my cast iron on the propane camping stove to prevent the middle hot spot--that layer of air helps even stuff out. BUt those glass topped stoves are just not the best.

DO you have a cast iron lid for your fry pan? That will hold in a LOT of heat for simmering, stewing. If you have another fry pan the same size you can turn it over and use it for a lid too.

PLay with how much heat to have the burner on--to brown/saute if you're having trouble with hot pots, you probably don't have the heat high enough. THe heat should be high enough to brown it not eventually brown it as it stews/steams in the moisture that gets out and doesn't steam off fast(like it should to properly brown it crispy). If you want to brown something(bringing out the natural sugars) have the meat cool( chilled--just not frozen or really cold I mean), and pat it dry before you throw it in the HOT pan. Then it will cook faster, and energy will not be wasted heating the meat from cold.

If you are browning something to then stew(not cooking it through before you add other stuff and put the lid on) let it brown darker than you think is right--some of that brown stuff comes off in the stew, and that's what makes the special flavor. For instance I brown a roast in a really hot pan till it's espresso brown, you might even call it burnt, but after stewing it doens' look that dark. AFter you remove the meat be sure to deglaze the pan to get all the stuck on brown stuff-pour in the water and stir until the brown stuff comes off.

Probably more than you wanted to know...

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Rick
[7 years NFO in S-3's]

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I like people who think outside the box.

But - cotton??? You do scare me sometimes. Holy smokes. And you'd be smoking for sure!

What you describe above - step 2 - has already been invented.

It may even be in your house.

Look below your burners.

Is ther an oven there?????

Bingo.


To cook food, you need heat to work in to the middle of - for example - a steak. You don't want so much heat that to burns the outside.

To do that, you need moderate heat. And time.

The insulated burner/pan (also known as an oven) is a cool idea for efficiency & thinking out loud. But it won't result in good food. Cooking requires a certain application of heat over time.

Rather than insulating & directing more heat to the pan - you need to work on reducing the burner heat.

Instead of amplifying the heat by using all of it - cut back on the heat.

--->Paul

Ignition point for cotton: 500 degrees F.

Ignition point for wool: 1100 degrees F.

Max temp for an electric stove: 500 degrees F (not as certain about this one)

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[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

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Consider a situation where my heat source might be .... unreliable ... sometimes weak ...

Consider attempting to cook on a rocket stove mass heater - it isn't really designed for cooking. In fact, it can only barely boil water. But if you were to insulate the pan or the tea kettle, would it work then? But it must be safe for higher heat.

Back to the electric range .... Suppose your mission is to cook rice, but it is a hot summer day. What if you got it boiling, turned off the heat and covered the whole thing with two inches of wool. I suspect that the rice would keep cooking and you would cut the heat to the house by 90% or so.

Consider the rocket cook stoves - they heat more efficiently by bringing the eat up the side of the pot - as well as heating the bottom. I wonder how much faster (or more efficiently) a pot could boil water on a glass top electric stove if it had two inches ofwool around the pot.

My mind is reeling with the possibilities.

But .... the first step .... safety. Will the wool ignite? Even if I don't try it, but just do the math.

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[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

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That is pretty much the way my Mom cooks a lot of "hard to soften" foods. Whenever Mom cooks dry beans, wild rice, wheat berries, etc. she uses her Thermos bottle. What she does is she puts the dry food into a large Thermos bottle then adds boiling water to the top. The next morning the stuff is cooked perfectly. She does this so she doesn't have to cook the food for hours to get it to soften...she saves energy and doesn't heat up the house.

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I cook rice that way all the time, but without wool. I just put a lid on the pan. Works quite well.

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God bless,
Bonnie
Opportunity Farm
Northeast Washington

"While we have the opportunity, let us do good to all." Galatians 6:10

Let the pan warm up completely first. Then cook.

put a slab of bacon in the pan first, cook till it's like you like to eat it.... then cook your other food... the hot fat jiggleates all around, with little convection currents of it's own...

I really like large cast iron skillets, so I do have a 'hot spot' and cooler spots around the edges... sort of like having a grill in the kitchen...

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