This Kitchen is for Dancing
Hello my Foodie Friends!
The sounds of cooking can be kitchen music to our ears with the sounds of beeps, pans, clinging, clanging, and thuds in your kitchen. Having the right cookware is important to the entire culinary experience. As you are beginning to think about what to get for your special “foodie” this holiday season, cookware can be that special gift.
This brings me back to the time my father and his friends went on their yearly hunting trip to Vermont. I have shared this story before, yet I love telling it. Every year four dads got together for a week of deer hunting. After about four years in a row of not bringing back a deer, my mom got wise and had a meeting with the other moms. They gave each dad a condition they had to fulfill if they wanted to go. They were required to bring all their children over the age of five. The negotiations went on for months and my Dad, who was the ring leader, gave in. Therefore, there were some very excited little boys and girls who got to go with their Dad on a weekend long vacation. Dad’s cookware at the “Cabin” was not the best and the first night of the trip, the dads had a great time laughing and enjoying their “refreshments” (as they referred to them) while we ran around endlessly. It started getting dark and I asked my dad when we were going to eat? He told me to go ahead and cook something up. I replied: “Dad, I’m seven.” There was literally no food. My Uncle Cass found some cans of beans and first looked at the other dads then to all ten of us kids and with a very loud and enthusiastic voice said: “Hey kids, how about some BEANS!” Then all the dads started yelling, “beans, beans beans”, and then the kids started yelling “beans, beans, beans!” Cass started pouring six cans of beans into a wooden handled sauté pan while singing made up songs that we all joined in on. He kept stirring and singing while we assembled at the table peacefully. I must admit he had me more excited to eat a plate of beans than I have ever been for a meal. “Ok”, he said “here it is kids” and we cheered. As he turned around, the wooded handle came loose and the pan spun around multiple times and the beans went flying. Hot beans hit like little bean pellets bouncing off every child at the table. No one was hurt because all of us were laughing so hard we couldn’t talk. Cass thought he killed us. A good plan would have prevented this disaster. However, it is to this day one of all our favorite times with our dads. Dad had a tense moment explaining to mom why her three boys had red dots on their foreheads.
So many of our customers come in and state that they want good cookware. They are tired of going through generations of cookware that does not last or is not providing them with the heat conduction or distribution they are looking for in cooking. Good pans are worth their price because they manage heat better. Being a “good conductor” and “heavy gauge” are the key features of good cookware.
Here’s how these characteristics affect cooking. You get responsive heat. Good heat conductors, such as copper and aluminum, are responsive to temperature changes. They’ll do what the heat source tells them to do—heat up, cool down—almost instantly. You get fast heat flow. Heat flows more easily through a good heat conductor, assuring a quick equalizing of temperature on the cooking surface. You get even heat diffusion. A thicker pan has more distance between the cooking surface and the heat source. By the time the heat flows to the cooking surface, it will have spread out evenly, because heat diffuses as it flows. You get more heat. Mass holds heat (heat is vibrating mass, so the more mass there is to vibrate, the more heat there will be). The more pan there is to heat, the more heat the pan can hold, so there’s more constant heat for better browning, faster reducing, and hotter frying.
Buying good cookware could be a wonderful gift to give your culinary enthusiast. Stop by Compliments to the Chef – your neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store located at 33 Railroad Place. We have a large assortment of cookware. Make sure you have the best cookware to do the job right. Make music in your kitchen with the sounds of stirring, pots and pans clanking. Play some music while you cook. Dance and embrace those who make those creative dishes that say “I love you”. Remember my Foodie Friends; “Life Happens in the Kitchen!”
Take Care, John & Paula
