commercial style ranges



The Rosengarten guy tested four commercial style ranges (Blue Star, DCS, Viking, Wolf) with very specific cooking tests, and the Blue Star was the winner in each test. I'm not really interested in those ranges, but here are some other points he made for things to look for in a cooktop:

Prep Work

With so many cooktop features available, it can be difficult to determine which are really important. Here are the ones to consider most carefully:

BTUS Your cooktop's single most important feature is its heat-generating ability, a figure measured in BTUs. Most commercial-style home ranges offer 15,000 BTUs per burner, which is perfectly adequate for most at-home cooks. You won't always need all that heat, but if you want to caramelize a bell pepper in seconds, or blacken a redfish like a pro, well, you'll need all the heat you can get. My advice: Go for the big-time BTUs.

AIR FLOW As important as a cooktop's BTUs is the air flow around the flame: The more room you have between the source of the flame and the bottom of your pot, the more efficient the heat. Air flow can be affected by sealed or unsealed burners. Traditionally, all burners were left "unsealed." In other words, the flame was surrounded by an open groove through which food could drop. But then home cooks began objecting to that open groove because dropped-through food inevitably accumulated under the cooktop. Companies responded by offering a sealed burner, which contains the spillover to the cooktop—but reduces the heat efficiency of your BTUs. My advice: Skip the sealed burners.

THE PORCELAIN CAP Years ago the gas jets of burners were made of stainless steel. But then range owners began complaining that heat was discoloring the steel. So manufacturers started adding a "porcelain cap" onto the jets to protect the metal. Unfortunately, this "solution" ended up reducing air flow. So then the manufacturers came up with a better solution: They built the burners from cast iron, which won't discolor. My advice: Skip the cap, and look for cast-iron burners.

WHEN THE HEAT HITS THE PAN Professional chefs spend a lot of time discussing . . . physics. Specifically, what is the ideal angle and spread at which the flames of the burner should hit the pan? Some argue for a "wide" spread of flames; others argue for a more conical flame. My advice: Go for a wide spread of flame that shoots directly upward to the pan; it provides superior heat distribution.

IGNITION When testing a cooktop, turn on all the burners repeatedly and reject any appliance that gives you even the slightest ignition anxiety. My advice: Make sure you understand how your ignition works.

THE VISIBILITY OF THE FLAME Once you get the flame on . . . can you see it? It's easy to overlook this detail, but important to investigate: Some cooktops' flames are practically invisible. My advice: Buy a cooktop with a clear flame.

THE TURNING OF THE DIALS Make sure your prospective range doesn't have sticky dials. And make sure your dials turn down to low as easily as they do to high. Often, when attempting to find the lowest possible setting, you must turn the dial so far down that eventually the flame just disappears, forcing you to reignite. My advice: Test the low heat on your prospective cooktop and make sure you can find the lowest setting.

CYCLE HEAT OR STEADY STATE? Speaking of low heat, some ranges give you a steady low heat on the lowest setting, but some "cycle" the heat, or alternate blasts of low heat and no heat. My advice: Stick with the steady low heat.

THE WAY THE GRATES SIT Great design is essential in grate design. Do the grate's spokes block the flame? Do they jiggle in place, wobbling your pots, or sit firmly as they should? Finally, are the grates aligned with each other, from burner to burner, so that you can easily slide your pots and pans anywhere across the cooktop? My advice: Pay attention to the slidability factor; it makes cooking easier.

COMMERCIAL OR RESIDENTIAL MANUFACTURE? Is your prospective cooktop manufactured by a producer who exclusively makes residential ranges, or by a commercial producer who makes a line of home ranges? All the pros said commercial producers' cooktops are usually heavier and more durable. My advice: Look for commercial manufacturers.

Posted: Wed - October 13, 2004 at 09:07 PM      

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