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BTU cooking table?
For natural gas cooking, is there a table of BTU ratings available for
cooking things like steak, using a wok, frying a egg, etc. All I remember from chem and phys classes were BTU for boiling water at standard STP. I'm looking at natural gas ranges for the kitchen and see ratings for burners with something like 12,000 BTUs. Is there any normal cooking situations where you need more? |
BTU cooking table?
On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 02:56:02 +0000, Steve Wertz wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Jan 2007 15:12:52 -0800, # Fred # wrote: > >> I'm looking at natural gas ranges for the kitchen and see ratings for >> burners with something like 12,000 BTUs. Is there any normal cooking >> situations where you need more? > I depends on your needs entirely, do you boil huge amounts of water? Have a stock pot an average american man can fit in? You'll probably be fine with normal cooking. I think boiling water gotta be the biggest one. My advice shouldn't be taken to seriously, I'm not all that knowledgeable about cooking. Although I think in the Art of French Cooking Julia says an electric stove is better than a weak gas stove. > Decent wok cooking needs 60K-120K BTU's. Sometimes more. If your in a restaurant fine, but at home, 32,000 is more than enough. Famous cooks like Florence Lin and Martin Yan use electric stoves when they cook for themselves. I guess they are not decent wok cooks? My outdoor wok stove is 32,000 and gets te wok red hot...which I found out by accident. I think it's good for up to 24inch woks. Too much heat is a bad thing.... I won't argue that restaurants need higher btu's like that. Even then only for some tasks. But for home cooking....nope, and that's not just my opinion. Matthew Ohio |
BTU cooking table?
On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:20:11 -0600, Steve Wertz
> wrote: >Restaurant wok burners are between 160-300 *thousand* BTU's. Yes, >for high volume cooking this is essential. But even for home >cooking, 60K is considered a minimum. I keep hearing about 300K BTU wok burners, but the biggest I have ever seen is 150K per burner. |
BTU cooking table?
On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:20:11 -0600, Steve Wertz wrote:
> > "I'm not all that knowledgeable about cooking" > > And leave it at that. It's called humility, you might try it some time. At least I'm humble enough to state where I get my information. > >> Famous cooks like Florence Lin and Martin Yan use electric stoves >> when they cook for themselves. I guess they are not decent wok cooks? > > Then they're not cooking Chinese food as in the restaurants. You > can't get the famous Chinese wok taste ("wok hay") without a > sufficient gas burner. And certainly not on an electric stove. > What you see being cooked on the TV shows will taste nothing like > what you get in a restaurant. > Florence lin has taught chinese cooking to some very famous critics....I guess they don't know what wok hay is? If you can keep your wok hot enough to burn the seasoning off, you'll get wok hay. Electric can do it just fine with proper preheating and adjusting portions to the heat source. Heat is heat, you need enough for the wok not to cool down when food is added. I guess all the ethnic chinese in this country just can't cook at home....damn. Here's something off yans website; "Most of the Chinese dishes in restaurants seem to be fairly oil. Is Chinese cooking fattening? Absolutely not! In the first place, a good Chinese fish should not be oily. Perhaps the reason why some restaurant dishes are so oily is that their stoves give of a tremendous amount of heat while the dish is being cooked; extra oil is used to prevent food from sticking and burning. A great portion of the ingredients in Chinese dishes are vegetables, which are low in calories. In addition, the traditional Chinese menu does not call for too many deep-fried dishes." I'm pretty sure fish should be dish, it's found in the faq section of yancancook.com > yan fan club (or something similar) There is a profesional opinion about super high heat and woks that seems to elude to too much heat. I've qouted sources and can qoute more, studied various authors, what have you done? Offer an opinion with no support. There is plenty in print about wok hay by ethnic chinese, they can get it at home. BTW the cantonese are the ones who stress wok hay. Southern china, hong kong. In Grace Young's book The Breath of a Wok, she gives tips for getting wok hay at home. The biggest are pre-heat your wok for a little while and stir-fry no more than 3-4 cups of veggies or more than 12 ounces of meat at a time. She's basically an american through and through, she knows food though. It's totaly possible to get wok hay at home. Worst case scenario two batches for a big family. The trouble there is the wok hay fades as soon as cooking stops. The above seems like a good portion for a typical chinese meal. I'm done with this topic. Matthew |
BTU cooking table?
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BTU cooking table?
Although I think in the Art of French Cooking Julia says an
> electric stove is better than a weak gas stove. One of the TV shows checked out Julia Child's refrigerator and found it was mostly empty except with couple cans of beer in it! Famous cooks like Florence Lin and Martin Yan use electric stoves > when they cook for themselves. I guess they are not decent wok cooks? > Was that a smooth electrical cooktop or coiled element? Did they use any special device to transfer the heat from electrical surface to the wok? Wife having a very hard time using a wok on an electrical burner. We are switching to gas. |
BTU cooking table?
On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:25:05 -0800, # Fred # wrote:
> Although I think in the Art of French Cooking Julia says an >> electric stove is better than a weak gas stove. > > One of the TV shows checked out Julia Child's refrigerator and found it was > mostly empty except with couple cans of beer in it! > So thats how she gets by with a tiny kitchen. :) > Famous cooks like Florence Lin and Martin Yan use electric stoves >> when they cook for themselves. I guess they are not decent wok cooks? >> > > Was that a smooth electrical cooktop or coiled element? Did they use any > special device to transfer the heat from electrical surface to the wok? Wife > having a very hard time using a wok on an electrical burner. We are > switching to gas. Re-researching some things, Grace Young says Florence lin reccomends a flat bottom wok and so does Ken Hom. There are a couple of photos in the book, I can't tell what type of wok she is using(coil type range). In her books she recomends a round bottom wok but no mention of heat source (I think). I prefer the round bottom myself and have a coil type range. Last night I pan fried some falafel and was able too keep the temp at or above 350. I worked in two batches and about 12 1 inch falafel balls total. Used the biggest element. Here is the martin yan reference: http://yancancook.com/faq.htm question 5 From the wokshop faq at amazon.com Q: What is the difference between a flat-bottom wok and round bottom wok? A: The Wok Shop recommends a flat bottom wok if you cook with an electric stove or a ceramic cook top. The flattened bottom of the wok is approx. 4" in diameter and will sit stable on the electric burner. You do not use a wok ring with a flat bottom wok. The round bottom wok is used with a wok ring which stabilizes/cradles the round bottom wok on a gas stove. A flat bottom wok can be used efficiently on both gas or electric stoves, and a round bottom wok woks best on a gas stove. You can use a round bottom wok on an electric stove, but it will be more difficult to get super hot especially with the wok ring which elevates the wok from the burner. I suppose you could notch the wok ring so the bottom contacts the burner. Eileen Yin-Fei Lo reccomends in the "chinese kitchen" using two burners at once. One on high and one on low, switch to the low when things get hot. She uses a flat bottom wok in her portable demos which she uses electric burners. She says she has a large gas-fired professional range now. Some of this came from "My grandmothers kitchen". I use the biggest element with out a wok ring, set it on low for a few minutes. Come back and see if it's hot enough to sizzle water off my finger about half-way up or more. Then I crank the heat up. Wait a little bit more than add the oil. The biggest problem I've had is getting the wok superhot, it just takes patience...add wet ingrediants by swirling in the top portion of the wok. If it's not hot enough to begin with, I get stew. I just read online in a usnet archive about someone preheating the wok in the oven first. The first time I added the "sauce" to some stir-fried lettuce.....womp I lost all the heat. That's when I started preheating more, before the round bottom wok I had a flat bottom wok with the long wood handle. If you can get a good gas stove, then do it. Cooking on electric works, but it sucks. I like to do some or all of the food prep while the wok is heating. If I had a choice, I'd have a decent wok range. I use my wok all the time. I read that if you flip the grate over on a some gas stoves, it supports the wok nicely. Also I've read that some wok rings don't let enough air get to the flame so the need to be modified. I think maybe a 14,000 - 16,000 btu burner might be good for easy home wokking. But heck, if Yan says electric will work.......I don't think you need to worry a whole lot. good luck, matthew P.S. If you got time, go to the library and check some of the book authors out in this thread. |
BTU cooking table?
On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:12:35 +0000, MatthewK wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:25:05 -0800, # Fred # wrote: > So thats how she gets by with a tiny kitchen. :) > Or rather got by. I really used to like the food network until I started reading some of her books. matthew |
BTU cooking table?
> Here's something off yans website;
> "Most of the Chinese dishes in restaurants seem to be fairly oil. Is > Chinese cooking fattening? > > Absolutely not! I must say Chinese restaurant and Chinese home cooking is somewhat different. Chinese restaurant geared for taste (use too much oil and fat for taste much like butter, sugar and heavy cream used in European style restaurants) while Chinese home cooking is geared for health with much less deep fried stuff, more veggies and fish. The proportions are different too whereas at home the meat dishes are smaller in portions for taste with a larger portion of rice or noodles. Usually Chinese don't have dessert, wine or beer at home. Tea is less fattening. If you check out the Chinese moon cake, ( http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...earch+Image s ) it has about as much fat as Mexican refried beans or some soul food dishes - heart attack on one plate. The difference is moon cake is only served once a year. So I couldn't say that Chinese food is not fattening although you have more thinner Chinese in particular and thinner Asians in general. |
BTU cooking table?
"MatthewK" > wrote in message .org... > On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:12:35 +0000, MatthewK wrote: > >> On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:25:05 -0800, # Fred # wrote: > > >> So thats how she gets by with a tiny kitchen. :) >> > > Or rather got by. I really used to like the food network until I started > reading some of her books. > > matthew Her cooks books were rated as one of the most accurate, the same as for Jamie Oliver. Before her sad passing, This Old House had a few episodes on Julia Child's kitchen remodel. |
BTU cooking table?
The P24WKBS Thermador 24'' Single Burner gets up to 30,000 BTUs but
requires it be built in to the countertop as a surface burners or stoves are. True professional wok burners get in the 100,000 BTU range, but require special plumbing and are often against local codes and insurance companies will void homeowner policies because of them. That was what I found out in both MAssachusetts and New Jersey. I ended up with the 30,000 BTYU Thermador and am very happy with it. Just doubling the BTUs found on regular cooktops makes a significant difference. On some dishes I can even get aromas and tastes of the famed wok hay. On all dishes it is much superior to cooktop burners. If you are redoing a kitchen and can accommodate a 30" additional cabinet next to the stove, by all means add the Thermador wok burner. Don't forget that you will also have to get a much larger exhaust system to cover the range and wok burner. ------------ There are no atheists in foxholes or in Fenway Park in an extra inning game. ____ Cape Cod Bob Delete the two "spam"s for email |
BTU cooking table?
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BTU cooking table?
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BTU cooking table?
"Jack" > wrote in message > Exactly what insurance agency that writes policies in NJ told you you > can't > have a high-power wok burner in a home? And what municipality in NJ said > it > was against their building codes? Not all building codes in NJ are > uniform. > > And what person tells his or her insurance agency what kind of appliances > they have in their own home? I don't know about woks, but commercial ranges are not permitted in a residential setting unless proper precautions are taken. They are not built with all the insulation of a typical residential unit and must have clearances and venting. Codes aside, it is dumb not to do it right and that is the big problem. Too many homeowners don't or won't. |
BTU cooking table?
Cape Cod Bob wrote: > The P24WKBS Thermador 24'' Single Burner gets up to 30,000 BTUs but > requires it be built in to the countertop as a surface burners or > stoves are. True professional wok burners get in the 100,000 BTU > range, but require special plumbing and are often against local codes > and insurance companies will void homeowner policies because of them. > That was what I found out in both MAssachusetts and New Jersey. > > I ended up with the 30,000 BTYU Thermador and am very happy with it. > Just doubling the BTUs found on regular cooktops makes a significant > difference. On some dishes I can even get aromas and tastes of the > famed wok hay. On all dishes it is much superior to cooktop burners. > > If you are redoing a kitchen and can accommodate a 30" additional > cabinet next to the stove, by all means add the Thermador wok burner. > > Don't forget that you will also have to get a much larger exhaust > system to cover the range and wok burner. > > ------------ > There are no atheists in foxholes > or in Fenway Park in an extra inning > game. > ____ > > Cape Cod Bob > > Delete the two "spam"s for email We are remodeling our kitchen and was planning on getting a standard 30" gas range + a standalone wok burner like Thermador or DCS. What did you do for your Ventilation? We are thinking of 2 30" Vent-A-Hood so if we don't need to turn on both hood when just using the wok or the range? Thanks. |
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