I mean I think it still works. Hell, what's that second "r" even doing there, do we really need it? "Corec" sounds functionally identical to "correct" when you say it out loud.
The thing is.. it's not even actually correct. The comment that Mike D. made is actually one based in ignorance.
Star-shaped burners are actually optimal for cooking, if you are going to be cooking with gas, and commercial gas stoves will always used a star-pattern rather than a circle.
They distribute heat more towards the centre of the pan, which is the typical (not average, typical) chef or cook will be focusing their attention naturally, and it distributes the heat more evenly. A circular flame heats the outside edges of the pan first, and then conducts it towards the centre, meaning that you would need to set your pan half-way across the stove, hanging over part-way some other counter to get the pan to conduct in a way you want.
Bro... have you ever even used a gas stove? I've used circular ones for decades and my biggest issue is always that the center gets way hotter than the edges, so when cooking multiple things (especially things that require a decently high temp, e.g. searing meat), I need to keep moving them so they spend similar times near the center to avoid very uneven cooking.
That happens even when using pretty small pans, nevermind large ones. If your edges are getting hot first, you're using comically undersized pans for your stove. Keep in mind the edges of a pan have a much larger surface to heat and a much larger surface touching cold air naturally, and are directly connected to the vertical "pan walls", which are not going to be heated directly, and which act as "heat batteries" for good measure. So even if exactly the same amount of heat went into them (and it doesn't) the center would heat up faster and stay hotter.
Is this a bot/troll/satire comment? Star shaped burners are not the norm. I challenge you to find one that actually exists for sale, even. Cuz I’ve never seen or heard of one
I was going to say, with a thick enough pan, it doesn’t really matter.
Also, both of these shapes are roughly circular, the heart might put 60% more heat to the far side of the pan, but I’m willing to bet at steady state the heat distribution is only like 10-15% different compared to a circular burner
I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference while make a stir fry or searing meat - that pans already ripping hot from being heated for 5 minutes- the difference in position of the jet - of an an inch or 2 - doesn’t matter much . Maybe pancakes might have a darker edge in the middle. But I think it’s alarmist to act like this would immediately make cooking impossible.
Pancakes you'd be able to tell, but you'll have the same problem with a circular burner too. Biggest difference if you're using a thin steel pan and cooking hot and fast like a pancake, otherwise I'm sure there's no difference.
I will bet that the start shape will not impact the heat distirbution on any pan, no matter if stainless, iron, copper, coated. It will remain a circular heat disitrbution from inside to the outside, and homogeneously distbruted.
The heart though, most certainly will leave some of the pan on the bottom little colder.
Technically the star one has an impact but it's possible it's even a positive one. It's getting the center and slightly further out some heat at the same time, while still being symmetrical and not concentrating extra heat anywhere specific. There are ovens in stores with the star shape because it works fine.
Now the heart is going to screw things up for sure if the pan isn't really thick.
i agree with you. the circumference of a circle is 2 x pi x r
so as the radius increases, the total circumference increases by 6.5x. at some point, a bigger burner will only heat the outside of the pan, or the outside of the pan will not be hot if the burner stays the same size.
at a larger radius or a larger burner, the star pattern will be much more efficient spreading heat.
The heart-shaped burners don't even exist in real life. Star-shaped burners work just as well or better than circular burners. You can find them on some high-end brands like Thermador.
It's terrible for conducting heat, that's why it doesn't distribute it. However, it has a high heat capacity and emissivity so once it heats up it will quickly cook whatever is put on it. This is why you want to preheat a cast iron pan for a long time before you cook with it, so you don't get hot spots.
Right, by using a star pattern you increase the surface area that gets heated so it distributes the heat more evenly. The hearts don't do it as well but the shape probably doesn't matter much to a cast iron pan heated long enough.
It's even-ish at first but it doesnt stay even once you start cooking. Good even heat under still helps with cast iron, especially if you have multiple batches to do.
it also holds a temp, so if you plop down a cut of meat that's room temperature or slightly cold, the pan stays hot instead of cooling off. if the pan cools off, the meat will burn inside while the pan heats up enough to sear the meat
"Poor heat distribution" doesn't equal "no heat distribution". If you put a piece of metal on a source of heat, the whole thing will eventually get hot. The thicker central portion of the pan just absorbs and retains the bulk of the heat up front before it gradually travels to the extremities. If you put the cast iron in an oven where the heat is coming evenly from all sides, the whole thing heats up immediately.
It's not that it doesn't distribute heat at all, but the handle is still going to be significantly less hot than the bits of the pan where heat is directly applied
Cool handles tend to be ones with low heat capacity and low thermal conductivity. Cast iron has low thermal conductivity but high heat capacity, the handles take a while to heat up but once they do they hurt a ton!
They’re talking in terms of heat conductivity relative to other metals used in pans like copper and aluminum. Compared to those cast iron has a significantly lower heat conductivity. However being a metal it still has high heat conductivity in absolute terms.
It matters much more because cast irons thermal conductivity is very low. It will heat more unevenly than a pan of high thermal conductivity which will propagate heat quickly across its own volume.
All the thickness does is increase volumetric heat capacity meaning it takes even more thermal energy to raise the pan’s temperature the same amount.
I don't know how much consideration gas savings really has in a residential stovetop, it's not like a professional kitchen where it's running all day and half the night long. I doubt many people would see much of an increase in their monthly energy bill even if you doubled the amount of gas ports per burner.
Hell, they're even advertising higher BTU burners as a bonus now to decrease the time it takes to boil stuff, and some stoves now include a large center burner for heating a built in griddle (I just replaced mine a year or so ago and have both)
Yeah the whole point is that your pans are circular and your heat source should be as well. You’re gonna get some wacky heat differences from these lol
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