Topic: How to achieve high cooking temperatures at home.

[Peripatetic Phil]

what this is saying is that if your pan rim temp is anything like (irrespective of your Kw) then you will see the same effect as i do.

I respectfully disagree.  It is (IMHO) very important to differentiate between heat and temperature.  Heat is a measure of energy; temperature is a measure of the average speed of motion of the molecules making up the object of interest.  If you have achieved a rim temperature of between 185^oC and 220^oC and you add anything to that pan, then if the temperature of what you add is lower than 185^oC and 220^oC, the temperature of the pan (and of its contents) will drop.  The speed with which it regains its former temperature is a function of the thermal inertia of your pan (which also affects the speed at which the temperature drops), the thermal inertia of the contents (-- ditto --) and the heat output of your burner.  Note :  the heat output, not the temperature (so long as the latter is sufficiently high).  The higher the heat output of the burner, the faster your pan and contents will regain their former (and desired) temperature.   To clarify this, imagine transferring your pan from your burner to the hottest part of an oxy-acetylene flame :  a far far higher temperature than your standard (or propane) gas burner can achieve, yet the pan will never regain its former temperature (it may melt, at the point of contact twixt flame and pan) but the pan and its contents will slowly cool.  Now imagine transferring that same pan from your burner to a vast vat of molten tin ("vast" meaning at least 100 times the volume of your pan) :  the molten tin will be at about 230^oC, and your pan will not only not cool, it will actually increase in temperature until it is at the same temperature as the molten tin.  The oxy-acetylene flame is at a temperature of about 3000^oC, yet the pan cools; the tin at a temperature of only 230^oC, yet the pan gets hotter.  Heat (energy), not temperature, is what makes the difference.

** Phil.

[DalPuri]

I find it quite odd that people are digging at Jerry when he is our very own Heston. 
The only person on here that is really making progress by experimentation.
Giving all the facts and figures, side by sides, test after test after test.
I trust him implicitly.

Funny how when i posted about wok hei, it all went quiet  : ;D
Theres going to be no information out there for flaming a pan in a BIR, because any info on the subject is going to be right here on this forum!

The principle is exactly the same, the proof is out there amongst the Chinese forums and blogs.
Its got Nothing to do with showing off. Its a fact that it adds great flavour to a dish and lifts it to another level.

[chewytikka]

DP/Jerry, this seems to have flipped into Wok cooking again.

Jerry are you still cooking curries in a Wok with cold base?

Tip: Get yourself a 303 Ally omelette pan and preheat your base
Your curries will transform. Cooked on your 3kw or your Garage burner. No brainer / No debate.

cheers Chewy

[DalPuri]

Chewy, There is no doubt that you, I, or the vast majority on this forum cant make Great curries.
Forget the wok reference if you like, the same methods are used in all types of restaurant cuisine. I used that reference because that was the best i could find on the subject. Too many naive assumptions out there attributing flames to alcohol.  :
But there is NO denying that flaming the pan adds extra flavour.

[spiceyokooko]

But there is NO denying that flaming the pan adds extra flavour.

Agreed.

And for many, that's exactly the flavour that's missing from their home cooked dishes.

I've always described it as a smokey flavour and I think I said right at the beginning of when I joined this site, that this was the flavour that was missing from my dishes.

What's fairly apparent I think (if only to me and a few others) is that all of us here are at different levels of achievement in our curry journey. What might be the missing piece of the jigsaw for me, might not be the same for someone else. That's probably why some of us feel that high heat and flaming pans is the final answer in achieving full BIR style flavours whilst others may not.

This is why I think it's wrong for people say well, this isn't the answer. Well it may not be for them, that's not to say it isn't for someone else.

What's factually true and accurate, is that without being able to actually taste the dishes others produce it's virtually (pun intended) impossible to say what might be missing from them.

We're all at different levels of ability, we all have different taste buds, this is why we get so many different and varying opinions on here on a wide variety of issues.