while I'm asking

[waider]

I am generally somewhat flummoxed when faced with a new cooking device as to the correct settings for any given type of cooking. Some experimentation leads me to believe that by and large anything over half-way on my current cooking surface is good for boiling water and little else, practically speaking. It would be nice, however, to be able to cope with such cooking instructions as "the pan should be hot enough to cook an egg" without wondering, well, "WTF?" a lot. I mean, most of the settings on either the small or large rings are "hot enough to cook an egg", depending on how you like your egg cooked - slowly and thoroughly, or like plastic with a raw centre, or a range of options in between. Aside from the time-consuming (and food-consuming) "through experience" method, are there any rules of thumb for this stuff that I should know about? (e.g. at some point I was told that when deep-frying stuff in a pan full of oil, you should toss in a piece of potato; when it floats, the oil is hot enough. This may or may not be correct, but since I don't deep-fry stuff it's kinda academic, but it gives you an idea of the sort of guidelines I seek)

Comments

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

I hope you're wearing your asbestos pants, because if you invite comment on the "right" way to cook an egg, you're going to get more heat than you ever dreamed of.