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Comment by nicksergeant | Hacker News Reader

I just bought one of these so I can cook more often with extra virgin olive oil without approaching the smoke point. At $19 for an IR thermometer, they should probably be in every kitchen next to the probe thermometer.

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Get in the habit of looking at the oil in the pan. As it approaches the smoke point, its refractive index will change and its viscosity will decrease, giving a dimpled appearance. This is due to convection cells from the heating; it's easier to see in olive oil because it's relatively thick and dark compared to other liquids or light oils. In a round, level pan, you'll get a pleasing hexagonal pattern. Once you have nice stable convection cells you're ready to cook.

After a while you'll get used to your individual pans and how they transfer heat, to the point that you don't need to think about how to adjust the heat any more. Likewise watching the food itself will eventually tell you most of what you need to know about when it's done.

Note that this is a lot easier with Gas than with Electric due to the heat retention of the rings, at least I found. You can kill the heat really quickly with Gas (which is why no commercial kitchen uses electric).

This is a great point. Pantelligent works great on electric stoves (resistive coils or radiative glass flat-top), even though they retain a lot of heat. It doesn't magically fix your stove and make it as responsive as a gas stove, but it does give you the information you need to dial in on the right temperature.

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