Free Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson Page A

from a hunk of copper as opposed to a thin, cosmetic layer. Yet Lemme found that even a very thin layer of copper “electroplated to the bottom mainly for decoration” could dramatically increase a pan’s conductivity. A 1.4 mm stainless steel pan with a 0.1 mm layer of copper attached would increase its ability to even out hot spots (temperature uniformity) by 160 percent. There’s a very easy way to check for hot spots in your own pans. Just sprinkle plain flour over the surface of a pan and put it over a medium-high heat. You will see a brown pattern start to form as the flour burns. If the brown patch spreads over the whole surface of the pan, you’ll know that this pan has good heat uniformity. More likely, though, a small brown dot will appear toward the center: a hot spot. Now imagine that you are trying to saute a panful of potatoes in this pan: unless you move them frequently, the ones in the middle will singe on precisely that spot while the ones at the outside remain pale. Better pans really do make a difference in the food on your plate.
    Lemme’s own suggestion for the “near-ideal” pot was to fabricate a composite. The inner core of the pan would be a stainless steel-nickel alloy. The inside would be coated with one of the more durable nonstick surfaces, such a flame-sprayed nickel. The outer bottom layer would be laminated with pure aluminum: 4 mm thick on the bottom, thinning out to 2 mm on the sides.

    When Lemme was writing in the late 1980s, such a pan did not exist: it was a concept in the realms of sci-fi. Lemme never produced or marketed his ideal pan; it existed only in his brain, and having conceived it, he returned to other kinds of engineering. Yet even Lemme’s imaginary and near-ideal pot only rated 734 on his scale. It turns out that some of the many things we want from a pan are simply incompatible. For example, a thin base makes pans more energy efficient—more quickly responsive to different heats from the burner. This can be useful for sauce making or for foods that need quick, hot cooking such as pancakes; and it results in lower energy bills. But for getting rid of hot spots, a thick metal base is better. The thickness ensures more uniform temperatures on the base of the pan and great heat retention. Thick cast iron takes ages to heat up because of its density, but once hot, it stays hot, so nothing is better for searing something like a meaty chop, because it maintains most of its heat when the cold meat hits the pan. So thin pans and thick pans are both desirable, but you can’t make a pan that is thick and thin at the same time without breaking the laws of physics. Lemme’s study shows that no matter how much you balance out the various factors, there will still be trade-offs. There will probably never be a pan that scores even close to 1,000 on the Lemme scale.
    Nonetheless, in the intervening two decades or so, the technology of cookware has gone up a notch. As Lemme predicted, the action is all in the sandwiching together of multiple materials. All-Clad, one of the top American brands of cookware, has come up with a patented formula made of five layers of different materials, alternating higher conductive metals with lower ones to “promote the lateral flow of cooking energy and eliminate hot spots,” says the company website, with a stainless-steel core to promote stability. These pans are specially designed to work with the newest-technology induction cooktops. I’m sure an All-Clad pan would score high on Lemme’s scale in all ways but one: the cost runs to several hundred dollars for a single pan.

    According to Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, the outlay for top-of-the-range pans may not be worth it. Myhrvold, who was the chief technology officer for Microsoft before turning to food, is the main author (along with Chris Young and Maxime Bilet) of Modernist Cuisine (2011), a six-volume, 2,438-page work that aspires to “reinvent cooking.” Working in a state-of-the-art