[Stratoscope]

Thank you, time for me to do some shopping!

I often hear people say that cast iron conducts heat well, but that is easy to disprove if you have a gas burner: put some water in the pan and turn the heat up. You will see the water boiling in a pattern that matches where the flame hits the pan.

I like to fry frozen chicken in the cast iron pan, but it is always a bit of a nuisance that the center of the pan gets much less hot than the perimeter. My gas range has a fairly large burner with no flame in the middle.

[stickfigure]

This site has a lot of IR camera shots of various pans, and you can clearly see the hotspots:

https://www.centurylife.org/how-to-choose-cookware/

It's what inspired me to try out clad, and I'm glad I did. My cast iron mostly sits unused now.

[Stratoscope]

That is a really informative and interesting article! Thanks for posting it.

[pfranz]

There are a bunch of techniques to see the heating pattern of a pan and to show how poor cast iron is in that regard. I remember someone using parchment paper (maybe Harold McGee?). In looking I found someone suggesting a light dusting of flour [1]. Of course, an IR camera is the most obvious. I've also noticed water boiling in unique patterns, like you mention.

[1] http://cookingissues.com/2010/02/16/heavy-metal-the-science-...