Cookaholics Bulletin Board

As previously discussed, I got a portable gas burner to make up for the electric stove in my new house. Based on online reviews, I passed up the models available at my local Vietnamese grocery (yes, we have one) and instead bought an Iwatani 35FW*, the top-rated portable butane burner. Given that it was only $80, it didn't seem like much of a splurge.

Two immediate thoughts:

• I shoulda bough one of these things years ago.
• I'm sure glad the new house has a high-suction ventilation hood.

This thing is hot. It's definitely hotter than my former gas stove, and I think it may be hotter than the package rating of 15,000 BTU. I got "wok hey", the proper scortching of stir-fried foods, on my Thai fried rice in seconds, and had to keep flipping stuff to keep it from burning. I had to take the wok off the burner between items or it would be all smoke. I could scramble eggs in the wok, which means that it was at least 375F on the surface. Really impressive.

Here's a wokful of fried rice sitting on top:



I know it's hard to tell in this shot, but the rice is properly browned and the green beans are blistered. BTW, that's Kenji's Thai Fried Rice with Blistered Green Beans**, which was great and I recommend reading his series on fried rice from last week.

So, if you ever do need to buy a portable butane-cannister burner, now you know which one to get.

* http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00522F2R2
** http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/upgr ... basil.html

Thanks for the nudge on Kenji's fried rice series, Josh. That looked interesting but I didn't stay there to read it last week. Will definitely check it out. And that's good to know about the Iwatani burner too. Just recently I got their kitchen torch -- I'd given mine to a friend who was making creme brulee and wanted to get one with a bigger flame but without going to a full size torch. Plus it was really a bargain. All I can say is wow, what a flame!!

But I do have one question -- I was kind of conflicted on where to store the extra cans of butane. (Came in a 4-pack.) Everything I read said to keep it from heat, which would exclude the garage and attic in the summer. But something about keeping so much of something so flammable inside the house made me a little nervous. Probably being fire paranoid so am interested in any thoughts.

Emilie

I have a torch and portable burner (not nearly so nice as that one), both butane, and have kept the cans in the house for years. I think that, sanely stored, they are very very safe. Sane mean no extreme heat or puncture possibility (which would require a lot of force, but just saying). I keep them in the very back of the liquor cabinet. For the burner, I always release the can before storing. I detach the torch top before storing.

Emilie,

Mine are in a cabinet above the microwave.

Thanks guys, that's very helpful. The extra cans are in the top of a nearby closet so I feel totally okay now about them being in the house. The only thing is that I left the torch top on the can. Is it recommended to remove it when not in use?

My feelings is to always minimize the number of parts that can fail, which means detaching the torch head for longer term storage (if you used it every day.... then removing and replacing all the time might make things worse). Also, it is much less stable with the torch head on, much more likely to fall out, etc. However, I think that is the nit-picking, and probably of no real difference.

Emilie, Paul:

The tough part is disposing of those cans. Our recycling will only take them if they are completely empty and punctured to prove that they are.