Ok, anyone who has worked in a chemistry or engineering lab will understand this one......
Many "hot-plates" in labs have a magnetic stirrer as an added feature. All you have to do is drop in this soft-ferromagnetic bean-shaped tube into the beaker you're heating/stirring, turn the magnetic stirrer on, and presto. No stirring. It nicely whirls around and around.
I've wondered how hard it would be to implement such a magnetic stirrer under each burner on household stovetops. That way you turn the pasta on, watch tv for 10-15 minutes or have a shower, and booya! When you come back your pasta is nicely cooked, with none burned onto the bottom of the pot.
I get to call Maytag and Kenmore on this one. It's mine!-- Wes, Oct 31 2000 Sorry Guys http://www.salton.comI hate to break it to you Geeks, but Salton already made a Self Stirring Pot, that no one wanted! [Preesi, Oct 31 2000] (??) Half baked. http://des1.unn.ac....58194/project6.htmlA design project for a magnetic saucepan stirrer. [td, Oct 31 2000] Automatic Stirrer, £14.79 http://www.lakeland...stirr/product/12301Battery-operated. Pot not included. [jutta, Aug 11 2009] I was going to add something clever about using the thermals within the food being cooked to make it stir itself but then I realised that I didn't have a clue what I was talking about. Instead, I'll make my usual recommendation which is to use small children to do the stirring. They're cheap (especially if they belong to someone else) and replaceable, though delivery times can be variable.-- DrBob, Oct 31 2000 Yeah, but small children just aren't magnetic enough, and I'm not sure they could stand the temperatures.-- beauxeault, Oct 31 2000 Well let's just tie everything together here. First this thing must be internet enabled and the manufacturer (Kenmore, whoever) maintains a cooking database for burner / oven / microwave settings etc. Chef du jour pulls out the package of macroni and scans the UPC bar code on the bar code scanner (it has one of these too). Then the Chef selects cooking option 1, 2, 3 etc. (for amount or doneness etc.) which are convieniently displayed on the unit's LCD touch-screen (it has one of these too). Further instructions and prompts are given for filling the pot etc. Of course the stove has speakers which can provide Emeril or Julia childs voice as coaching for all the procedures to go along with the Video feed on the LCD. Here is the piece of magic -- the stirrer is also a temperature (and pressure for pressure cooking?) sensor a-la the tire monitors that are being talked about right now. The sensor communicates to the stove via RF and derrives power from the vibrations while stirring like those watches that don't need winding or batteries. The microwave and oven work similarly only the stirring is optional in which case the sensor is strictly an internal temperature sensor (and as such it must have an internal rechargable battery for when there is not stirring to create power). By having the temperature sensor in the food we don't get tripped up by the type of pot and other conditions which create varying temp gradients that burner based temp monitoring would have to overcome. And since the whole setup is wireless we don't have to deal with wires in the way. As an added bonus we can also tie this in with the internet enabled refrigerator and pantry which keep track of the grocery list and in a pinch might help find that missing ingredient which you know must be around somewhere. Did I miss a feature?-- bjt, Nov 01 2000 "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."-- baf, Nov 02 2000 [back to the subject] Doesn't this rule out ferromagnetic cookware like iron skillets and steel pots?-- rmutt, Dec 09 2000 Which would suck...I hate alumnium pots.
On the other hand, it might make your iron skillet spin around, which could be amusing...-- StarChaser, Dec 09 2000 teflon non-stick cookware....nuff said-- ickledinkle, Jan 12 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PeterSealy, Nov 01 2000ÊÊsez: <<Wow, I wonder how mankind ever got to eat anything before we had technology! And what on earth do all those zero-bandwidth people in the Third World do?>>
They ate cake. ÑÑ per M. Antoinett-- bobzaguy, May 12 2001 And what kind of metal might the teflon be attached to, ickledinkle? Aluminum doesn't hold or evenly distribute heat like cast iron.
On the wall of a public outhouse, in Marie Antoinette's own handwriting..."Let them eat cake, but stay away from the bran muffins."-- StarChaser, Aug 04 2001 I'd like a saucepan with a glass top, that fastened on tightly so you could TOSS-fry stuff. I love the magnetic stirrer concept, but it wouldn't have enough torque for the stuff I like to cook (last night I made salmon patties & forgot to put the salmon in. Later I scraped it out, added water & boiled it near dry. Edible, but not really baked.)-- pfperry, Aug 18 2002 I have wished for this exact device many times. Doesn't it seem ridiculous that, with all of our technology, we still need to stand in front of the stove stirring? Being reduced to such primitive techniques is quite distasteful.-- Ebb, Aug 18 2002 Oh I don't know about that (cackles), it satisfies something very primitive in me.-- po, Aug 18 2002 random, halfbakery