@jscout - Funny about your heat zone suggestion. I had to cook that way since my old range had various burner sizes and one side got hotter than the other. It's fine to push cooked food over, but when making pancakes and stuff that I want to cook quickly and evenly, it drove me crazy. In fact, it was one of the reasons I opted for all the same size burners and the CC. The 7 gauge griddle will have lots more room to experiment. I ordered the pan on Monday and will have it tomorrow, can't wait. Thanks for the good suggestion about the surface thermometer too! Next up, a new, bigger wok since I am keeping the CC wok grill on the range. Thanks to the good advice of GWers, I am leaning toward a hammered wok form the Wok Shop. Just have to decide on the type of handles, wood/steel, long/spool...

i had my CC rangetop (6 burners,+ grill) for almost two years now.. I like it a lot and it works well, The power is great at high and the simmer is also pretty low. Wok cooking is great for power, (but I notice it gets really hot in a ring pattern, and on the side where the wok ring has the opening, but there is a cool spot right at the center, and on the side where the wok ring is blocking the fire) I have a grill and it works very well also. So far, my only complaint is that for some of the burner, the ignitor will click randomly at simmer, esp when the hood is on. does that happen on your burners too. it clicks on about 2-3 out of the 6 burners on mine.

1) 36" Induction vs 36" Bluestar rangetop. The ventilation requirements are not that much different particularly if you want to wok on a regular basis. You will still want at least a 36" x 24" deep hood with at least 450 cfm. 600 cfm for the Bluestar. Differences is you will need a flat bottom induction compatible wok vs a traditional round bottom wok. Probably want the power burner in front or full surface induction. Some models may turn off when flipping/tossing food with wrist action on handle instead of utensil. Sometimes you want direct fire cooking. Like fire roasting peppers or marshmallows. 2) You will need a more expensive hood because the 48" cooktop has 8 burners or combo of burners plus grill/griddle/French top/salamander. You have to bend down for the oven but the oven is under the rangehood. Broiling salmon? It is properly vented under the range hood. 3) I have a 36" Capital Culinarian with rotisserie and self-clean oven underneath a 42" x 24" rangehood. Plus a Gaggenau 24" wall oven with an integrated Sharp microwave drawer underneath. I think the Gagg is the only oven currently on US market that has an integrated air catalyzer that cleans the air before exiting into your kitchen.

We fed 20 people this year, plus another 8 grazers who showed up at my place because we're more fun than their Republican relatives. I roasted a 24 pound turkey and a 10 pound ham side by side in the Bluestar since neither would fit in the speed oven. For the last hour of roasting I moved the meat out to the outdoors grill so we could load up the indoors oven with homemade rolls, all the dressing, sweet potatoes, etc. I baked all the pies the day before, btw, and was very glad to have them all ready and not needing to be fussed with on T-Day. I was sort of in a hurry this year and just bought the biggest sale bird I could find, got it home and discovered it was a big old tom and had been pre-brined/injected/whatever. I wasn't too happy about it, but I did like the price. No matter. This year I tried a bit of a new strategy. No aluminum foil, bird in a roasting pan with a rack, aromatics (1 apple, one orange, each quartered, 5 or so celery ribs, sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary) stuffed very loosely in the cavity. I coated the skin with olive oil, then salted and peppered the exterior, set the oven to 325ú, poured a pint of low sodium chicken stock in the bottom of the roasting pan and just left the bird alone to cook. I used a thermometer shooting for 175ú at the deep thigh then a 30 minute rest before carving. Over the course of cooking I ended up adding about 1 more pint of broth and then one pint of water. I did not baste the bird at all. There is no need for it and its a good way to get your fingers burned. All I wanted was to make sure the liquid in the bottom of the roaster did not evaporate and burn. When that bird was done it was most outstanding. My wife, the gravy master, did not even use any additional water for the gravy. She premixed the flour in a bit of water and slowly worked it in to the ample liquid remaining in the bottom of the roaster. The gravy brought tears to our eyes. It was intensely flavored, better than any I have ever had. I served a small oyster stuffing for the elect in the assemblage who like the wonderful creatures and we happy few sort of disappeared into nirvana there with our turkey and dressing and gravy plus ham.