To do real wok cooking as done in a Chinese take-out place, you would need gas burners at least as powerful as 60,000 BTU's, if not 120,000 BTU's. No gas rangetop (cooktop) has anything close to that. Most gas cooktops have at maximum between 15,000 - 18,000 BTU's. Most people doing wok cooking on those are generally steaming their food rather than stir frying it. I have a Kalamazoo outdoors grill with a 60,000 BTU side burner. I use that for my wok cooking. I used to have an Elan gas cooktop with an 18,500 BTU maximum burner. I could wok cook in fairly small quantities successfully, but anything larger I would end up steaming the food. I have a 36" Thermador induction cooktop with 5 burners and it has the largest burner available (13" diameter) and the most powerful (4,600 watts, which is equivalent to about 45,000-50,000 BTU's). I use a 14" diameter perfectly flat pan to approximate wok cooking quite successfully, as one can't cook on induction with anything but a perfectly flat pan or saucepot, as the cookware has to be in constant contact with the burner surface to be heated by the magnetic waves. Nothing beats induction for low level simmering and melting chocolate, etc. And nothing beats induction for high speed boiling. Some of the outstanding characteristics of the 36" Thermador induction cooktop are as follows: Sensor Dome: Retractable sensor measures the heat of the pot and keeps the temperature consistent. Cooksmart: 9 pre-programmed cooking modes. Anti-Overflow System: Exclusive feature prevents spills by automatically shutting off and sounding alarm when liquids are detected on surface. Safer Operation: 2-Step Digital Control Panel indicates when elements are hot or very hot. As only the pot gets hot with induction cooking, it is very rare that any part of the cooktop gets hot, except from the reflected heat directly under the pan. Panel Lock-out: Child safety lock-out for protection. Six Timers: Auto Shut Off Timer available for all the separate burner elements enables user to set desired cooking times before shut-off. A Separate kitchen timer is also available for general timing and shut-off. Blue Light Illumination: Touch control panel with blue light illumination offers 17 power settings. Industry Exclusive Triple Zone: On the largest 13" burner it can also accommodate multiple size pans with 3 diameter sizes. Speed heating: Induction cooktops heat 50% faster than traditional gas cooktops. Since induction heating can change temperature immediately since only the pan gets hot, you can be ultra-precise with no lag time in heating. Gas, on the other hand, heats the grates besides the pan and isn't anywhere near as immediate in adjusting temperature. Plus, there is no cooktop as easy to clean as an induction cooktop. Since the cooktop doesn't get hot, there is no burn-on of any spills. A simple wipe down of any accidents takes care of everything pronto. To prevent scratching of the cooktop I like using Silicone pads, such as Merle's SilPat octagonal pad. Others use paper towels or cloth. The inductions magnetic waves only heat the pan, hence there is no danger of burning the SilPat or towel. Also, there is no "greener" way of cooking than induction, as between 85-90% of all electricity is used to heat the pan. With gas less than 50% of the gas is used to heat the pan, the rest is used to heat the kitchen and the grates. The kitchen stays cool with induction cooking. To chefs in the know, particularly in Europe and and at the Culinary Institutes, induction is the professional way to go. Gas is considered old-school--and not in a good way. Greg

This thread, which I didn't catch the first time around, made me think. In general, I cook to eat and feed my family. However, I do enjoy baking for special occasions. I think that if I didn't work outside the home I would cook more...and be more adventurous. But, I work and have a long commute so by the time I get home I have to make fast meals with little time for creativity or major prep work. So, we eat a lot of frozen veggies--as is out of the bag, pre-cooked meats warmed up, pasta, soup, occasionally waffles/pancakes/eggs, potatoes, etc. I.e., for the most part things that I can cook fast. One up side to this is that our meals haven't changed that much w/o a kitchen since we do have a MW, Toaster Oven, and hot plate to cook with! One very big downside to this, though, is that my children are not learning to cook like I did from my mom. Back on topic... After finding this site and reading about zones, I realized that one thing that I really wanted was a baking center. So when my kitchen was being designed I had it in the back of my head that whatever we ended up with had to have an area I could designate my "Baking Zone", preferably near the ovens--with room to roll out dough, spread out cookie sheets, and have cookie cutters spread out all at the same time! The other thing I got from this site was our window...having the window down to the counter (OK, not cooking-related, but a very important design element!) Our very first plan that our KD came up with had input from us...but a very naive/ignorant us! (Before GW...BGW!) Then....I found this site.....and the changes began. Actually, I posted that original plan and asked for help (and also asked my KD to start over w/no island) Many, many people here helped me come up with a plan over several weeks (months?). We finally came up with a plan that has changed little since then. Interestingly, when I took away the island "must have", my KD came up with a plan very similar to what we came up with here. The only 3 differences were (1) no mini peninsula, (2) a 36" pantry cabinet rather than a corner pantry, and (3) no separate Message Center cabinets. My KD wasn't completely happy w/our differences, but she, wisely I thought, told me to go home and mock up what I wanted to see how it would work (same advice I got here!) Well, the mock up was great! It proved that I did indeed want the mini peninsula (I liked it so much I left the mock up in place until demo and used it!) When I told her the results, she didn't argue, she accepted it telling me it's my kitchen, so ultimately it's up to me. So in the end, my design was/is based on what I wanted, not what the KD wanted. [If only someone else had measured my kitchen and she was given more authority, I think a lot of subsequent problems would have been avoided.] Our kitchen isn't done yet, but it's close...so I can't yet tell you how it is going to work for us...but we are so...

Isn't Tofurky already cooked? I'd think it would have to be to be packaged and sold the way it is. If so, the lower for longer makes sense because the point is just to make the middle pleasantly warm. Is it supposed to get brown though? It might not at that temperature, since browning generally happens at 350° F. What you could do if it's looking a bit sad is raise the temperature after you take the turkey out to rest, brush the top of the tofurky with a little oil or soy sauce or something, and put it back in just long enough to brown. This is all off the cuff, though. I've done something similar with a meatloaf, but I've never seen a Tofurky out of the box. :) Very good of their customer service to get back to you so quickly! Good luck with it and Happy Thanksgiving!

You could call Bluestar. I'm pretty sure replacing the grates will not work - the range top doesn't have the stainless burner surround that you have pictured above - it's just open under the entire grate assembly. This is a picture from a youtube about cleaning the burner assembly, but it shows there is nothing under the grate assembly. The assembly is the big, black cast iron plate with the bowl attached and then the circular grate sitting in a ring. For wok cooking, the circular grate is removed and the wok rides on the nubs on the big cast iron plate.