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In-Depth Product Review: KitchenAid KCH112KLKD Hard Anodized Nonstick 12″ Skillet with Glass Lid Cookware – Black Diamond

KitchenAid KCH112KLKD Hard Anodized Nonstick 12 Inch Skillet with Glass Lid
KitchenAid KCH112KLKD Hard Anodized Nonstick 12 Inch Skillet with Glass Lid

THE COMPANY

In 1897, Clarence Charles Hobart started the Hobart Electric Manufacturing Company (Troy, Ohio). The company sold motorized coffee mills, meat grinders, and (starting in 1908) stand mixers for commercial bakeries.

In 1919, after World War I, Hobart formed the KitchenAid division, which produced smaller-scale stand mixers for residential customers. Hobart continued to sell non-residential products under the Hobart brand. The overall company remained profitable and independent for decades, occasionally adding new product lines to the KitchenAid brand, such as dishwashers.

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In-Depth Product Review: Iwatani ZA-3HP Portable Butane Stove Burner

Iwatani ZA-3HP 12000 Btu Portable Butane Burner
Iwatani ZA-3HP 12000 Btu Portable Butane Burner

BACKGROUND

Iwatani Corporation of America is a subsidiary of the Iwatani Group of Japan, a conglomerate of over 250 companies employing 11,000 people worldwide.1  Iwatani is the market leader in Japan for liquefied petroleum gas, hydrogen, and helium, so they know their gases well.

Iwatani sells various consumer, commercial, and industrial products.  On the industrial side, Iwatani makes gas valves, hoses and pipes, heat-resistant paints, piezoelectric igniters, oxygen sensors, etc.  Some of Iwatani’s well known consumer/commercial products include the Iwatani butane cooking torch CB-TC-PRO (which uses the same 8-ounce (227g) butane canister/cassette size as the stove) and the Iwatani ZA-3HP Portable Butane Stove Burner, which is the subject of this review. (NOTE: as of 2020, it’s been cosmetically redesigned and renamed the Iwatani VA-30 butane stove; still performs the same and is still made in Japan.)

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How to organize pots and pans (and dishes, cutting boards, and lids) with racks and shelving

 

Chrome-plated steel wire shelving
Chrome-plated steel wire shelving

We buy lots of cookware, to the point where we had to figure out new ways to store it.  This How To article will show you the things we considered and tried.  Ultimately we went with wire shelves with pan organizers sitting on those shelves, in addition to giving away excess pans to family and friends (including readers of this site–for more information, subscribe to our monthly updates via social media or email).  But there are other methods that work, too, if you have fewer pieces of cookware to store.

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Is Chromium (Chrome-Plated Steel) Safe or Unsafe?

Seville Classics Stainless Steel Professional Kitchen Cart. The wire basket has a flat perimeter edge that simply rests on two simple rails on either side. The company rates it up to 50 pounds carrying capacity if the weight is equally distributed.
Chrome-plated steel

Chrome Plating is very shiny and hard and is often applied along with a base layer of nickel to bare steel. If you bang into chrome plating with something hard enough times, the chrome plating can wear through and expose the underlying steel, which can rust. As long as you’re not too careless, though, this finish can last for a very long time and is a favorite material for commercial establishments ranging from kitchens to warehouses to retail stores.

Unfortunately chromium has gotten a bad rap from association with its pollutant.  In the film Erin Brockovich, actress Julia Roberts starred as a do-gooder who helped sue a gas and electric utility company for polluting groundwater near a small California town with hexavalent chromium.

So is chromium toxic?  Is chromium plating toxic?  Is stainless steel toxic, since it is comprised of 18% chromium?

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