I still lust over the Viking induction hob, but I'm not about to pay >$600 for
it. So... following the earlier discussion here, I ordered the Wolfgang Puck
induction hob from HSN, for 99.95 minus 15%% for a coupon. It took a little over
a week to get here.

We quickly found out that very little of our cookware will work with it. All my
Griswold cast iron is, of course, fine. And, as expected, none of my copper pans
work. My two Tramontina clad saute pans are fine, but a similar clad 4-qter is
not. My All-Clad 1qt. saucier and 4-qt. pot are fine, but the 7qt. All-Clad
pasta pentola is not, and I had really wanted to use that one for deep-frying.
8;(

It works great. Straight power control (400, 600, 800, 1000, 1400 watts); time
control; and temperature control, from 150 to 400 deg. F in 50 degree steps.
Initially, I was disappointed that it didn't offer 25 degree steps, particularly
325 and 375, for frying, but that turned out not to matter.

The "mat" that comes with it is just an induction-ready heat diffuser. It works
well with all types of cookware setting on it, whether the cookware is induction
ready or not, even my ceramic teapot.

Last night, we deep-fried two batches of hush puppies. We put a piece of
parchment paper over the entire top of the hob, for ease of clean-up -- perfect.
The warm up is very quick, with no overshoot.

I set it to 400 degrees, and we started dropping batter five scoops at a time as
soon as the oil reached 380 on the infrared thermometer. Through eight batches
of puppies, the oil remained between 368 and 375 at all times. I never had to
drop the control down to 350, as I had expected I would.

It was great