Background/History

I have been married for most of the last 49 yrs. I have always been interested in home cooking, but I never had a wife who allowed me in the kitchen ( and I have never blamed them as I create the biggest messes you will ever see). For instance I bought a new Induction cook top last week. No messes there, as I have been checking it out by heating water, hard to make any mess with water , right?
But last night I decided to try some serious frying, double frying french fries. Put my old standby cast iron skillet on the new Induction cook top, punched the power button to stir fry mode,(6 modes, eack of which has 9 levels of heat, ) and cranked the heat up to 350F or 170C. No problems , no messes (hey love this new toy). So I fried away, three potatoes, sliced thin, thick, and whole slices 7mm thick. As I fried each potato I would lose a lot of heat in the skillet, so I jacked the heat up a couple notches (Emeril style of course), then place done potato on drain cloth, then to cool in basket (bowl). OK, we're rockin now, no messes. Got all the 1st fry done, now time for the 2nd fry. Crank that cook top up a couple more notches, just like Emeril, hey this is rockin.
Now I'm thinking, if hot is good, wouldn't hotter be better? Crank it up to max power, even put on lid to keep heat in. Already cooked out most of the moisture, right?
Gentle put in the 1st batch of thin sliced fries, and put lid back on, whups, moisture clouding up my glass cover, so I decided to raise up the top a little so the moisture can escape. Smart eh? Using my head for a change. Heck the US government spent thousands to get me an education, I should make more use of it. Hey everything still going good right, no messes, keeping everything confined to the skillet, two sheet pans , a few dish towels, a lot of paper towels, three bowls, a fork, deep fry strainer/ wire ladle? What ever you call them things to leave the fat in the skillet and take out the object being fried. Marble floor still pristene, no problem there either.
About this time the timer went off to remove the batch I was working on, still had lid in my hand holding and as I turned to set the lid down, moisture run off the lid into the skillet. Ooops, so I put the lid back on the skillet, no mess yet, using that education the government paid thousands for right? So after everything quit popin, I raised the lid again, OOOps, more moisture run off. Ahh what the hell, moisture is a fact of life, we live with it all the time, don't we?
Excuse me, water and melted lard is messy, don't try to find out, just take my word for it. Ok, are you with me? So a few pops here and a few pops there, and I take a step. OMG, lard all over that pristine marble floor, but then not too much right, just a few spots here and there.
I have failed to tell you my little wife is standing there watching the master work, envious I would think, that I have been able to confine all this hot pig fat to just a few dozen different pans and a dozen towels. I had up to this point been breaking my arm patting my self on the back for not having made any humongous messes. Oh well, life goes on.
So at this point, I call for reinforcements, just another dozen kitchen towels, throw some of them on the floor to absorb some of the hot fats, ....and to wipe my bare feet(didn't I tell you I go barefooted in the house?). But at this time I have completed my equipment and cooking tests and now it is time to render my conclusions.
I love the induction cooktop, it's like cooking with an instant gas burner, instant on, instant heat, instant temperature control. But I hate the manuals provide by the offshore technical support people. The best way I can describe it would be a cook writing a surgery how to that really had never stepped into a hospital.
The fries, the 7mmX7mm came out crunchy and grease free, the thicker cuts were almost crunchy with a little fat residue, the thick slices sucked! Soft, soggy, tasteless blobs of yuck. But a lot of salt, and tomato ketchup saved the day.