Ah you will want this when you make polenta...we just made some tonight. The heat diffuser gets it's name because it spreads the heat in a diffuse pattern thus preventing the scorching and sticking that can take place with heat sensitive foods. It also works for rice pudding, or sauces or melting chocolate. Now you can use a double boiler instead for these things to prevent scorching but Julia used a diffuser and she had a wall of them so I like to use my Mom's and pay homage to the "older" generation of cooks. c

Here is a link that might be useful: heat diffusers on Amazon

Or you can just use some copper pans.

ahh...like Julia I have both...

Thank you!! So i need to either start making more foods to use the diffuser OR buy copper pans.... ;)

I have some nice simple diffusers I had made years ago.

They are simply round pieces of #10 steel plate about 12 inches in diameter.

They worked like a charm for years till copper cookware was purchased.

It is even easier to cook with the copper.
A low flame on a 10 inch saute pan will simmer uniformly over the entire bottom of the pan with no hot-spots.

In a restaurant kitchen were you make the same thing over and over with a lot of attention stainless pans are cheap and work fine.

In a home kitchen with multiple other tasks to perform during the cooking of any single dish the thick copper is worth the cost (and weight).

I have those cheap ones from Amazon. They work great. I found it very frustrating if I had a small amount of sauce on the stove that I couldn't get it to stay warm, it always was bubbling. These have saved the day. Kind of funny, I needed to purchase a $3 gadget to help my $$$$ range do its job properly.