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Comment by throwaway743 | Hacker News Reader

Not a chef, but I cook nearly every meal, whether home or at my SO's. A gas stove is a world of difference compared to cooking with an electric one.

One major pain point is that the number settings on electric barely provide insight as to what level of heat you're cooking with, and there seems to be a lack of consistency between one electric stove to another. Whereas with gas, you can just eye the flames and know what you're dealing with without resorting to the knob settings, regardless of which stove you're using.

Another thing that comes to mind is that with a gas burner the pot/pan is above an open flame, so if you need to go from high to low heat, you can do that in an instant. With electric, the pot/pan is resting on a heated surface that gradually cools down and can really ruin whatever's cooking.

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> Whereas with gas, you can just eye the flames and know what you're dealing with without resorting to the knob settings, regardless of which stove you're using.

Not the case. Our son cooks on some cheap-ass gas stove with burners about 2-3" in diameter. I cook on a Viking. There's nothing about the flames on either stove that will give you any idea how many BTU's are reaching the food. You have to learn to correlate the flame appearance with cooking results. First efforts will likely burn on the Viking and slow-cook on the el cheapo.

As noted by another comment, it really does sound as if you have not used an induction stove. And in particular, that you have not seen the latest "innovation" of surrounding the heating elements with variable brightness/size blue LEDs to simulate the flame effect.

> I cook on a Viking.

Wouldn't know what that's like. I cook on what you call "el cheapos". Was speaking to those models, as they're pretty ubiquitous among most apartments.

> You have to learn to correlate the flame appearance with cooking results.

Dude, that's essentially what I meant. Sorry for not detailing that one should look for color, size, etc of flame, and how one's brain interprets what works and what doesn't.

And no I have not used an induction stove, but am curious.

It’s not gas vs electric. It’s gas vs induction vs everything else. An induction cooktop is more powerful than any residential gas range, and responds instantly when you change temperature.

The only two problems I’ve encountered are a) the heat stops instantly if you pick up the pan and b) you don’t get heat up the sides of a wok or other curved pan.

I’ll never go back to gas, and that’s not even considering the health risks of indoor combustion.

Third problem on cheap induction cookers: the power control via +/- keys is too coarse in the low region. E.g. for cooking buckwheat, 600W is too much (the water boils too intensively, especially near the end), while 400W is not really enough, and there is nothing in between. Fortunately, 12 minutes @ 600W + 8 minutes @ 400W yield an acceptable result.

> With electric, the pot/pan is resting on a heated surface that gradually cools down and can really ruin whatever's cooking.

Sounds like you need to try an induction cooktop?

I've only had one experience with induction- probably 15 years ago now. It was a place we stayed in hawaii (like pre-airbnb) and there was a sign saying if you even looked at it wrong it would scratch the surface (necessitating a full replacement). Are they really strong now or do you still have to worry about scratching? Some googling suggests that you still need to be careful with cast iron.

No different than a standard resistive electric stovetop with ceramic glass.

It looks almost the same but it's very different as the glass doesn't heat up like the resistive and the heat is instant, like gas and unlike resistive which has a lot of inertia. The glass only heats up from the cookware which is also a safety benefit (less likely to burn yourself).

But the glass itself should be the same.

Cracking the glass of a induction cooktop is still a problem. So I recommend carbon steel over cast iron for this purpose. They’re similar in that they both need to be seasoned. But carbon steel is much lighter and it’s smooth unlike most modern cast iron cookware.

Carbon steel deforms over heat. Also leaks oil through the pores. Or maybe I should have bought a more expensive pancake pan? Otherwise I like it; using both but I am extra careful with the cast iron.

Yes thin carbon steel cookware warps. My wok is a good example of that. But there plenty of high quality thick carbon steel cookware on the market that’s stronger.

What do you mean it leaks oil? I’ve never noticed any like that.

I always find oil on the induction cooker glass, under the pan. So I assume it leaks through pores when the oil gets hot and fluid? It's an ok quality pancake pan.

https://www.amazon.com/Kitchencraft-Non-stick-Crepe-Master-C...

(the reviewers that claim it sticks have not heated it up properly and the peeled off "teflon" is just burned crêpe)

Carbon steel should not have any non-stick coating applied from factory. Using a pure carbon steel pan will create a slick surface. Look at e.g. DeBuyer for a good brand.

In your case I think that oil gets over the lip and around the pan.

Well, I'm attached to my cast iron (pan, griddle, casserole and more), and treating my cooking top roughly (I used to be a cook in a restaurant, there we used carbon steel, which is fine, but sort of a different beast, from cast iron) is just how I roll. So I guess induction is still off the table. Even resistive electric coils don't really handle things quite as well as a gas range with metal grates.

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