I'd wager anyone who opines otherwise in this thread barely cooks or doesn't cook in a serious fashion. A gas stove is a tradesman's tool.
Can’t char a pepper on an electric burner
Can’t heat a nabe on an electric burner
Also during hurricane season, my gas burner still works when the power goes out.
The list goes on of things that electric simply cannot do. To claim one is superior over the other ignores a lot of the ways people cook. They are just simply different cooking tools.
They may be different cooking tools but if one is ruining the quality of your life + possibly children, wouldn't you rather do it the safe way? Or are your habits more important than your health?
- Can't temper chocolate, cook a hollandaise, or do anything that requires low heat without using a double boiler.
- Can't boil a large pot of water in under 20 minutes (unless you have a high-power/commercial burner that will absolutely murder indoor air quality/conditioning).
- Can't set the temperature of the pan (or even the contents), rather than just the power level. Think, maintaining an oil temp for deep frying, or a surface temp for browning.
That last one is a really big deal. Imagine if ovens still just had power levels (low/med/high) instead of thermostats.
Induction is super awesome for maintaining temp. But one isn’t superior over the other in all cases. My point was purely, people need high BTU fire sometimes based off how they cook. I mean, you won’t see me cooking tagine, but surely someone in the world cooks tagine?
- I can temper on my 7k BTU burner
- I can boil water quick AF on my 18k BTU burner
- setting pan temp isn’t a thing, there are no recipes that call for a pan temp. Oil temp? Sure and that is why you have a thermometer, very solved problem. For browning etc you do it by time and feel, even if you could set a pan temp you wouldn’t just leave your meat on it for some temp x time amount.
For the last one, just because you're an elite chef and can cook a steak perfectly every time on feel, doesn't mean I am. :D I can buy a $40 steak and know I'm not going to ruin it because I can maintain my pan at 350f, which will brown it and not burn it. I can make pancakes without constantly adjusting the cook time and heat every single batch as the pan continually absorbs more and more heat throughout the cook. I can put a chili on, set it to 204 degrees, then just leave and come back in a few hours without babying the power knob for the first hour trying to get it to a stable, gentle simmer. I can braise meats without using my oven, because I can keep a liquid at 180 degrees. I can make a soup at 3pm, then put in on at 145 degrees for a few hours until dinner. It's not about having a "recipe", you learn 4-5 important temperatures after a couple weeks of using it.
Yes. Because of the quick reaction times, and being able to precisely set temperatures, and even temperature profiles over time with more advanced models.
Of the contents, in the pot or pan. Not just the outside.
For me it was a revelation. Needs much less experience and intuition. Eliminates much guesswork if you don't have much of the former.
Given you have a sufficient electric installation. If not, there are some crazies offering induction-cooktops with built-in battery, to compensate for the lack of that, boosting it up, sufficient for most cooking they claim.
I'd rather not ;->
My gas stovetop in japan has a temperature sensor, and can detect excess temperature (food or oil burning), maintain a temperature, etc. It's possible with gas.
That said, I miss my induction stovetop, and I'm building a house, and it'll have induction, rather than gas.
Can char pepper in the oven.
Can also get a portable gas stove.
> Also during hurricane season, my gas burner still works when the power goes out.
'Powerwall' or similar?
It's only here on HN, where I stumble upon the stubborn naysayers :-)
Induction is fantastic for boiling water, and good for many things, but there's too many shortcomings to declare "superior than gas".
I agree it’s not great to get rid of a pure copper pot but those (and even many of the Korean dolsot pots) seem to be easily available with induction bases now. The flip side was that our cheap $5 IKEA cast iron works even better so we use it more, and this was also true of some Costco ceramic skillets which weren’t trying to be so light that they didn’t have a hefty iron slug.
Between air quality and child safety, my general decision tree is simple: “are you a chef doing things like wok cooking?” Induction is probably better if you don’t have a specific technique requiring unusually high BTU output. I have had to learn to stop saying “come on” when we visit relatives with gas stoves, though.
It’s a smaller than advertised coil, 6”, causing the problem, which is endemic but not limited to portable hobs. Warped a Lodge carbon steel pan the first time I used induction (2mm thick). Then I dove deeper and saw the issues others had. Since then I moved to a larger coil (first a Max Burton, now a Nuwave PIC Titanium). On reddit, you can find any number of examples of shattered cast iron pans and warped pans and ruined seasoning, and it’s not just portable hobs causing the issues.
The issue with simmer is well-known and rears its head if you’re working with delicate sauces. Most people don’t.
Induction bases don’t fix that gas heats the sides too and if you’re able to use that feature it’s not something you want to give up. And actually, wok cooking on induction is pretty darn good if you have one of the specialty wok hobs, better than a wok ring on gas (but not better than a specialty wok burner).
Again, my point isn’t that induction sucks, it’s that it isn’t superior to gas across the board. My dream setup? One proper induction burner, one induction wok burner, a French top in the center, and two proper gas burners on the other side, all with a giant vent fan.
And that was an entry level thing, equivalent to the stuff you'd get at Ikea for about 50 to 60 bucks now. Mine was €25.
And still working, when I'm back where I lived at the time.
Regarding the coils thing, their segmentations and how they are driven? Can only be measured after buying, or trusting the raging reviews on Amazon, Ali(Express), or whatever Costco and the likes are offering, I guess?
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/tillreda-portable-induction-coo...
75USD. Hm, time flies, inflation... But this wouldn't be good anyways, because 1800 Watts only, because 120V AC. You'd want 2500 Watts at least, better 3000. Which you won't get out of a standard US wall socket.
....and on a grill/smoker! :-D
I started my taxable life almost 30 years ago in a Chinese kitchen. I'm literally a born-in-the-fire professional cook first and foremost out of any other thing in life I do. Induction rocks, I don't know what your skill issue is. I get pots and pans hotter, way faster than gas, and the temperature control is as fast as the cooking implement can shed the excess heat. That is as fine a degree of control as you can possibly get, the only better thing would be instantaneous temperature and that's basically a thermodynamic impossibility.
Sure, the reaction time is slower. You learn to think ahead.
Nothing is optimal. The tenements that my kids lived in as students had gas stoves and zero ventilation. That couldn't have been a good idea.
Our latest stove is induction, made by LG, with control knobs. I love it. Best thing is it's easier to keep clean. I'm learning to be more reactive about turning the heat up and down, just because I can. Maybe I'll discover what I've been missing all these years.
Julia Child wrote that a home cook doesn't have to be a chef.
Please explain how an induction cooktop doesn't give you the control and precision you need as compared to gas flame.
But yes, I've also basically given up on carbon steel with induction. Cast iron seasons really well though.
I kinda stopped caring after I got frustrated. I've gotten really good at cooking in stainless, and it's become my go-to for everything short of a french omelette.
You are right about the wok, it isn't quite the same on the induction stove (at least the flat ones, there are wok-shaped ones but these are generally only found in professional units). If you cook most of your meals in it then you are probably right to go gas (or get a gas burner).
If your kitchen is in your living room (and nowadays they all are) I would definitely switch to induction.
Oh, and I disagree with the fire being more precise than induction etc.
It’s just what you’re used to.
The induction rings aren’t a patch on the gas ring for “proper” cooking. There’s simply no competition between them in that regard. Mad for anyone to suggest otherwise.
I’d wager you won’t find many commercial kitchens, even at the low/mid end not running some gas rings as well. I’d be amazed if any at the top-end were not using gas rings. The inductions are great for boiling some pasta or veg up fast though!
We have a massive outside venting hood overhead as well (which must have been required in UK building regs since at least the 90s?!?) so I really don’t care about indoor “pollution” lol.
I eat only food that I cook myself from raw ingredients and I have switched years ago from cooking on an open flame to cooking with a microwave oven.
Regarding precision, a microwave oven does not have competition. Once I have established a sequence of powers and durations for each power that is appropriate for a certain recipe, the food will always be cooked identically, while freeing me to do other activities instead of handling the food.
I still have a gas stove with oven, but I have not opened it again for about 7 years.
Technically since it appears the effects are nebulous to you and if consciousness means informed then it seems a conscious decision is not possible