I'm not trying to say that no induction cooktops are capable of heating a pan hotter than my gas range. All I'm saying , is that the induction cooktop that I have, isn't capable of heating my cooking pans up as hot as I can on my gas range.
The cooktop I use, is a countertop model, it plugs into a 15 amp, 120 volt outlet, it's NOT high power , and I don't need it to be, because I only use it for simmering, and occasionally boiling water. The only reason I use it to boil water on those occasions, is because I'm boiling 9 quarts of water, and it takes roughly 45 minutes to boil that water, since the induction cooktop I'm using has a timer and will shut itself off if I forget I had started the large pot of water.
The main reason, I won't likely every be converted from gas burners, is because I very much prefer the way heat is distributed for high temperature cooking, using my gas range. My wife and I use a wok on a daily basis, it has a curved bottom ( although this one we use does have a small flat spot). A induction burner, would not heat up around the edges of the wok, nor would any traditional electric burner. So, I actually make use of the fact that all the heat from a flame doesn't make 100% direct transfer of heat to the exact spot it first touches the metal pan. This is actually a highly and desired feature for the way I cook on a daily basis. In Taiwan, from where my wife is from, many people actually have special gas burners, just for a wok. My wife and I had considered such a thing for our home here in the USA, but decided that having a reasonably high quality semi-professional gas range, would work well enough for our needs.
So, honestly I don't care about efficiency of heat transfer from my gas burners. What I do care about, is that they put out enough heat to do what I want, and because they are gas, and the flames rise up above the burners, I can move my pan around, and it still stays hot, or I can raise it up , and make some short term adjustments to how hot the pan is, etc... I find gas a very desirable cooking heat source for a variety of reason.
By the way, my current stove has 4 burners that are each rated at 18,000 BTU, and these provide all the heat I or my wife needs for any cooking we do on the stove top. As much as I like induction for low temperature cooking, I personally do not feel I'd ever be happy with it as my primary means of cooking. Same is very likely true for any form of electric cooktop surface, but I have very little actual experience with other cooktops, I just know that if they don't have flames, it probably won't cook like I want.
Poll
33 (80.5%)
Author
Topic: Cooking with gas or electricity. (Read 2785 times)