Nearly six out of ten cooktops in UK kitchens run on gas, and induction steering can greatly improve fuel efficiency.
With soaring fuel prices and temperatures, many of us want to limit the amount of fuel we use for the sake of our wallet and the planet. Kitchen hobs are one of the biggest consumers, but they don’t have to be.
Nearly six out of ten stoves in the UK run on gas. Part of the reason is that natural gas has always been cheaper. But that’s not all: “preparability,” advertising from the 1980s, “the beauty of gas.” Gas is the choice of serious cooks and is more responsive than old-fashioned rice cookers that require a lot of work. It takes a lot of time. heat up and stay hot for a long time after rejection.
There is also confusion between electric ceramic hob and induction. They look the same – a flat, easy-to-clean black glass panel with a slightly annoying touch control panel. But a ceramic cooker works just like a traditional rice cooker, except that the electric coils are placed under the glass. Turn it on and electricity flows through the coil, heating it to a glowing red color that heats the glass, which in turn heats the pan. They are slow and not very responsive: few cooks like ceramic hobs.
Induction is a completely different technology: electromagnetism. Electricity travels through a coil—again under glass, but this time made of copper—creating a magnetic field that travels through the glass directly to the iron in the pan, heating it up. (The coil does not heat the glass, although it is heated by heat transferred back from the pan.)
Induction is very fast, boiling a pot of water twice as fast as gas, but it also responds quickly when you turn the heat up or down. Importantly, it also saves fuel as no energy is wasted when heating glass or air – it is about 90 percent efficient compared to 40 percent for gas hobs and 74 percent for conventional electric hobs.
If you need more persuasiveness, ask the chef. You might think they are the most durable, because the flickering of the flame from the burner to the pot is part of masculinity. But the cooks were the first to switch to induction, and they liked it. Michel Roux Jr. of Le Gavroche said: “We started our work 10 years ago and have never looked back.”
Stephen Toman, head chef at Belfast’s Michelin-starred Ox, installed the induction system four years ago. He explained: “The kitchen is definitely a gas steam room and it’s a little cheaper because you only use what you need. Although I miss the sound of the stove, the sound of a metal pan hitting a metal lid.”
In practice, many cooks combine induction with a small charcoal grill when they want to smoke over charcoal. Toman admits he had to use a grill instead of a gas burner to puff up the eggplant skins, but says “it worked well.”
Another important benefit is easier cleaning. The gas not only dissipates heat, but also evaporates every spatter in the pan, so dirt builds up on the surface. It also pollutes the air by significantly increasing levels of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, and emits methane even when turned off.
The absence of open flames in induction kitchens makes them safer, although as one chef (half-jokingly) remarked, it’s hard to light a cigarette before a coffee break.
Steering sensitivity needs to be adjusted. “Cooking is a little different. You are used to the residual heat of the gas… but the moment you take the pan out of the induction hob, there is no residual heat and it cools down faster. So you need to be faster,” Toman said.
Built-in induction hobs are expensive, with prices reaching upwards of £2,000. That is one of them? The magazine’s best buy is IKEA’s £249 Matmassig cooker, and if you’d like to try it out, the single loop insert ring is under £50. Robert Dyas has a 2000W HOMCOM 800-098V70 induction cooker for £48.99.
If the magnet sticks to the bottom of the pot, then the induction is working. But other pans, like my trusty copper and aluminum pans, don’t heat up at all on induction. Wok pans with a curved bottom are also not good – you need a wok with a flat bottom.
The British Heart Foundation recommends that people with pacemakers keep a distance of two feet (60 cm) between the induction cooker and the pacemaker, so it is best to choose a different stove.
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Post time: Sep-21-2022