We have a single hob Tefal, and later got a twin induction hob from Amazon. They work well but fans can be noisy.
No it doesn’t with an induction hob! The power cutoff isn’t instantaneous, but is delayed for maybe 30 seconds or more (and whatever timer it is resets every time the pan goes back close enough to the ring), so it doesn’t have any negative impact on tossing the food in a frying pan to turn it to cook evenly. (Otherwise professionals wouldn’t use them, and they certainly do!)
It doesn’t offer the drama of oil or alcohol vapour catching fire when you toss, but that doesn’t adversely affect cooking, while it reduces fire risk. The only possible negative is if flambé is wanted - but that is rarely done while cooking on the burner, and if wanted a blowtorch readily provides the ignition (as well as having other unrelated uses).
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While a blowtorch for cooking is great for creme brule, getting a good bit of pyrotechnics going from the brandy splashed on a steak is easily achieved with a $5 stainless steel wand lighter. Small. Safe, easily used with one hand blind. Heck they are nearly always on a rack right next to the frying pans in the cookware department. Most of the kitchens in restaurants here are open and even the ones using gas tend to favour the wand lighter as the preferred method of igniting alcohol in a pan.
Personally, the even heat provided by IH is fantastic for it’s ability to result in fewer hot spots and therefore fewer spitting grease on the counter. With gas, turning the heat down also reduces the heat radius. You still get this scorching hot little ring in the centre of the pan. IH gives an even heat change over the whole IH surface.
I’m 14 months into our stint with gas in a rented apartment. It’s like cooking in the stone age. Not to mention, the cleaning. Even the most modern streamlined gas top is a pain to clean compared to squirting a glass IH top with Windex and a couple wipes with a paper towel.
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And the risk of CO poisoning if extraction isn’t efgicient, and fire/explosion in the event of a gas leak!
Perhaps this is a recent improvement. Ones I’ve used have cut off. But I assume technology moves on
They’ve moved on greatly. They used to require special pans of only iron or steel and the pan base thickness rated for 110v or 230v IH. Higher end models now will detect copper or aluminium and auto adjust. My previous Panasonic did that and it was great.
Our range cooker needs replacing. I’m started to be tempted by induction.
Looking at the options there is a 6 ring gas hob or a narrower induction with only 5 (the induction starts a few inches from the edge of the cooker). I wonder if there are limits to the technology? It’s a 1m wide hob.
That seems absolutely massive. But on the other hand, you can use an IH surface just like a kitchen counter extension. I chopped vegetables and did all sorts of non hob kitchen activities on mine.
Think they’ve gone up…
Just refilled both the 19 and the 13, total bill £104.
Yes. The current one is that size with 6 burners. Not all used at once usually but great for doing Christmas lunch etc
My 16 yr old Zanussi does as I described, beeping when pan is not detected. When I’m home I’ll have to time it to see how ling before cutioff
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Are you sure they’re working with aluminium or copper? My understanding is that the pan has to have a ferromagnetic base (e.g. iron, nickel, cobalt etc., or alloy containing these but still paramagnetic (i.e. some stainless steels, but not all)) - which may be an insert within the base.
A lot of recent induction-capable pans have such an insert, embedded within aluminium or copper base, much like how some steel pans started having copper bottoms years ago to aid heat distribution.
(Edited: originally said paramagnetic, when I meant ferromagnetic.)
£31.60 for the 19kg from Flogas
I’m very happy to hear that IB. When I’m frying up some small button or cremini mushrooms for a side, one always ends up just tossing them. And I can understand what @feeling_zen is saying regarding using gas after having Induction, must be frustrating.
My daughter and her husband swear by gas, but whenever I’m over there trying to fry something like a large pan of eggs, I find I’m swearing at the gas.
And really, their gas stove is always a bit of a mess because it’s difficult to clean. The rest of their kitchen and house are very tidy.
To each their own, I suppose …
100% sure. Panasonic All Metal IH product line.
I only had 2 steel pans for IH when I bought it the rest were all pure aluminium and one copper. No inserts.
According to the website, it uses two 180 degree aligned semicircle coils to do this: オールメタル | 特長 | IHクッキングヒーター | システムキッチン | Panasonic
I find the residual heat in the base of the pan sufficient to keep things hot during the brief period when a frying pan is lifted off the stove. No doubt it helps having a good thick base to the pan.
I suspect we all subconsciously adapt out cooking style to suit the stove, pans and utensils we use.
Yes, we probably all adapt anyway. And I’ve been trying to collect (buy when on sale) some pots and pans that will work with induction hobs. One of these is set of aluminum pans with an excellent white non-stick finish, with a flat coil of stainless steel embedded in the bottom. One of the pans was a decent sized wok with a slightly larger flat bottom bit.
I have a perfect heavy carbon steel wok at !east 14 inches at the mo, but the flat bit is only about 6 inches which may not transfer enough heat on an IH. I’ll see when I get one.
More than 6” flat would be more a frying pan, wouldn’t it? I don’t use a wok but my understanding is that the oil keeps running down to the very hot base so it stays at a high temperature.
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