I am curious how one pops popcorn, shakes a pan, throws the pan, and heats the sides of the pan when eg reducing stock. How do woks work, exactly, on an induction burner? Why does spilling liquids cause the problems I encountered? Why does the bottom of the pans have to be perfectly flat? Some of my cast iron skillets (whoops never mind) are 50 years or more old and are not perfectly flat. They cook fantastic on a gas range. My All-Clad skillets reduce stock while caramalizing above the liquid level, and... the flavor gain is detectable. My only a few years old set of de Buyers "work" on induction but they're not perfectly flat, either. They are ever so slightly concave up in the center. They work fantastic too on a gas burner, but are a disaster on induction.
While moving house across the country, our Viking gas range preceding us, I installed a moderately high end induction stove (~$1600) and cooked on it for three weeks before I completely gave up. I even bought "induction ready" pots and pans! No doubt it improved the resale value of the kitchen but for people with competent technique, an induction cook top is a culinary disaster.
Far superior? Yeah, I don't think so.
I really wanted to love that induction stove, it's why I paid extra for one to sell the house. But I was duped. Ah well there is theory and there is practice, and I remind myself yet again to always stick to practice.
> I am curious how one pops popcorn, shakes a pan, throws the pan, and heats the sides of the pan when eg reducing stock. How do woks work, exactly, on an induction burner? Why does spilling liquids cause the problems I encountered? Why does the bottom of the pans have to be perfectly flat? Some of my cast iron skillets (whoops never mind) are 50 years or more old and are not perfectly flat. They cook fantastic on a gas range. My All-Clad skillets reduce stock while caramalizing above the liquid level, and... the flavor gain is detectable. My only a few years old set of de Buyers "work" on induction but they're not perfectly flat, either. They are ever so slightly concave up in the center. They work fantastic too on a gas burner, but are a disaster on induction.
... we do all of those things on our mid/low-range induction stove? Our primary cookware is random cast iron, the pasta water boils over all the time with no ill effect, we make popcorn, we make stocks, toss things in a pan by lifting it from the surface all the time. I don't know what range you had but something is wrong with it.
Induction doesn’t require you have perfectly flat pans/whatever. Your “induction ready” pots/pans were probably just really bad, like maybe aluminum (yikes) with some kind of induction-compatible insert? You want to use pure cast iron anyways.
Everything your gas burner can do, a proper induction range can do better. Mine has a dedicated 240V 60A line and can boil water faster than anything but a restaurant-grade gas line (which isn’t even an option in most neighborhoods).
I don’t use woks at all, but I can’t see why one wouldn’t work.
There is one really great use for induction stoves I found. My wife and I have a small one burner induction stove from Ikea, which is basically a high powered hot plate. Its great for putting on the table for hotpot, fondue, shabushabu, korean bbq, etc. Even though I love my gas range, I am always a little weird about putting a propane stove on my dining room table.
I really want to like your comment (and I will) but... but... hot pot, ..., korean bbq isn't the fire in the center of the table part of the entertainment the restaurant supplies?
I suppose we can always in the glorious future buy electric table candelabras with solar powered rechargeable batteries that we can place into the window light on the annoited day and be sure our dinner date at our table works out... well?
I choose the firebug spouse of mine who runs the campfires on outings and isn't afraid of a (controlled) spontaneous combustion.
Yeah, those bbq baskets advertised for grilling vegetables are sensational for charring Anaheims and Poblanos over a big gas burner. Bell peppers become a no brainer. No problem at all to do a much better job getting the skins off than those roller things out in front of the grocery stores in the fall. I can do about 8 at a time.
The rest of the responses, hoo boy, I think I live on a different planet.
Overselling my competence... amusing, because my view of my own skills is that after 40 years of building on what appears to in hindsight have been an extraordinarily well chosen set of parents I might just now begin to understand how the best kitchens work.
While moving house across the country, our Viking gas range preceding us, I installed a moderately high end induction stove (~$1600) and cooked on it for three weeks before I completely gave up. I even bought "induction ready" pots and pans! No doubt it improved the resale value of the kitchen but for people with competent technique, an induction cook top is a culinary disaster.
Far superior? Yeah, I don't think so.
I really wanted to love that induction stove, it's why I paid extra for one to sell the house. But I was duped. Ah well there is theory and there is practice, and I remind myself yet again to always stick to practice.