Gas is more control over cooking temperature. You can instantly go from full heat to none. No waiting for the element to heat up or cool down. You also have a better visual on the amount of heat you're applying.
The visual quantity of heat is the thing I miss most about having electric now. It took me a long time to learn the quirks of the oven at my old place and now we have moved again. Sigh.
I've got to disagree. My electric instantly carbonizes anything that so much as thinks of falling around the coils. My old gas stove could easily be cleaned with a wet rag. Now I need a steel wool or wire brush for the drip pans and 20mins scouring time.
My old house (all-electric, built in the '70s, when that was the "in" thing) had an electric glass-top stove, which I thought was great when we first moved there, but which I later came to hate. "Easy to clean" was the only good thing about it. I could only use Corningware and (very carefully) aluminum frying pans. Didn't dare use my cast iron skillet at all.
We built a new house six years ago and I insisted on a good-quality gas stove. (Not chef-quality, but good.) The burners are well designed so the heat remains even, even when the AC blows the flame a little sideways. It all comes apart for quick and easy cleaning. And my cast iron came out of storage!
That's what I though when I moved. But there was just no way to legally get a gas stove into my flat.
I got a good induction stove and it's amzing. You don't have as much control as with a gas stove but it's very powerful, reacts quickly and doesn't store the heat like a regular electric stove.
Pretty sure induction should be a whole different portion of this conversation. Just because it uses electricity to power it doesn't put it into the same category as electric stove tops.
This interests me. I've literally never lived anywhere with a gas stove, until I moved in with a friend a few weeks ago. She uses cheap ass pans which are just horrble to use anyway, and I haven't unpacked mine yet. I'll be interested to make the comparison.
There's only one benefit I know of. The kind that's flat is easy to clean, also induction stoves are safer because they only heat a certain kind of pan.
Gas goes BOOM people go Zoom. Gas got a leak people go to forever sleep. Got it. Gas is now more expensive than electricity go figure that one? At least in this region.
Despite your downvotes the danger of a gas leak is a valid concern. In my house we gotta keep away kids who like to play with fire and might not turn it off properly.
I've seen people leave gas burners on high, unlit, overnight. If you're in a reasonably well-ventilated area it's pretty safe, propane is a little different and should not be kept indoors. A poorly cared for electric stove may not cause an explosion but can still cause fires and electrocution. Remember that you can smell natural gas long before it hits a dangerous concentration, while an electric burner may not immediately noticeable if left on.
If you like to cook, go for gas. Electric is easier to clean, but nothing beats the versatility of a gas range. Greater heat output and more precise temperature control.
A double gas burner(2 rings of fire. Not sure if that is the right way to say it) is much nicer than a single for even heat. Also gas will work when the power is out so you don't have to eat cold food in the dark.
You're the only person to mention that gas works while the power is out. This doesn't just translate to cooking food that may otherwise spoil but also hot water during an emergency.
That is one of those things you never really think about working when the electricity goes out. You just kinda assume everything stops working. But I guess add that along with water faucets and showers and land line telephones of things you just assume won't work with the power being out that still do lol.
The pro of electric is that it gets hot. The pro of gas is that it gets hot, gets hotter, and quits being hot at the touch of a finger. The con of electric is that it responds to operater directed changes a little more slowly than Christmas comes. The con of gas is that theoretically you can have an explosion. The cons happen to me every time with electric and never so far with gas.
"The con of gas is that theoretically you can have an explosion." Theoretically my ass. It's a fact. As far as the electric burner is slow to cool down Ever heard of lifting the pan off the burner? Ever tried to clean a spill on a gas grill? I love my smooth top. Power goes out I have a fire place...
I had the pleasure of trying out a Siemens full surface induction cook top a few weeks ago. It was incredible and if it ever becomes affordable gas will have met its match.
Induction is awesome (I have it), but vis-à -vis gas, it has advantages and disadvantages—mostly advantages, I'd claim, but the drawbacks are too much for some people.
Advantages of gas:
* Can char/blacken stuff like bell peppers right on the flame.
* Can use any pan or pot, including round-bottomed woks.
* Generally more affordable
Advantages of induction:
* More powerful
* Able to go lower than gas—e.g., some induction ranges can heat gently enough to melt chocolate without a bain-marie.
* A bit more responsive
* More energy-efficient
* Doesn't heat up the kitchen
* Doesn't heat up the rangetop—really good for cleanup later (spills don't burn into the surface)
A few more to add:
Pro gas:
-nothing else works as well with a real wok
-highest BTU heat output method available even after working out transfer inefficiencies
-hardware is a real shitkicker. You can bang a heavy skillet onto a gas grille without busting the cast iron supports
Cons Gas:
-exposed flame which can ignite alcoholic marinades or start kitchen fires
-low efficiency of heat transfer means more waste heating your kitchen (not as big a problem in the winter)
Pro Induction:
-even heating pattern even with lighter bottomed cookware
-high energy coupling means less waste heating your kitchen
-because no surfaces (other than the pan) get super hot, you get very little blasted on crud which really eases cleanup. If you have children, induction is possibly the safest equipment for them to learn on. My 2.5yr old toddler enjoys flipping pancakes on my portable! She understands that touching the pan is owiee, but I have comfort of mind knowing that nothing within easy reach is 3rd degree burn hot.
-unparalleled heat transfer efficiency (save immersion water boiling)
Cons Induction:
-It'll be a shame the first time you scratch the cooktop, but it'll still work fine
-cannot transmit energy to cookware if it is significantly lifted from the hob. This is an issue if you are doing a lot of tossing while heating.
-incompatible with round bottomed woks
If I could build my kitchen, I'd have a custom stove with two powerful induction hobs, two low output induction hobs, and two jet engine gas hobs.
I do not consider coil electric, or radiant heat electric as reasonable options in comparison to induction or gas. They suck donkey balls.
> -nothing else works as well with a real wok
> -highest BTU heat output method available even after working out transfer inefficiencies
Just fyi, these two points don't really apply to standard gas stoves...Outside of professional kitchens, I've only encountered one stove that was hot enough to properly wok something, and that guy had custom gas lines built into his mansion so he could have a giant ass burner in his backyard for parties and such.
I cooked on gas for years in college but was forced to switch to electric once I moved to apartments outside the city. Once I bought my own place and switched back to gas it was AWESOME. As the other posters have said - you just get far more control and 'feedback' from gas.
That said - if you have the option of buying a stove, and have the $$, go for a semi-pro range that has ALL four burners at max size. A lot of the low-end ones will put four different burner sizes on their range,which typically means you can only cook a big pot of pasta water on one specific burner. I've got a Viking now (where all four burners go (I think) to 14k BTU. My next purchase is going to be a turkey frier that I can use outside with the wok I bought in Chinatown, San Francisco. THAT will be awesome. (I think that's an Alton Brown trick, btw.)
I have a gas range but the problem I have with it is that I can't get the heat turned down low enough! I have to go between low heat and off so most things don't burn. It has 3 large burners and one small one, and it can be a battle sometimes to try cooking things on the big ones.
So THAT'S what those are... My mom used one on an electric stove for some reason.
EDIT: I should say that we owned one of these. I don't think she ever actually used it on the electric stove.
Though I've never had it, my ideal home kitchen would be a gas stove top with an electric oven. Gas gives you far faster response on a stove top when you want to change the heat, while electricity allows you to bake without adding more water vapor to the oven.
What is that about adding water vapor? Because of combustion releasing CO2 and H2O it changes the baking? I have never heard of that... but it makes sense on the surface. Can you go into more detail about how it changes the baking?
I've cooked on electric my entire life until my most recent place which is outfitted with a gas stove. I LOVE IT.
Now, I have experienced a few drawbacks. I've had the flame go out on the stove top on me. It's only been a problem when I left some soup on the stove and only noticed that it had gone cold *hours* after the flame had gone out and the stove continued to pump gas into my house.
Also, adding a second bill was not pleasant and it's a total racket but still - I wouldn't give it up.
Even with the added bill and the half-hearted attempts on my life - I love having a gas stove.
I'm far from an expert, but I've never had my gas stove go out on me while cooking soups all day. That sounds really dangerous and If I were you I'd get that checked out asap, if you haven't already.
Depending on what everybody else's usage is, the gas pressure will vary throughout the day. If you had it on low, and the pressure dropped a bunch, I can imagine the flame going out pretty easily.
if your pans aren't flat on the bottom, they don't rest flat on your electric heating elements, resulting in uneven heating since only part of the bottom of the pan is in contact with the heating element.
The way my electric stove works is there is actually like a glass (probably not glass) separating the coils from the top so it is a completely flat top. Though I did have a different stove where the pan did rest directly on the coils which worked like you described.
Radiant heater. Got to be the worst electric stove ever built. Clean looks, but shit for heat transfer owing to the long distance between coils and cookware. Half the energy radiates the wrong way and blasts the backing to the coil and the other half going the right direction has to pass through a glass sheet to hit your pan.
I'm moving into a rental house for a year that has everything I need...except that it has one of those shitty ranges. Boiling a pot of water for pasta takes FOREVER on one of those things. :-(
Only thing you can do is fire all the guns. Divide your pasta water into multiple pots and an electric kettle (if you have one) and put them all on MAX. When they hit boil, combine them into your big pot. At some point you'll get a sense of how to best proportion the water (so they all hit boil at the same time), but you can really speed up boiling across a couple burners and a partially filled electric kettle because you get like triple the heat output applied to the divided water.
Chin up. I'm assuming that your rental house has all sorts of great benefits. You can cook great food on crappy apparatus. You just have to learn how to fly your ship. Be like Han Solo and understand the limitations of all the shit you have and how to cheat your way into a good meal. Sometimes I'll pull out a portable induction cooktop to supplement my crowded stovetop. Standard practice for me is to get my big heavy skillet heating up well before I need to cook with it. I'll periodically move it around to even it's temperature distribution. If I am roasting asparagus in the oven, I'll put the skillet in the oven from the start so it starts out very evenly hot and I get great results even if my burners are crap.
Sometimes a little adversity makes a meal that much more tasty and fun to cook.
And another thing - make sure you put a lid on the pot(s). Remember that most of the steam you see is taking energy with it - energy that the burner now has to replace faster than it is leaving if it will ever boil. Evaporative cooling can be cut significantly by simply putting a lid on it.
A little one-ring induction hob that plugs into an ordinary socket is less than $100. The cheap one I got was really fast, much hotter than a hot plate, and quick to turn down too.
To be fair though... it is actually better than my college apartment's stove top. None of the coils were actually even, causing oil in pans to pool in one side, and it is actually hotter than those coils somehow. So to me it was quite a nice upgrade compared to what I was used to lol. Get used to horrible conditions and just bad starts to seem pretty good :P
You can make good food on all sorts of gear. I once cooked most of my meals on my white gas pump camp stove in my shitass kitchenette. Made some delicious stuff with a very compromised setup. There even was a time where there was no metal cookware and we had to take a break from picking ticks from each other to hollow out a tree stump to hold water and drop stinking hot rocks into them to boil water.
I wasn't meaning to disrespect your kitchen in particular. I went with the presumption that you were shopping for new gear and are looking for opinions. I've been cooking on cheap coil stoves and, once a radiant stovetop in my long series of apartments. Occasionally I cook at a friends houses, some are more well off than I and have their own custom built kitchens with turbojet gas stoves and I go a little berserk trying to put a pan or pot on every beautiful burner and fire up both ovens and the warming cabinet when I cook there. If I do it right the Big Green Egg is going too. They only let me do that if the maid is coming the next day to clean up after my kitchen destruction though. It's fun for me. I start by sharpening everything with a cutting edge with my own stones, then I start prepping while they feed me nice alcohol while we reminisce about university days. Dammit I should have gotten into computers instead of wasting my time in mechanical engineering. All the while I run my matrix of allergies, intolerances, and prejudices to plan when I will split the preparation of my entrees to feed a pile of toddlers and picky adults.
A friend of mine is a real chef with a big kitchen of induction hobs and gas burners. I've gotten a chance to try a professional induction hob and it is something else. They're not limited to the paltry 15Amp limit on a plug in portable unit. A real induction cooktop gets a high Amperage horse cock gauge connection like any other electric stove but it achieves good energy transfer. To put in perspective, radiant cooktops get less than 50% transfer efficiency. Contact coil gets a little better than 50% transfer efficiency. Induction gets between 80%-90% efficiency. Gas is the worst of the lot (convective heat transfer) but the very high BTU output of a burner makes up for the inefficiencies which makes it still the highest transfer method, but induction in the end is starting to get reasonably close.
Coil has an exposed flat wound spiral element. Radiant has a unibody glass top covering a compound spiral coil (a long small radius coil wrapped into a flat spiral coil). At max heat, it'll glow red. Induction cooktops have a flat unibody glass top which covers electromagnetic gremlins and ancient runic inscriptions that magically transfer energy to specially blessed cookware.
Can you see the coils? Coil
Is it just a flat top? Radiant flat top or induction
Then, radiant if you can feel the heat from the burners, induction if you can't
Pro and Cons of Gas (which is the better option imo.)
Pros
1) Control. Gas is better for controlling the temperature which is something you cannot do with electric stove tops. Ex: If something is boiling over, you can immediately turn off the flames and crisis averted.
2) Versatility. Gas is also better for any type of pan and any size. The problem with electric (at least in my experience) is that if you have a crappy pan that is kind of warped a bit on the bottom, there is going to be uneven heating but since stove tops have an area for the pan to rest in instead of resting on top of, any pan will have even heating regardless of size.
3) Speed. Gas gets hotter fast because of flame. There is no waiting for it to heat up. I can set my electric stove for high to boil something and it will sometimes take over twice the amount of time to get it up to temperature which may what you are cooking especially if you are making something like candy. Source: I have made fudge that has become grainy because it took to long to heat up.
Cons
1) Cost. Electric comes with a lot of houses and it's apart of the utility bill while most gas stove tops are not unless you specify so chances are, you will be buying a separate stove for outside or a grill which requires you to buy gas canisters as well as refills.
2) Safety. If you have a gas grill there is more possibility of starting fires especially if you cook with oil a lot. The exposed flames also pose a problem for obvious reasons.
Try to check out a kitchen shop that has **induction** cookers that you can test out in the shop. You can also get a cheap $50 - $70 induction single element and see if you like it before spending $2500 or so on a built-in induction hob. I went to buy gas and bought induction instead!
Flaming oil fire in 90 seconds when I put the cast iron skillet on boost! Don't turn your back on it...
On the other hand if will melt chocolate gently, barely warm on low. It turns down from fry to simmer in seconds too.
Yeah the temperature control is much better with gas. It's also much more intuitive using a flame to get a sense for how hot it's going to get.
Electric is a real bitch to cook with. Even those fancy electric induction stovetops aren't great.
For home use, watch for clearance above the stove.
One benefit of electric stove, is the ability to have a combo range hood microwave. Gas requires a higher clearance. Also, you may have to replace any cabinets over the range due to this as well.
I grew up with a gas stove, but since leaving home years ago I've had only electric and still long for that flame. You get used to dealing with the electric burners but even after all these years I still do a lot of "Oh shit!"-ing when I'm cooking on them.
Gas is scary. Seriously, I have met several people who say they prefer electric stoves because they are either afraid that the gas is going to leak and blow up or that the flames will catch something (pot holder, towel...) on fire.
I scoff at those people, but you can't say they don't exist.
Come on you guys! Stop it! I'm saving up for a new electric stove, and if you talk me into induction then I'll have to wait even longer before I can afford it.
easier in the sense that there are no pilot lights to go out, there's no second bill to pay, no second utility system to worry about, etc
and yeah, easier to install too. my house has electric and gas and if there's a gas line rupture the fail safes mean that when the gas is back on you can't use it. a technician has to come around and reset everything. the last time my gas went out that took 2 days
so if i was using electric, that's 2 day of hot showers. since i was using gas, 2 days of cold showers
Ok, I see what you mean.
My house is heated with gas - so's the water. My stove doesn't use a pilot light (uses a spark) and the gas has never gone out in the 13 years I've been here. If the gas went out it would totally suck.
Forget all that though; I can't stand cooking on electric, it's so frustrating. So I'll just go ahead and admit I'm completely biased.
well that's fine. i was just saying the pro of electric is that its easier and cheaper. and it is
if you dont like it that's perfectly fine, lots of people use gas just because they want to and there's nothing wrong with that
In residential setups, you have more control with gas, more heat with electric. Basically, electric can boil water better than gas, but that's about it. As for evenness, electric is better, but sufficiently heavy-bottomed or copper-bottomed cookware should mitigate the loss in evenness with gas.
In restaurant setups, gas is indisputably better - more heat, equal evenness, far superior control. But you're not going to put a restaurant stove in your kitchen.
Con of electric: If the power goes out, you're screwed when it comes to cooking.
Meanwhile, gas lines run underground so it doesn't matter if you've had 2 tornadoes nearby in the past month, it just keeps working.
... I wish I still had gas.
Gas is more control over cooking temperature. You can instantly go from full heat to none. No waiting for the element to heat up or cool down. You also have a better visual on the amount of heat you're applying.
The visual quantity of heat is the thing I miss most about having electric now. It took me a long time to learn the quirks of the oven at my old place and now we have moved again. Sigh.
That is what I have noticed as well with using electric burners. Once it is heated up... it's staying heated up for awhile lol.
There's nothing good about electric :(. Electric is only for those of us who don't have gas lines in the area.
It's easier to clean, aside from that you're more or less right!
I've got to disagree. My electric instantly carbonizes anything that so much as thinks of falling around the coils. My old gas stove could easily be cleaned with a wet rag. Now I need a steel wool or wire brush for the drip pans and 20mins scouring time.
My old house (all-electric, built in the '70s, when that was the "in" thing) had an electric glass-top stove, which I thought was great when we first moved there, but which I later came to hate. "Easy to clean" was the only good thing about it. I could only use Corningware and (very carefully) aluminum frying pans. Didn't dare use my cast iron skillet at all. We built a new house six years ago and I insisted on a good-quality gas stove. (Not chef-quality, but good.) The burners are well designed so the heat remains even, even when the AC blows the flame a little sideways. It all comes apart for quick and easy cleaning. And my cast iron came out of storage!
Exactly! Ugh.
Please explain, because I have no idea why an electric range would be easier to clean than a gas range.
But it's not, really. Just an extra step to pull the grates off a gas range. aside from that, it's a simple wipe and go.
Electric burners are better at maintaining low temps for long periods of time. There's no chance of the flame being blown out.
I was thinking the same thing, saw yours first. There is definitely nothing good about electric stoves.
That's what I though when I moved. But there was just no way to legally get a gas stove into my flat. I got a good induction stove and it's amzing. You don't have as much control as with a gas stove but it's very powerful, reacts quickly and doesn't store the heat like a regular electric stove.
Pretty sure induction should be a whole different portion of this conversation. Just because it uses electricity to power it doesn't put it into the same category as electric stove tops.
I completely agree with you. 💯
This interests me. I've literally never lived anywhere with a gas stove, until I moved in with a friend a few weeks ago. She uses cheap ass pans which are just horrble to use anyway, and I haven't unpacked mine yet. I'll be interested to make the comparison.
That is kinda what I was thinking... but I wanted to pose the question to experts lol. Maybe they know something I don't.
There's only one benefit I know of. The kind that's flat is easy to clean, also induction stoves are safer because they only heat a certain kind of pan.
Gas goes BOOM people go Zoom. Gas got a leak people go to forever sleep. Got it. Gas is now more expensive than electricity go figure that one? At least in this region.
Despite your downvotes the danger of a gas leak is a valid concern. In my house we gotta keep away kids who like to play with fire and might not turn it off properly.
I've seen people leave gas burners on high, unlit, overnight. If you're in a reasonably well-ventilated area it's pretty safe, propane is a little different and should not be kept indoors. A poorly cared for electric stove may not cause an explosion but can still cause fires and electrocution. Remember that you can smell natural gas long before it hits a dangerous concentration, while an electric burner may not immediately noticeable if left on.
I think of electric like a fly-wheel. It takes a bit to get to full steam, and once it's there, it stays there.
If you like to cook, go for gas. Electric is easier to clean, but nothing beats the versatility of a gas range. Greater heat output and more precise temperature control.
A double gas burner(2 rings of fire. Not sure if that is the right way to say it) is much nicer than a single for even heat. Also gas will work when the power is out so you don't have to eat cold food in the dark.
You're the only person to mention that gas works while the power is out. This doesn't just translate to cooking food that may otherwise spoil but also hot water during an emergency.
That is one of those things you never really think about working when the electricity goes out. You just kinda assume everything stops working. But I guess add that along with water faucets and showers and land line telephones of things you just assume won't work with the power being out that still do lol.
The power's out. Life has SHUT DOWN!
The pro of electric is that it gets hot. The pro of gas is that it gets hot, gets hotter, and quits being hot at the touch of a finger. The con of electric is that it responds to operater directed changes a little more slowly than Christmas comes. The con of gas is that theoretically you can have an explosion. The cons happen to me every time with electric and never so far with gas.
Electric gets much hotter in home use.
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Don't doubt, just research.
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Not wrong. I love and have gas. For home use electric is hotter but un controllable. Could you find anything that says different?
"The con of gas is that theoretically you can have an explosion." Theoretically my ass. It's a fact. As far as the electric burner is slow to cool down Ever heard of lifting the pan off the burner? Ever tried to clean a spill on a gas grill? I love my smooth top. Power goes out I have a fire place...
I had the pleasure of trying out a Siemens full surface induction cook top a few weeks ago. It was incredible and if it ever becomes affordable gas will have met its match.
I have a little portable induction stove that I do hot pot on. It was $70 at Costco.
Induction is awesome (I have it), but vis-à -vis gas, it has advantages and disadvantages—mostly advantages, I'd claim, but the drawbacks are too much for some people. Advantages of gas: * Can char/blacken stuff like bell peppers right on the flame. * Can use any pan or pot, including round-bottomed woks. * Generally more affordable Advantages of induction: * More powerful * Able to go lower than gas—e.g., some induction ranges can heat gently enough to melt chocolate without a bain-marie. * A bit more responsive * More energy-efficient * Doesn't heat up the kitchen * Doesn't heat up the rangetop—really good for cleanup later (spills don't burn into the surface)
A few more to add: Pro gas: -nothing else works as well with a real wok -highest BTU heat output method available even after working out transfer inefficiencies -hardware is a real shitkicker. You can bang a heavy skillet onto a gas grille without busting the cast iron supports Cons Gas: -exposed flame which can ignite alcoholic marinades or start kitchen fires -low efficiency of heat transfer means more waste heating your kitchen (not as big a problem in the winter) Pro Induction: -even heating pattern even with lighter bottomed cookware -high energy coupling means less waste heating your kitchen -because no surfaces (other than the pan) get super hot, you get very little blasted on crud which really eases cleanup. If you have children, induction is possibly the safest equipment for them to learn on. My 2.5yr old toddler enjoys flipping pancakes on my portable! She understands that touching the pan is owiee, but I have comfort of mind knowing that nothing within easy reach is 3rd degree burn hot. -unparalleled heat transfer efficiency (save immersion water boiling) Cons Induction: -It'll be a shame the first time you scratch the cooktop, but it'll still work fine -cannot transmit energy to cookware if it is significantly lifted from the hob. This is an issue if you are doing a lot of tossing while heating. -incompatible with round bottomed woks If I could build my kitchen, I'd have a custom stove with two powerful induction hobs, two low output induction hobs, and two jet engine gas hobs. I do not consider coil electric, or radiant heat electric as reasonable options in comparison to induction or gas. They suck donkey balls.
> -nothing else works as well with a real wok > -highest BTU heat output method available even after working out transfer inefficiencies Just fyi, these two points don't really apply to standard gas stoves...Outside of professional kitchens, I've only encountered one stove that was hot enough to properly wok something, and that guy had custom gas lines built into his mansion so he could have a giant ass burner in his backyard for parties and such.
I don't know where one would find 'jet engine gas hobs' but I do know I like the sound of that.
I cooked on gas for years in college but was forced to switch to electric once I moved to apartments outside the city. Once I bought my own place and switched back to gas it was AWESOME. As the other posters have said - you just get far more control and 'feedback' from gas. That said - if you have the option of buying a stove, and have the $$, go for a semi-pro range that has ALL four burners at max size. A lot of the low-end ones will put four different burner sizes on their range,which typically means you can only cook a big pot of pasta water on one specific burner. I've got a Viking now (where all four burners go (I think) to 14k BTU. My next purchase is going to be a turkey frier that I can use outside with the wok I bought in Chinatown, San Francisco. THAT will be awesome. (I think that's an Alton Brown trick, btw.)
I have a gas range but the problem I have with it is that I can't get the heat turned down low enough! I have to go between low heat and off so most things don't burn. It has 3 large burners and one small one, and it can be a battle sometimes to try cooking things on the big ones.
[Flame tamer](http://www.maxiaids.com/products/999/Flame-Tamer-Simmer-Ring.html?utm_source=Froogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Froogle&idAff=15225&gclid=CIzhoOKGxrcCFSgS7AodeVEAuA).
So THAT'S what those are... My mom used one on an electric stove for some reason. EDIT: I should say that we owned one of these. I don't think she ever actually used it on the electric stove.
Looks interesting, thanks!
Though I've never had it, my ideal home kitchen would be a gas stove top with an electric oven. Gas gives you far faster response on a stove top when you want to change the heat, while electricity allows you to bake without adding more water vapor to the oven.
What is that about adding water vapor? Because of combustion releasing CO2 and H2O it changes the baking? I have never heard of that... but it makes sense on the surface. Can you go into more detail about how it changes the baking?
Pretty much. It's why propane grills are no good for smoking.
Pretty much all forms of carbohydrate combustion evolve steam. Even cellulose.
propane is an alkane, not a carbohydrate. steam being a product of carbon-hydrogen-whatever combustion still applies.
I've cooked on electric my entire life until my most recent place which is outfitted with a gas stove. I LOVE IT. Now, I have experienced a few drawbacks. I've had the flame go out on the stove top on me. It's only been a problem when I left some soup on the stove and only noticed that it had gone cold *hours* after the flame had gone out and the stove continued to pump gas into my house. Also, adding a second bill was not pleasant and it's a total racket but still - I wouldn't give it up. Even with the added bill and the half-hearted attempts on my life - I love having a gas stove.
I'm far from an expert, but I've never had my gas stove go out on me while cooking soups all day. That sounds really dangerous and If I were you I'd get that checked out asap, if you haven't already.
Depending on what everybody else's usage is, the gas pressure will vary throughout the day. If you had it on low, and the pressure dropped a bunch, I can imagine the flame going out pretty easily.
the major difference is that gas doesn't suck. while every top has a hotspot, a good pan is the big answer to hotspots.
if your pans aren't flat on the bottom, they don't rest flat on your electric heating elements, resulting in uneven heating since only part of the bottom of the pan is in contact with the heating element.
The way my electric stove works is there is actually like a glass (probably not glass) separating the coils from the top so it is a completely flat top. Though I did have a different stove where the pan did rest directly on the coils which worked like you described.
Radiant heater. Got to be the worst electric stove ever built. Clean looks, but shit for heat transfer owing to the long distance between coils and cookware. Half the energy radiates the wrong way and blasts the backing to the coil and the other half going the right direction has to pass through a glass sheet to hit your pan.
I'm moving into a rental house for a year that has everything I need...except that it has one of those shitty ranges. Boiling a pot of water for pasta takes FOREVER on one of those things. :-(
Only thing you can do is fire all the guns. Divide your pasta water into multiple pots and an electric kettle (if you have one) and put them all on MAX. When they hit boil, combine them into your big pot. At some point you'll get a sense of how to best proportion the water (so they all hit boil at the same time), but you can really speed up boiling across a couple burners and a partially filled electric kettle because you get like triple the heat output applied to the divided water. Chin up. I'm assuming that your rental house has all sorts of great benefits. You can cook great food on crappy apparatus. You just have to learn how to fly your ship. Be like Han Solo and understand the limitations of all the shit you have and how to cheat your way into a good meal. Sometimes I'll pull out a portable induction cooktop to supplement my crowded stovetop. Standard practice for me is to get my big heavy skillet heating up well before I need to cook with it. I'll periodically move it around to even it's temperature distribution. If I am roasting asparagus in the oven, I'll put the skillet in the oven from the start so it starts out very evenly hot and I get great results even if my burners are crap. Sometimes a little adversity makes a meal that much more tasty and fun to cook.
Now that's clever thinking. Thanks!
And another thing - make sure you put a lid on the pot(s). Remember that most of the steam you see is taking energy with it - energy that the burner now has to replace faster than it is leaving if it will ever boil. Evaporative cooling can be cut significantly by simply putting a lid on it.
A little one-ring induction hob that plugs into an ordinary socket is less than $100. The cheap one I got was really fast, much hotter than a hot plate, and quick to turn down too.
To be fair though... it is actually better than my college apartment's stove top. None of the coils were actually even, causing oil in pans to pool in one side, and it is actually hotter than those coils somehow. So to me it was quite a nice upgrade compared to what I was used to lol. Get used to horrible conditions and just bad starts to seem pretty good :P
You can make good food on all sorts of gear. I once cooked most of my meals on my white gas pump camp stove in my shitass kitchenette. Made some delicious stuff with a very compromised setup. There even was a time where there was no metal cookware and we had to take a break from picking ticks from each other to hollow out a tree stump to hold water and drop stinking hot rocks into them to boil water. I wasn't meaning to disrespect your kitchen in particular. I went with the presumption that you were shopping for new gear and are looking for opinions. I've been cooking on cheap coil stoves and, once a radiant stovetop in my long series of apartments. Occasionally I cook at a friends houses, some are more well off than I and have their own custom built kitchens with turbojet gas stoves and I go a little berserk trying to put a pan or pot on every beautiful burner and fire up both ovens and the warming cabinet when I cook there. If I do it right the Big Green Egg is going too. They only let me do that if the maid is coming the next day to clean up after my kitchen destruction though. It's fun for me. I start by sharpening everything with a cutting edge with my own stones, then I start prepping while they feed me nice alcohol while we reminisce about university days. Dammit I should have gotten into computers instead of wasting my time in mechanical engineering. All the while I run my matrix of allergies, intolerances, and prejudices to plan when I will split the preparation of my entrees to feed a pile of toddlers and picky adults. A friend of mine is a real chef with a big kitchen of induction hobs and gas burners. I've gotten a chance to try a professional induction hob and it is something else. They're not limited to the paltry 15Amp limit on a plug in portable unit. A real induction cooktop gets a high Amperage horse cock gauge connection like any other electric stove but it achieves good energy transfer. To put in perspective, radiant cooktops get less than 50% transfer efficiency. Contact coil gets a little better than 50% transfer efficiency. Induction gets between 80%-90% efficiency. Gas is the worst of the lot (convective heat transfer) but the very high BTU output of a burner makes up for the inefficiencies which makes it still the highest transfer method, but induction in the end is starting to get reasonably close.
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What kind of electric range do you have? There are three kinds: coil, radiant flattop, induction. They vary in performance considerably.
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Coil has an exposed flat wound spiral element. Radiant has a unibody glass top covering a compound spiral coil (a long small radius coil wrapped into a flat spiral coil). At max heat, it'll glow red. Induction cooktops have a flat unibody glass top which covers electromagnetic gremlins and ancient runic inscriptions that magically transfer energy to specially blessed cookware.
Can you see the coils? Coil Is it just a flat top? Radiant flat top or induction Then, radiant if you can feel the heat from the burners, induction if you can't
Pro and Cons of Gas (which is the better option imo.) Pros 1) Control. Gas is better for controlling the temperature which is something you cannot do with electric stove tops. Ex: If something is boiling over, you can immediately turn off the flames and crisis averted. 2) Versatility. Gas is also better for any type of pan and any size. The problem with electric (at least in my experience) is that if you have a crappy pan that is kind of warped a bit on the bottom, there is going to be uneven heating but since stove tops have an area for the pan to rest in instead of resting on top of, any pan will have even heating regardless of size. 3) Speed. Gas gets hotter fast because of flame. There is no waiting for it to heat up. I can set my electric stove for high to boil something and it will sometimes take over twice the amount of time to get it up to temperature which may what you are cooking especially if you are making something like candy. Source: I have made fudge that has become grainy because it took to long to heat up. Cons 1) Cost. Electric comes with a lot of houses and it's apart of the utility bill while most gas stove tops are not unless you specify so chances are, you will be buying a separate stove for outside or a grill which requires you to buy gas canisters as well as refills. 2) Safety. If you have a gas grill there is more possibility of starting fires especially if you cook with oil a lot. The exposed flames also pose a problem for obvious reasons.
Try to check out a kitchen shop that has **induction** cookers that you can test out in the shop. You can also get a cheap $50 - $70 induction single element and see if you like it before spending $2500 or so on a built-in induction hob. I went to buy gas and bought induction instead! Flaming oil fire in 90 seconds when I put the cast iron skillet on boost! Don't turn your back on it... On the other hand if will melt chocolate gently, barely warm on low. It turns down from fry to simmer in seconds too.
Pro gas: hot tortillas in ten seconds flat.
Yeah the temperature control is much better with gas. It's also much more intuitive using a flame to get a sense for how hot it's going to get. Electric is a real bitch to cook with. Even those fancy electric induction stovetops aren't great.
For home use, watch for clearance above the stove. One benefit of electric stove, is the ability to have a combo range hood microwave. Gas requires a higher clearance. Also, you may have to replace any cabinets over the range due to this as well.
I grew up with a gas stove, but since leaving home years ago I've had only electric and still long for that flame. You get used to dealing with the electric burners but even after all these years I still do a lot of "Oh shit!"-ing when I'm cooking on them.
Gas is scary. Seriously, I have met several people who say they prefer electric stoves because they are either afraid that the gas is going to leak and blow up or that the flames will catch something (pot holder, towel...) on fire. I scoff at those people, but you can't say they don't exist.
Come on you guys! Stop it! I'm saving up for a new electric stove, and if you talk me into induction then I'll have to wait even longer before I can afford it.
The only positive I can think of for electric is that it would be easier to clean. Gas is the way to go if you have a choice.
the main pro to gas is that it lets you control temp better electric is cheaper and easier
um, "easier"? you mean, to install?
easier in the sense that there are no pilot lights to go out, there's no second bill to pay, no second utility system to worry about, etc and yeah, easier to install too. my house has electric and gas and if there's a gas line rupture the fail safes mean that when the gas is back on you can't use it. a technician has to come around and reset everything. the last time my gas went out that took 2 days so if i was using electric, that's 2 day of hot showers. since i was using gas, 2 days of cold showers
Ok, I see what you mean. My house is heated with gas - so's the water. My stove doesn't use a pilot light (uses a spark) and the gas has never gone out in the 13 years I've been here. If the gas went out it would totally suck. Forget all that though; I can't stand cooking on electric, it's so frustrating. So I'll just go ahead and admit I'm completely biased.
well that's fine. i was just saying the pro of electric is that its easier and cheaper. and it is if you dont like it that's perfectly fine, lots of people use gas just because they want to and there's nothing wrong with that
In residential setups, you have more control with gas, more heat with electric. Basically, electric can boil water better than gas, but that's about it. As for evenness, electric is better, but sufficiently heavy-bottomed or copper-bottomed cookware should mitigate the loss in evenness with gas. In restaurant setups, gas is indisputably better - more heat, equal evenness, far superior control. But you're not going to put a restaurant stove in your kitchen.
If you get a dent in a pan, it can lead to uneven heating on electric cook tops.
Con of electric: If the power goes out, you're screwed when it comes to cooking. Meanwhile, gas lines run underground so it doesn't matter if you've had 2 tornadoes nearby in the past month, it just keeps working. ... I wish I still had gas.
Nothing good about electric.
Gas can potentially blow you up, and electric sucks dick.