A while ago, someone pointed out that you can get an induction burner from IKEA for around $70 i’ve been induction curious, since i’ve never tried one before, so i bought one.
Wow.
So, with all the discussion about induction and people coming for your stoves, no one bothered to explain to me the mechanics. They’re… not what you think. i’ve been cooking with a gas stove for decades, and this is very different.
Allow me to try and best explain what’s going on.
Let’s say you have a resistive electric cooktop. Electricity goes in, then heats up the coil using resistance to the point where it generates radiative heat. That heat, depending on the make and style, then either gets passed up into the cooking surface or contact heats the pot. Since it’s radiative, heat goes in all directions so only a percentage of the heat goes into the cooking vessel.
Gas works pretty much the same way, only more so. It combusts producing heat that is then dumped into whatever happens to be near by. Since convection is a thing, most goes up into the vessel.
It’s important to note that the heat in both of these cases can go around the vessel. Gas is far worse at this than electric, and anyone who’s cooked with gas will tell you to mind the flame so that you’re not making the pot handles too hot.
Induction doesn’t do any of that. Induction produces heat in the vessel directly via fun electromagnetic forces. This means that the wattage you ask for, goes into the vessel with very little being wasted. That’s absolutely not the case for resistive electric and gas.
When i boiled water using a pot i’ve used hundreds of times in the past, the handles were cool. Possibly for the very first time in that pot’s lifetime. As a fun bonus, the surface of the cooker cooled rapidly once the pot was removed because it was not the source of heat.
i’m interested in trying it with a few other cooking styles, but i’m going to guess that it’ll do just fine.
i am now very sad that induction cooktops were crap when i redid my kitchen 10+ years ago. Joe can absolutely come for my gas stove.
Much like can openers, things have absolutely improved.
