Our family has already been using an induction cooktop for cooking food for a long time. During this period, I have entirely made up my mind about this modern cooker. First of all, we are delighted with our choice. In our youth, we used a gas cooker; then for several years, we cooked on an electric one. I have something to compare it with and to convince those people who doubt.
There is no gas in our new house, that is why during the process of housing we were choosing an electric cooker only, namely, modern glass-ceramics. Having looked through different reviews, we decided to buy an ultramodern induction cooktop. And we have never regretted it.
I am not going to explain the principles of the induction cooktop working; you may take a look at unique web sites for that. Ordinary housewives would hardly want to understand the whole process thoroughly. The main point is that there is no direct heating of the cooktop surface. Under the glass-ceramic surface, there is an inductance coil which produces electromagnetic vibrations within a heavy bottom of cookware fixed on the cooktop, that is why the cookware is heated up. Taking into account the fact that only the cookware is heated up (on a gas burner cap, however, as well), the heat loss is minimum. To sum it up, the first advantage of an induction cooktop is saving energy.
Cooking Food: Are Induction Cooktops Good?
Below I am going to specify several more advantages of cooking food on an induction cooktop.
As in the case with a gas cooker, the degree of heating can be regulated smoothly and be changed immediately. Induction cooktops include more than 10 discrete levels of temperature – from keeping food warm to violent gassing. Тhe temperature of heating can be changed by means of a special magnet handle rotation. And it turns immediately because we control the heating of the cookware bottom.
Moment liquid boiling. There is a special option called Booster when one of the burner caps receives additional energy from the neighboring one. Along with this, we achieve strong heating of the cookware bottom. This regulation is perfect for quick liquid boiling, for example, during the boiling of pasta, ravioli, potatoes, or stock. We quickly boil water and immediately reduce the heating for the water to boil in ordinary conditions. The speed of water boiling in such a condition is almost the same as in an electric kettle. Along with this, the time of boiling on a gas cooker is much longer.
Clock timer. Many conventional gas cookers and ovens have this option. It is very convenient. The easiest example is making hard-boiled eggs. You put eggs into a small pot, boil them (on a quick regulation Booster), reduce the heating, and fix the time limit for 10 minutes. At the end of the fixed time limit, there will be an audio signal, and the heating will be stopped automatically. Similarly, you can cook pasta and those dishes which have well-known cooking times.
Manageability. Considering that the induction cooktop surface is heated up only from hot cookware, the food which can fall out of the cookware accidentally does not burn. You can easily towel a cooktop off.
Safety. As it is outlined above, during the cooking on an induction cooktop, the surface is not heated up, but the cookware, that is why the surface itself is not red-hot. Part of the heat is passed to the surface anyway, advertising materials about the fact that the surface is cold are not true, sometimes the surface can be hot. Yet not so hot as in the case with the ordinary glass-ceramics. The process of cooling down is also quicker; that is why the probability of burning your fingers by touching the surface accidentally is much smaller.
Automatic switching off. Burner caps are switched off automatically in case you remove the cookware from an induction cooktop. If you do not regulate the heat for some time, a burner cap is switched off automatically as well. During a run to capacity, the shutdown happens in about one hour, during the poor heating it’s 10 minutes. In other words, it is possible that you can boil water to cook rice. Then you need to go out urgently, and you have forgotten the pan with boiling water on an induction cooktop. Well, at most after one hour, the cooktop is switched off automatically. Such safety is used in the induction cooktop working. However, it is worth mentioning that this can also be a disadvantage. For example, you need to boil beef legs for jelly. You have achieved permanent boiling during the minimal heating, and now you want to keep boiling the stock for several hours. In that case, if you do not regulate the power occasionally and mark your presence in the kitchen by that, the induction cooktop will switch off earlier.
Now about the cons and disadvantages of induction cooktops, no way without them. To tell the truth, it is hard to call some of these items disadvantages. But they kind of cannot be listed as advantages either.
Special cookware. Not every cookware will work on induction cooktops. For induction cooktops, it is suitable to use the cookware with ferromagnetic characteristics, namely, metallic magnetic one. Old aluminum, copper, and glass cookware you can gift to your friends and relatives or throw away. Old enameled pans are suitable as well, but they have a thin impractical bottom, and, if you remember, a thick bottom is the most important part of the induction cooktop cookware because it heats up and passes the heat to food better. You can use an enameled pan in the beginning and then replace it with modern ones. Most of the producers of the cookware for induction cooktops mark it with a special symbol. Our advice is not to hold onto the old cookware, to spend money on a new one and get a lot of pleasure from cooking.
12 centimeters. The heating of the cookware less than 12 centimeters in diameter is not possible. It is connected with the fact that metallic flatware (knife, fork, and spoon) can accidentally turn out to be on the induction cooktop surface. Producers protect themselves from careless housewives in such an easy manner which the lovers of making coffee in coffee pots airways suffer from. A small coffee pot will not be heated upon such a surface.
Specific recipes. Do not be afraid; specificity is only the usage of great cookware for the cooking of some dishes. For example, you will not be able to conserve some jam in a copper or some other non-stick pan on the induction cooktop surface.
Reparation and service. Such a cooktop is the complex modern equipment, that is why it is practically impossible to repair it independently. But fortunately, the number of workshops which can repair an induction cooktop is on the rise.
Damage. There is a popular belief that magnet fields during the process of the induction cooktop working can harm our organism. The same rumors exist about microwave ovens. Also, there is emission from a computer monitor or a TV. If we take it into account, it means that other electric appliances are not without flaws. To believe the rumors or not is a personal matter of each individual. Or you can use it and get a lot of pleasure. Anyhow, they have internationally recognized producers of household appliances release this device.
Summary. You get a lot of pleasure from cooking on an induction cooktop every day. And you can avoid inconveniences quickly by buying modern cookware and a coffee machine (for coffee lovers) all at once.
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