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For me, it is impossible to cook properly on anything but a well controlled flame. Humans have used fire for millennia to cook our food. Making the modern, reas
by macinjosh 6y ago
For me, it is impossible to cook properly on anything but a well controlled flame. Humans have used fire for millennia to cook our food. Making the modern, reasonable version of this illegal is an oppressive idea. Why should the restaurant industry be allowed to continue to use gas but I can't use it at home to make my own meals? Quit trying to control everyone.
- cma 6y agoThis measure may not be the right thing, but isn't it also controlling in a different way to change the composition of other's atmospheric gases in a harmful way? Just because it is diffuse responsibility doesn't mean it is less controlling in aggregate.
- whiddershins 6y agoAffecting is a word that is distinct from controlling, I think the concepts have a relationship but aren’t the same.
- macinjosh 6y agoWe all exhale CO2? Is your breath controlling me!??
- kneel 6y agoThat's a great point, we should attempt to limit respiration.
- macinjosh 6y agoYou first ;)
- cma 6y agoLess than 1% of emissions are from breath, which we can all agree is necessary and not currently above the CO2 re-absorption rate. Here we are talking about achieving a more even Malliard reaction on flapjacks. Cooking may not be significant enough to worry about first either, I don't know, but it is a form of control (free choice of more evenly browned flapjacks for no choice of of someone else facing faster timeframe to be flooded out of their nation or city).
- dna_polymerase 6y ago> Humans have used fire for millennia to cook our food Yeah, sure but certainly not from a gas flame.
- jtms 6y agoCool - let me just burn oak or pine everyday in my kitchen that sounds like a GREAT idea
- klyrs 6y agoRight. And why did we end that time-honored tradition? Soot pollution, and deforestation. In other words, the environmental impact of those fuels.
- mlyle 6y agoA natural gas flame is much better for air quality than any other common combustion-based heat source (like, sure, hydrogen would be a bit better, but...).
- dna_polymerase 6y agoNot arguing the air quality, just wanted to point out how stupid it is to argue for something just because we did it for thousands of years.
- klyrs 6y ago> Why should the restaurant industry be allowed to continue to use gas but I can't use it at home to make my own meals? Simply put, they shouldn't. But they have more money and thus more political sway to get carve-outs.
- cycrutchfield 6y agoHave you ever used an induction cooktop? Personally, it seems far superior to a gas stove
- davio 6y agoReminds me of this: https://www.fastcompany.com/90313508/why-top-restaurants-are-getting-rid-of-stoves-and-why-you-might-too https://www.fastcompany.com/90313508/why-top-restaurants-are...
- hbosch 6y agoFunny that your comment is downvoted. Induction is both safer, more efficient, and easier to control. I can dial my stovetop into an exact temperature, and a pot of water boils under a minute.
- drewg123 6y agoI have a builder-grade gas stove, and my gf moved into a new place with a fancy new high-end Bosch induction cooktop. I cook on both regularly. The induction stove is far slower to heat up, and very finicky to use (will sometimes shut off). Not to mention that my gf had to get mostly new pots and pans to use the induction, since most of her existing pots and pans were not magnetic. Also, the gas stove will continue to work when the power is out. All I have to do is light it with a match, but the induction cooktop will be out of commission as long as the power is out. We regularly have electric outages, but I don't remember ever having a gas outage.
- warent 6y agoGive me a break. Humans have not used natural gas for millennia to cook. If this was truly about sticking to your roots, you'd be cooking over a woodburning stove and this wouldn't be an argument. But you're not, because this is about something else. If it was literally "impossible" then you probably have some impairment that prevents you from caring for yourself. But "Impossible" here doesn't mean its literal definition, right? It roughly translates to something like "too different from my old routine for me to put forth any energy toward adapting in the name of public health and the environment." This has to he the most bogus and first-world complaint for people to throw a fit over having to cook with electricity. EDIT: fireplace->stove
- renewiltord 6y agoWood burning devices are already banned in new construction.
- jzoch 6y agoWhich proves his point - its not as life-ending as the top level OP made it sound. I hate cooking on electric stoves but lets not pretend its akin to losing a leg.
- macinjosh 6y ago> lets not pretend its akin to losing a leg No one compared it to that or anything like that.
- silon42 6y agoOnly in cities/larger towns I hope... better put some of that fuel to use before it burns your house down.
- warent 6y agoIf wood burning stoves are illegal to install on private property away from cities, that's something I would agree is a problem. As far as I know though it is legal.
- kleiba 6y agoPractice makes perfect. Electric stoves are in wide-spread uses all around the world. You're right that they require a different technique but I'm sure that you, too, would be able to master it.
- mlyle 6y agoOrdinary electric stoves are slow. I came from resistive heat to gas, and gas is way, way, way better in every way. Induction cooktops largely fix this, though.
- kleiba 6y agoObviously they're not better in every way, that's the whole point of the article. When it comes to the cooking performance, though, have I claimed otherwise? All I said was that it is absolutely possible to prepare your meals with electric, as proofed by millions of people using them. They're different, of course, but absolutely usable.
- hyko 6y agoHydrogen? Obviously there are some cooking techniques that require flames, but heat is ultimately fungible when it comes to pans etc.
- jedimastert 6y agoI don't generally find "we've always done it this way" or "everyone else is doing it, why can't I?" to useful arguments.
- watertom 6y agoInduction works better than gas. Commercial kitchens have been switching to induction because the new units can maintain precise temperature, it also allows for much cooler kitchens, it’s easier to clean, and it gives them flexibility for staffing options, because the precise maintainable temperature control some cooking methods become almost foolproof.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- macinjosh 6y agoIt is also way more expensive to get into and requires the use of certain types of pans which increases cost more.
- turtlebits 6y agoYou can get a portable induction cooktop for under $50. My parents have 2 Ikea units which they often use instead of their Viking stove. (They place them on top of the stove so they can use the hood). Pans are the same price as regular cookware, you just need to make sure it's compatible.
- Someone1234 6y ago> requires the use of certain types of pans which increases cost more. Really, no. Walmart's "own brand" stainless steel pans that start at under $10 work fine. The pans it doesn't work with are actually rare/expensive (pure aluminum/pure copper, and certain high-end stainless steel that are now largely discontinued). People repeat this special pan thing often (multiple times in this thread) but I don't know where this idea came from. The most common/popular pans for the last fifty years work with induction, and cheap ones are MORE likely to work.
- klyrs 6y agoThere's a ton of crappy teflon&aluminum cookware out there. It's not that you need a special pan, but nor can you use just any old pan. FWIW, I've been cooking electric my whole life, and using induction or gas is annoying to me (though I've lived a couple years in apartments with either)
- cactus2093 6y agoGas use in homes goes way beyond the stove though. I just moved into a newly renovated house, it has a brand new gas stove which is amazing. But it also has a gas furnace, gas water heater, and a brand new gas washer/dryer. No idea why they'd install a brand new gas dryer in this day and age - likely the power bill is a little cheaper from it (which is itself a problem), but I plan to install solar panels in the not too distant future like many in my neighborhood already have in which case the gas version definitely becomes more expensive. Plus even for the stove, it has an attached gas oven, which doesn't really bring me any benefit except maybe a marginally faster pre-heat time that I can live without. It's even a net negative to me because now if I want to do any kind of slow cook in the oven I need to worry about ventilation and it's hard for it to hold a steady low temperature. Heck even for the stove, I wish it had half electric burners and half gas, if I'm doing some slower process like making a stock or chili or something I'd rather use electric to again avoid the fumes. So despite the fact that I love being able to saute over a flame now, I'd definitely support a tax that makes using gas much more expensive. A full-on ban would be extreme, I'd agree with you that's overly aggressive control, especially until electric burners get better. But ideally I could choose and in places where I actually get a lot of value from it I could pay the higher price to offset my environmental impact, but in all the other uses it would make more economical sense to avoid it so appliance makers, construction companies, etc would be incentivized to drastically reduce the use of gas.
- onecommentman 6y agoGas dryers last longer and are easier to maintain, in my experience. Same with gas stoves and ovens. Slow cooking is better done in an electric slow cooker, electric pressure cookers are great. NG v. Solar is a non-obvious environmental question to ask. If you are posting from CA (the reflexive support for an additional tax suggests Pacific coast at least), you have the sort of folks who can answer that in your own backyard, LLBL. Lawrence Berkeley Labs. Check their website and publications.
- etrautmann 6y agoThis is not a good argument. There are plenty of advantages to cooking on electric induction stoves and most people can adjust their preferences to use a new and improved tool. Rapid temperature control, even heat distribution, with a bonus of being better for the environment (assuming renewable energy is used).