5 ms·

A relative is a professional-ish cook; not a chef, but she writes Italian cook books and runs cooking classes from her home kitchen. She utterly loves her induc

A relative is a professional-ish cook; not a chef, but she writes Italian cook books and runs cooking classes from her home kitchen. She utterly loves her induction stove and finds it perfect for cooking Italian dishes.

Wistar 5y ago
I have a fairly high-end gas cooktop, dual electric ovens and a frickin' amazing Breville/PolyScience Control Freak induction burner. The Control Freak is considerably more precise than the gas cooktop. I have increasingly been using it in place of my sous vide setup, and the results have been excellent. I am a fan. Right now, I wouldn't willingly give up any of them but, if I had to, I would cede the gas cooktop for the Breville induction burner, or, rather, several of them, or, better yet, a multi-burner induction cooktop of Breville quality. The two biggest issues would be: • Certain favorite pans of mine are not induction friendly, and… • The extra electrical circuits that would need to be added as the Breville is power hungry What I wouldn't give up are the electric ovens. https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/commercial/cmc850.html https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/commercial/cmc850.ht...
Clewza313 5y ago
Good for her, but there's more to cuisine than Italian. Cantonese cooking in particular often requires wok hei, which in turn requires extreme temperatures/open flame, and rounded bottom woks don't work with flat induction cookers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Wok_hei https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Wok_hei
- kybishop 5y ago
  This feels like saying no because of one very specific use case. I use a flat bottom wok on my electric stove almost every day. Adapt and you'll be fine.
- kibwen 5y ago
  Induction cooktops are wildly popular in China, perhaps more so than anywhere else in the world. This isn't to say that cooking with gas/open flame isn't also wildly popular, but the difficulty of using a wok with induction hasn't been an obstacle to adoption there. It helps that by no means do you need to take an all-or-nothing stance here: standalone countertop induction plates are effective and cheap (and far safer than the traditional hot plates that they resemble).
  - emodendroket 5y ago
    A typical home gas stove isn't even that good for wok cooking in the first place. I mean yeah it will work, of course, but it's nowhere near ideal. It's a little ridiculous that this thing it's not even that good at is the go-to defense of the gas stove. It's almost like if people who didn't like EVs always brought up cooking food on your engine.
    - deadfoxygrandpa 5y ago
      1. typical home gas stoves in china are far more powerful than normally found in western home kitchens. they're closer to what you'd find in a restaurant kitchen in the west 2. little portable induction cookers are common in china but most people aren't doing stir fries on them. people use them for hot pot at home, and maybe to boil or steam things. they're not the primary cooktop of choice. also something that ties into all this is that eating out is vastly cheaper and more affordable in chinese cities, and even low wage earners in cities might do it for literally every normal meal. those restaurants aren't cooking on induction.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- nanomonkey 5y ago
  There are quite a few induction stoves made specifically for dome bottom woks. They heat up incredibly fast, and can be lifted up out of the field and used pretty much exactly like a gas stove.
- PetitPrince 5y ago
  You can approximate wok hei with a cooking blow torch, as theorized/discovered by Kenji Lopez-Alt (summary write-up / experimentation by one of his colleague here : https://www.seriouseats.com/hei-now-youre-a-wok-star-a-fiery-hack-for-stir-frying-at-home https://www.seriouseats.com/hei-now-youre-a-wok-star-a-fiery... )
- minetest2048 5y ago
  Induction wok burners are a thing, here is a comparison between a 5000W induction wok burner and a gas wok burner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVDSdW-dPU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVDSdW-dPU (look at the description for english description) If you trust their results, induction burners produces much less waste heat compared to gas burners, which makes home indoor Chinese food cooking more feasible

Wistar 5y ago

I have a fairly high-end gas cooktop, dual electric ovens and a frickin' amazing Breville/PolyScience Control Freak induction burner. The Control Freak is considerably more precise than the gas cooktop. I have increasingly been using it in place of my sous vide setup, and the results have been excellent. I am a fan. Right now, I wouldn't willingly give up any of them but, if I had to, I would cede the gas cooktop for the Breville induction burner, or, rather, several of them, or, better yet, a multi-burner induction cooktop of Breville quality. The two biggest issues would be: • Certain favorite pans of mine are not induction friendly, and… • The extra electrical circuits that would need to be added as the Breville is power hungry What I wouldn't give up are the electric ovens. https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/commercial/cmc850.html https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/commercial/cmc850.ht...

Clewza313 5y ago

Good for her, but there's more to cuisine than Italian. Cantonese cooking in particular often requires wok hei, which in turn requires extreme temperatures/open flame, and rounded bottom woks don't work with flat induction cookers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Wok_hei https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Wok_hei

kybishop 5y ago
This feels like saying no because of one very specific use case. I use a flat bottom wok on my electric stove almost every day. Adapt and you'll be fine.
kibwen 5y ago
Induction cooktops are wildly popular in China, perhaps more so than anywhere else in the world. This isn't to say that cooking with gas/open flame isn't also wildly popular, but the difficulty of using a wok with induction hasn't been an obstacle to adoption there. It helps that by no means do you need to take an all-or-nothing stance here: standalone countertop induction plates are effective and cheap (and far safer than the traditional hot plates that they resemble).
- emodendroket 5y ago
  A typical home gas stove isn't even that good for wok cooking in the first place. I mean yeah it will work, of course, but it's nowhere near ideal. It's a little ridiculous that this thing it's not even that good at is the go-to defense of the gas stove. It's almost like if people who didn't like EVs always brought up cooking food on your engine.
  - deadfoxygrandpa 5y ago
    1. typical home gas stoves in china are far more powerful than normally found in western home kitchens. they're closer to what you'd find in a restaurant kitchen in the west 2. little portable induction cookers are common in china but most people aren't doing stir fries on them. people use them for hot pot at home, and maybe to boil or steam things. they're not the primary cooktop of choice. also something that ties into all this is that eating out is vastly cheaper and more affordable in chinese cities, and even low wage earners in cities might do it for literally every normal meal. those restaurants aren't cooking on induction.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
nanomonkey 5y ago
There are quite a few induction stoves made specifically for dome bottom woks. They heat up incredibly fast, and can be lifted up out of the field and used pretty much exactly like a gas stove.
PetitPrince 5y ago
You can approximate wok hei with a cooking blow torch, as theorized/discovered by Kenji Lopez-Alt (summary write-up / experimentation by one of his colleague here : https://www.seriouseats.com/hei-now-youre-a-wok-star-a-fiery-hack-for-stir-frying-at-home https://www.seriouseats.com/hei-now-youre-a-wok-star-a-fiery... )
minetest2048 5y ago
Induction wok burners are a thing, here is a comparison between a 5000W induction wok burner and a gas wok burner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVDSdW-dPU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVDSdW-dPU (look at the description for english description) If you trust their results, induction burners produces much less waste heat compared to gas burners, which makes home indoor Chinese food cooking more feasible