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That might be a bit of propaganda from the gas industry over the last 50 years. I heard similar but when i dug into it appeared to be bunk… i cook on electric n

• ska 3y ago
  > That might be a bit of propaganda Not really, there are a number of techniques that are harder (some not possible) on electric which has less control and high latency. But ... it only matters if you are going to use such techniques.
  • wharvle 3y ago
    I can’t even cook scrambled eggs well on resistive electric. I mean, I can, but they won’t come out as good and there’s a much higher likelihood I’ll ruin them. Delicate sauces? Getting a custard to come together just right? Maybe some people can, but me, forget about it. This is basic stuff, too, I don’t even know how to do anything fancy. I know that when I finally tried gas it was like “oh, I can cook now!” Toasting flatbread and tortillas directly on the burners is handy. IDK if I can do any of that on induction. I’ve only seen those in-person at the store and at one airbnb. We have a working gas stove and induction’s expensive, so I doubt I’ll own one for another decade or so, at least.
    • RetpolineDrama 3y ago
      Induction is faster, more precise, more efficient/green, safer, and most importantly not spewing toxic crap into your kitchen/living room where you presumably spend time with your family/children. Even with an externally-vented vent hood (most dump back into the room) + make up air system (that most do not have) gas ranges still contaminate your kitchen.
  • bsder 3y ago
    On old school electric. Induction is way better for control and latency than gas. The only issue is if you need to genuinely ignite something (like in wok cooking--but, then, get a blowtorch--if it's good enough for J. Kenji Lopez-Alt it's good enough for you). One real problem is that the standalone induction burners are only 110V in the US and that hamstrings them dramatically. Induction cooktops, however, do not suffer from that issue as they will be wired into 208/220V.
    • ska 3y ago
      Agree induction is pretty great, although it limits cookware and still doesn't work for all techniques (blowtorch doesn't replace everything). And you are right that the 110V are underpowered. The ones I've used are less granular than gas (which is essentially continuous) and latency is similar. From what I've seen europe is still way ahead on induction offerings, but it seems to be getting better. I'd probably lean towards induction these days because the particulates from gas are obviously a problem and not easily dealt with - but I won't pretend induction is a 100% drop in replacement/improvement.
      • wharvle 3y ago
        Induction’s still pricey, too. The low end of gas ranges is low-priced, indeed. And ranges (can) last a long time, so old-school electric is gonna be the “normal” electric range for many years yet, I expect. Just checked Lowes. Cheapest induction range, $999. Four gas options are $499 or lower, four resistive electrics $499 or lower.
        • ska 3y ago
          True. Even Ikea's cheapest seems to be about 800.
      • bsder 3y ago
        > The ones I've used are less granular than gas (which is essentially continuous) and latency is similar. However, I find that gas has no granularity at the lowest settings. Induction has like 4 or 5 settings below the minimum setting of gas. This is really great for melting or softening things. Maybe this is different on a professional gas stove, but I've never used one of those.
  • thsksbd 3y ago
    Wok is impossible on electric. One technique to recover lost heating control though is to place the pot partially on the element. You need a flat top electric and high quality cookware for that, but it works in a pinch
• vsskanth 3y ago
  I don't know about your specific circumstances but for Indian cooking, gas is just miles ahead. We have electric at home, It just takes forever to cook anything and it's hard to control the heat. Our friends with gas cooktops get done in half the time.
  • NewJazz 3y ago
    Are you using an induction stovetop?
    • vsskanth 3y ago
      No. Just plain electric.
      • NewJazz 3y ago
        OK. That is indeed a sucky experience. The only thing induction doesn't do well is cooking with things like woks, where you have a curved surface that you want to heat evenly.
        • legitster 3y ago
          Or any large pot or pan. Gas heat distributes heat nicely across the bottom and sides of any size pot you put on it. Even rectangular pans and dishes. Even an old school electric is better in this regard than an induction top. If you lay a big cast iron pan across your induction top (which you wouldn't want to to begin with) it will literally only heat up the molecules directly above your biggest burner. So while an induction is superior in 80% of cases, you still ultimately get more versatility out of gas.
          • RetpolineDrama 3y ago
            >Gas heat distributes heat nicely across the bottom and sides of any size pot you put on it. And leaded gasoline made poorly-dimensioned combustion chambers run better/not knock. We still banned it for good reasons.
• encoderer 3y ago
  Cooking food over an open flame has been the standard since prehistoric times. Possibly the idea that a hot electric coil is just as good is the propaganda?
  • Incipient 3y ago
    A hot electric coil IS true garbage, it's inefficient and slow (I have one of these at home). When we say electric here, we mean induction. Personally I'm a fan of cooking with gas. The inability to lift and move the pan on induction I don't like, and the glass tops they come with I find far too delicate for my liking.
• legitster 3y ago
  > That might be a bit of propaganda from the gas industry over the last 50 years What a crazy conspiracy theory. It assumes electric companies and appliance makers do no marketing of their own. Gas cooking is obviously a more luxurious experience and anyone who says otherwise has not tried to make a hollandaise sauce on each.
  • TheCoelacanth 3y ago
    I've never had any trouble making hollandaise on an electric range.
  • RetpolineDrama 3y ago
    >Gas cooking is obviously a more luxurious experience Maybe for the 60+ boomer crowd, for everyone else Induction is way cooler than gas.
  • JohnFen 3y ago
    > Gas cooking is obviously a more luxurious experience and anyone who says otherwise has not tried to make a hollandaise sauce on each. I've made hollandaise and other delicate sauces on both. In my book, they're both perfectly fine. Excluding induction (which I have struggles with), I wouldn't call either better than the other.
  • Incipient 3y ago
    Don't you make a hollandaise sauce with a double boiler type approach? So shouldn't that really make the heat source even less relevant? As you lift the inner bowl to adjust cooking temp?
• thsksbd 3y ago
  I grew up on electric, and Im looking to switch from my current gas to induction. Mostly for safety reasons - I don't like open flames. So Im about as biased against gas as possible. Electric heating elements suck. They take an appreciable time to warm up, they stay warm long after forcing the cook to adjust accordingly. Also, only gas can really work with woks, but I don't use woks so that's a non issue. If the power is out (which happens a lit in my corner of the USA) electric is MIA. Every electric heating element (except induction) is annoying to clean. Finally, people like gas. Who made us better that we are to tell them that they've been brainwashed by evil corporations? I imagine people have at one point used electric, Americans do move a lot, and they just done like it! (Induction rocks though)
  • fatbird 3y ago
    We replaced our electric with induction instead of gas, which my wife much prefers to cook on. One of my best arguments against gas was that every gas stovetop available has a heavy iron framework over the flame to hold pots, and it's a pain to clean under them.
    • legitster 3y ago
      I really like the heavy grates though. Some of my recipes require me to really go to town on heavy cast iron pots and pans. Busting a glass top is a real bummer. In such cases it's almost better to have the old-school electric burners (there's a reason apartments almost never have a "nice" glass range).
      • Kirby64 3y ago
        Are you… dropping cast iron cookware on the stove? I don’t know any recipe that would require some movement that would damage a glass cooktop. Cast iron cookware seems to scratch glass tops over time, but that doesn’t seem to crack or damage them (unless you drop something on it, of course).
        • legitster 3y ago
• snapplebobapple 3y ago
  As someone who cooks quite a lot, it's not propaganda. Induction has 2 minor/moderate annoyances vs gas: It gets low temp by varying the time the burner is on full and heating diminishes rapidly if the pan isn't in close contact with the element. The former can be super annoying in some situations (i.e. making a sauce) as the sauce boils for a second, then gets too cold non stop. The latter can be a big problem if your pans warp even a bit (i.e. most non cast iron pans) or if you are basting. That being said, I currently cook on induction at home because the annoyances above have work arounds/mitigations and the cleanup/ lack of heating the room of induction vs gas is worth more to me than not being annoyed sometimes. I don't like the pressure to get rid of this stuff, it should be individual choice depending on your own personal situation.
  • RetpolineDrama 3y ago
    >it should be individual choice depending on your own personal situation. Your average individual is completely unequipped to make an informed decision on this topic. They have no idea their crappy gas stove is spewing high volumes of carcinogens and other nasty things into their kitchen. We do the same thing for toys, my wife should be able to buy my child a toy at the store without having to bring an XRF gun to look for lead paint. Everything in the store should be safe by default. If you want to make a difference _at scale_ that's how you do it.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • snapplebobapple 3y ago
      So, either your comparison is false equivalence or lead is way safer than it has been made out to be and probably deserves less restriction, because gas ranges are not default unsafe.
      • RetpolineDrama 3y ago
        >because gas ranges are not default unsafe. They are in fact unsafe by default in basically every metric. In a brand new one spews toxic byproducts into your home, which for most people lacks the ventilation to remove it. It also comes with the fun side effect of blowing up dozens of houses per year, being environmentally wasteful, and being inferior to induction for cooking.