Preference of Gas or Electric ranges?

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Yesterday the Salton portable induction cooktop I ordered arrived. I must say that I am very impressed with induction cooking! Of course I had to try it out to see how long it would take to bring the pot of water I cook spaghetti in to a boil - just over 2 minutes. I can select the 8 heat settings either by watts (300-1800) or temperature (F or C). When turned on it defaults to 1400 watts. I changed it to the maximum but found it tripped the circuit breaker on the outlet on the stove even though it is a 15 amp breaker (15aX120V=1800w). It also has a 3 hour timer. My pots are stainless steel so they were induction ready. My skillets are not however so I will go shopping for a small skillet.

Gary

http://www.shop.ca/c/salton-portabl...duction-tester-magnet-SA-SAIC-ID1401-23522431
 
Cast iron skillets

on induction cooktops work really well but as I found out when using a 40 year old one my Mum gave me on my hob DO NOT heat it on HIGH its too much and caused the pan to crack in two, it also goes with a loud bang that made me think at first my hob had cracked but no it was the old skillet.

Austin
 
Very interesting information in this thread.

I was thinking of getting a portable induction burner, but hearing that it interferes with pacemakers (which I am a member of that club nixes that idea.

I have cooked with nothing but gas. I have never had an outside exhaust but I hear they are required now in most states. When I remodel someday, I plan on having an outside exhaust fan installed.
 
Davey, add me to the list of people who love your stove. If I had to make one from scratch it would look much like that.

Also the comments in this thread about gas and staining/air quality/etc were a surprise: both I and my partner, and most of both of our families use gas stoves/ovens, I can't recall a single stained kitchen in anyone's home. WTF.

Again I'll play the trump card in this debate by bringing up the fact that you'd be lucky to find a single $1,000,000+ home for sale with something other than gas on the stovetop. Induction etc have their uses and this is not meant as a swipe at any technology, but nothing so far has replaced flame.
 
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I like a gas range, and I love this one. It has been in service in this house since 1937. Quality brand by Roberts and Mander Stove Company.

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We also own a rental house, and we put a 1972 Frigidaire in service at that house. I used only once, to make cranberry relish and used the "heat minder" burner for that. I was impressed by the way that feature operated. We chose an electric over gas at this house because of fire risk. Sometimes tenants are careless, and we thought an electric would be the best bet.

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Thanks!

Jeff, thanks! If I had been the one redoing my kitchen in circa 1960 I would have had two wall ovens and a cooktop, but that's just me.

Rick, your gas range is charming.
 
Am I cheating if I look at the NUMBERS on my gas burner knobs?

Wonder when they started using them? I remember when there was only Light and Off, or Off, Light and High--In fact, there was a once upon a time when burners just said Off, and before that, nothing! (IN fact, you probably didn't even have to push the knob in...)

I think I just need to get into the habit of looking under the pot or pan and see the FLAME! The marks of a TRUE GAS USER...

What's more, I love just having the flame on the lowest setting (I use a very small "Simmer Burner" my "new" range has) if I want to keep something warm--and I think my gas range--ANY for that matter--seems to give the freedom to do that, while with an electric, there would still be "cooking" going on there...

Seen this done on older gas ranges, w/ regular-sized burners, and sometimes the owners being trustworthy enough to leave it on! (Oh, I never would!)

-- Dave
 
I have had gas stoves my entire life and despised electrics to cook on. My preference. Yes you adjust the heat by the size of the flame instantly, not the dial setting taking forever on electric. I really miss the CP center burners that you could really regulate. I do love an electric oven as it does seem to bake much better. If I ever have another stove, it will be a dual fuel gas top, electric dual ovens. Granted that my gas oven works during a power outage but chances of me using it then are slim to none.
 
Wow, was there any reason to resurrect a thread that was over 3 years old? Usually it's new users that have something to ask or to add, but this time nothing.

In any case, Dave, I wish you good luck using the numbers on your gas knobs.

It might work if you have a lot of luck or a really high end stove if the manufacturers bothered to calibrate the gas valves -- most manufactures of gas valves do not bother to calibrate the valves for the burners, just the thermostats. That is the entire reason why people look at the flames to regulate the heat.

Electric ranges is another story because it's much easier to make switches that are very close to calibrated already, so the variations from switch to switch are small enough that most users will never notice. That's why we can just use the numbers as guides on electric burners.

Oh, and before I lose my sponsorship by the big wigs, here's another vote for induction and so happy to be rid of a gas stove forever. Induction is easier, faster, better, cleaner. Win-win all around.

Cheers!
 
Grew up with a gas range and much prefer them. Had an electric range in my first apartment but hated it. Didn't stay long enough to really get used to it.
I do like the way an electric oven cooks though. I bought a kitchen aid toaster oven that I use most of the time for tasks where I want a nice crust. With a gas oven this is harder to achieve. Most things I used to bake or broil in my gas range I now do in the toaster oven. The only time I use the gas oven is for holiday cooking now.

But as far as cooktop cooking is concerned, it is gas all the way. For all the reasons people like gas cooking for. I think a lot of people have phobias about gas cooking. Let's face it, before any of these modern conveniences we were all cooking with FIRE from the first man and woman. Just as natural as breathing.
 
Okay, in my assessment, maybe there was a time the knob just told you where to turn to LIGHT!

A little vertical line would designate "off", or there simply was a detent--but, really, in this evolution you could write VOLUMES...

I figured if I do a Search that I would find this thread, rather than start a new one, given that my recent point about a preferred method of cooking (or a new-found angle on this) relates to what kind of cooking is preferred, or "which is BETTER?"...

I do believe electric ovens make for better baking, enough that if my toaster oven were big enough or I could do one cake layer at a time I would give it a try--and my own personal experience is a standpoint there...

I have done better--evenly--with an electric oven, so little wonder built-in combos to a great percentage are electric for your cavity of baking & broiling, while the cooktop is a flame, GAS...

I'd sooner experience a gas shut-off (because we were getting new meters) than to have ever experienced a power outage, where I'd needed too manually light a gas burner (and one burner on my range occasionally DOES need a lighter or a match when the spark just won't ignite)...

We'd had a couple where my only concern was bringing all my refrigerated stuff & frozen stuff to my in-laws' because you had a generator, and an extra fridge & a free-standing freezer... (Then retrieved ecvreythting when our juice went back on...)

Another time was an annoying interruption of my 2-Disc Lenny Dee set (can't stand his singing of "Them There Eyes", in lieu of his organ playing, unless I'm in a deep sleep during--played it on a portable player via my Pringles can speaker next to my bed, and woke up during a dream of my wife's court shows; the judge (Mathis or Joe Brown?) squawking!)...

-- Dave
 
As for numbers on gas stove controls, they might not be calibrated...but I wonder if they wouldn't be "close enough" for many people. Also if one uses mostly one burner, the numbers--once memorized--would presumably enough. It wouldn't be calibrated, but the control should, I'd think, stay pretty much the same--#4 today should be pretty much the same as #4 a year ago. (Of course, more ambitious cooks might use more than one burner... But I'm single, live alone, don't do dinner parties. Back when I had a working stove, I tended to use one burner for pretty much everything, and when I used additional burners, they were used for stuff that didn't need much control. The Primary Burner might gently simmer the spaghetti sauce, and some other burner would be on high to boil pasta water.)
 
As for me, pretty much every stove I've used has been electric. My only "gas" stove experience was a propane stove. I don't recall trying anything that would really benefit from gas on that. But I do recall it could be temperamental with pilot lights going out, and the oven was hugely frustrating--it was very easy to burn stuff.

 

At times, I was interested in gas just because it was what was said to be best, and I was a more ambitious cook. That argument has some merit, plus I think the flames are pretty and appeal to my Inner Caveman. But electric seems to work acceptably for what I do.

 

I'm curious, too, about induction...but that's too expensive, even for hotplates, given the nature of my cooking these days.
 
I do believe electric ovens make for better baking, enough that if my toaster oven were big enough or I could do one cake layer at a time I would give it a try

 

I've used toaster ovens heavily for nearly 20 years now. At times--like now--they've even been my only oven. Good toaster ovens seem to get the job done quite nicely--although I'm not doing anything horribly ambitious. But I have baked lots of loaves of bread, muffins, biscuits, etc. At times, I had a big oven available...but still went with the toaster oven. I figured it probably heated up faster, and might use less energy.

 

It helps, of course, that I'm alone, and typically bake small quantities of something (e.g., one loaf of bread). But even if I were cooking for another person or two (as was once regularly the case), a toaster oven would be good enough for a lot of baking (e.g., one loaf of quick bread, or a few muffins to go with dinner).
 
The house I live in has a Kenmore electric stove. The house I live in used to be all electric at one point looking at the braker panel, but the previous owners decided to get natural gas, but they kept the stove electric. One thing that is good about gas stoves is the cook top can be used when the power is out.
 
That is what is ideal about gas. In the event you were cooking something when the power goes out, at least you can finish stove top cooking. Also I use the burners sometimes as an heat source in cold winters but not often.
 
Like I said the first power outage, the whole block/street/city was blacked out--and while my in-laws had a generator & resided nearby... So my concern was getting my perishables somewhere safely, no matter how neat that stove top would have been to have manually lit--I mean what was there, among a flashlight and all those candles I had lit, what was there I wanted to, or had to cook or could eat? (Besides in a few hours, next day I trawled back to retrieve all that--tiring, to say the least...)

(They are far away in Israel now, and if we have no power here, my dad has no power at his place--in fact, his electricity goes out at about twice the rate as ours, and my friend on the next block once had his power out for days (turning on light switches to, just to forget--No Power!), while one years later, time that next block was Times Square, to our pitch black--felt like passing the blame on some of those self-defrosting upright freezers & other electrical appliances & fancy gadgets those folks had! (LOL!)

Next time, the power worked a bit intermittently, on my side of the street, so across the street a few porch lights were on, and it was just beginning to become dawn, as the streetlights went out--but among my music & stereo conking out & my CD I was trying to enjoy having to be reset, and the air conditioner going on and off, the juice eventually stayed constant...

And when we got new gas meters, there was no gas, so I fried my one egg to go with my burrito (that I microwaved) on my electric griddle... We just had to call the gas company when the gas did go back on, to light the pilots on our water heater & furnace...

-- Dave
 
I think most

good restaurants have a large gas range, at least one electric convection and steam oven, and at least one induction burner unit.

I found it odd how Julia child used a calrod electric range on her show.
You know they don't have that at the Cordon Blue, or any other culinary school above a high school home ec. class room.
 
Stainless steel and induction...

Just a note: not all stainless steel is induction ready. The higher quality stainless, like 18-8 or 18-10, is not magnetic (that is, doesn't respond very much to induction) as initially produced. The act of forging stainless into a pot or pan may induce some magnetic response ability, but seems to me it's never quite as much as with a truly magnetic SS like 18-0, or just plain iron or rust ready steel.

Newer high quality induction ready stainless cookware often has the 18-8 material forming the parts that contact food during cooking, and then a layer of magnetic stainless cladding on the bottom. Or the magnetic layer can be sandwiched between two layers of 18-8. This is similar to the construction of induction ready aluminum cookware. From what I've seen, such cookware usually has a magnetic stainless bottom cap.

Other than that, I can cook with either gas or resistance electric, but I prefer gas. Haven't tried induction yet, although back in the 90's I stayed in a Japanese hotel that had little (4" diameter) magnetic hotplates and small magnetic stainless teapots in the rooms. These were great, and would automatically shut themselves off once the water started boiling. I've searched for similar for the last 20 years but been unable to find any.
 
Numbers On Gas Range Top Burner Controls

Are a great improvement for gas surface cooking, they make it much easier to get a similar heat every time you cook.

Looking at the flame takes a lot of experience and is never as precise as having numbered settings on the dial, this has always been one of the major advantages of electric cooking.

Now with the better gas ranges with numbered dials you can tell to child over the prone to simmer the rice on number 2 for example or warm some soup of the RF burner on setting 6 etc.

John L.
 
With older gas ranges, the burners sat lower from the cookware, and it was easier to see the flame. Also, they were not sealed burners so the flame did not spread out as much as it does modern sealed burners. The lack of spread means the height of the flame and therefore the amount of heat being produced is easier to detect at a glance, without having the lift the cookware.

I have a modern sealed burner Frigidiare "Gas on Glass" cooktop. I hardly ever look at the numbers on the dials. Most of the time it's turn it up all the way until the igniter starts to click, for full heat/searing/fast boiling, and then down all the way for simmering. Occasionally somewhere in between for a medium boil (like pasta) or when the flame blooms past the edge of the cookware. For stuff like that, exact heat settings are not really necessary. I still like that I can turn off the burner and the heat is essentially gone, important for many cooking techniques.
 
Gas

My GE gas slide-in was installed in the 90's in a kitchen remodel that replaced the original GE electric cooktop and wall oven. No, I didn't live here then. I don't really like the range but just haven't replaced it. It doesn't simmer well at all; I use a diffuser.

I've been doing pressure cooking for decades, started as a vegetarian in college. I own several different sizes of Hawkins pressure cookers now, including a 22 litre Big Boy. They are all heavy aluminum and are made for gas.

Additionally, I've been canning for over 30 years, starting in college with canning my own beans. These days I can a lot of chili--I just gave away 36 quarts to someone in need at my church. I can beans, soups, bacon, hamburger, sausage, etc. Canning, strangely enough, is almost a lost art and it's sad because it's so easy and so very cheap and safe. But--the excellent All-American canners that'll easily last more than one lifetime (many in use 75+ years old) are all heavy machined aluminum. And they aren't recommended for electric.

I have a portable induction burner that I use occasionally for some s.s. things, but for most of that stuff, use the excellent Instant Pot.
 
Home Canning On An Electric Range

Here we our in August this year canning in 2 All-American aluminum canners and two aluminum Mirro canners on electric ranges, I have never heard that these don't work well on electric ranges, there is nothing about that in the manual.

 

Roughly 70% of Americans cook on electric ranges and probably even a larger % do in the mid-west where home canning is probably even more popular.

 

John L.

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