I hate my induction plate!

[chris mac]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

No, my arguments were many and clear. You choose to pick just the last one and act like that is my argument. That isn’t helpful. There are plenty chefs who never used induction, not in their restaurant and not at home.

Alright then. First statement
All the advantages of gas are also applicable for induction and induction does them better.
Incorrect, gas makes flambe's easier, take abuse from constant use much better and are repaired easier. To list just three.
Second argument
The reason most professional kitchens use gas is because that’s what they already have, it works with their banged up pots and pans and they know how to use gas
Incorrect, professional kitchens are often changing out types of equipment to accommodate menu changes. They continue to use gas because of the advantages I've previously mentioned. However many kitchens do have and use induction for some specialty areas as I mentioned before. Because of the atributes they have.
The pots and pans are often banged up because of the extreme amount of use they get. That extreme amount of use would likely damage induction tops.
Your last statement
Induction is slowly taking over, also because of city regulations prohibiting gas for new construction.
City regulations are hardly done for reasons of cooking quality.
Look, I know you love your induction top and find it better than gas. That's great, continue to use it happily.
As I have said many times, I use both and find value in both. Induction does have great value aboard, if you have the power source for it. Either large, most likely lithium, battery bank or generator/shore power
Where I take exception is your remarks against professional kitchens, especially in comment against what I stated as a professional.
I wish you happy cooking, and maybe we can debate this over a beer at anchor sometime

[Anders]

Originally Posted by ItDepends

OK, that's not QUITE true. There are things I do like about it. But... well read on.

We are full time liveaboards, and cruise across a wide area of ocean. Our boat is our only home, and has been for a long time. I have three primary cooking appliances aboard. A 220V 1800W ProLine single burner induction plate, a four burner Force10 propane stove/oven/broiler and a small microwave-convection-air fryer.

I have written about the use of electric cooking onboard from the standpoint of the ship's engineer before.

This is specifically about the difference between my gas stovetop and my induction plate from a COOK’s perspective. If your idea of cooking onboard is reheating a frozen casserole you brought from home or heating a can of soup, you can stop reading right here. Nothing applies. Gas or induction will serve you well. But, that’s not me…

I am a fussy cook. There is almost nothing from a prime rib roast to a cajun gumbo that I don’t turn out from our galley as good as you’ll find anywhere. The difference between good cooking and REALLY good cooking are the details. So this is really about the details. Many, most, even the VAST majority of people won't care a wit about the issues I raise in my comments, and that's fine. The way most people cook it won't matter.

There is one task at which my induction burner wins hands down. The regular ring burners on my gas stove are terrible at heating a wok. The sides of the pan get hot, and the center stays cool. This is unusable. The induction burner turns this around, and it heats the bottom—but not the sides. This is not perfect, but it is WAY better. It’s good enough it has put the wok back into my regular cooking rotation.

The induction plate can get a pan of water hot a bit faster than the gas cooktop, and transfer less heat to the cabin while doing it. Another win.

There is, however, a huge downside to the induction cooktop. One I was not expecting. Heating is VERY uneven. A pan gets hot in a distinct ring about 4 inches in diameter and an inch wide. This completely negates so many of the advantages of the system. I can not cook pancakes evenly. Putting a steak on to sear results in a perfect sear… in a ring on the meat and it is raw at the edges. A thick sauce left to simmer burns to the pan in a ring, and cooks not at all round the edges. Trying to brown individual pieces of food just doesn’t work. The pieces at the edge of the pan don’t cook and the ones in the middle barely cook, while the ones over the “ring of fire” cook fast. This is cooking with a very heavy cast iron pan that should be as good as anything in spreading heat.

For cooking in my wok, or boiling water for pasta, induction is better. For everything else, I wouldn’t ever voluntarily trade it for gas. Could I cook well on an induction cooktop? Absolutely. But I find it a LOT easier to do so with propane.

If you are a cooking nerd, I would suggest before you spend a lot of money to trade out your gas cooker, you get a portable induction plate and cook with it for a while. See what you think. They are not expensive. You might decide they are as good as all the hype suggests, and I am all wet. Or not.

What was your expectation? That induction would be as good as propane or good enough?

[Simi 60]

Very rarely use ours as we can't get it to work doing rice.
Temp settings either to hot or not hot enough

And yes, we tried a rice cooker until it crapped out, didn't like that enough to replace it.

The one thing I LOVE about induction is the crazy heat it gets vs single ring gas
Gets that char flavour in wok cooked feeds that we haven't had since travelling through Asia.

Downside is the smoke it generates, definately an outside appliance.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Very rarely use ours as we can't get it to work doing rice.
Temp settings either to hot or not hot enough

And yes, we tried a rice cooker until it crapped out, didn't like that enough to replace it.

The one thing I LOVE about induction is the crazy heat it gets vs single ring gas
Gets that char flavour in wok cooked feeds that we haven't had since travelling through Asia.

Downside is the smoke it generates, definately an outside appliance.

The rice cooker (a good one) is well worth it in my mind. It's one of the only single-use kitchen appliances I strongly recommend. You just put the rice and water in, push the button and properly cooked rice comes out. Much better than fussing around in a pot on the stove (I can never get the texture quite right) and less cleanup than dealing with rice stuck to the bottom of a pot as well.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

The rice cooker (a good one) is well worth it in my mind. It's one of the only single-use kitchen appliances I strongly recommend. You just put the rice and water in, push the button and properly cooked rice comes out. Much better than fussing around in a pot on the stove (I can never get the texture quite right) and less cleanup than dealing with rice stuck to the bottom of a pot as well.

Yeah but there is no fussing with a pot if you know how to do it.
Simply put rice and correct level of water in
Bring to boil
Drop heat to barely simmering
And perfectly cooked rice comes out just like a rice cooker.

Never had rice unintentionally stick to the bottom, but if you do that cơm cháy, scorched rice, is a delicacy in it self
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scor...om%20a%20flame.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by chris mac

Alright then. First statement
All the advantages of gas are also applicable for induction and induction does them better.
Incorrect, gas makes flambe's easier, take abuse from constant use much better and are repaired easier. To list just three.

Flambe? wtf man, you did not list that at all. Here, let me quite you:

Because of instant and large volume (btu)heat, instant and variable setting control, durability/reliability, and moisture level.(gas heat is moist vs dry electric heat) Moisture becomes more noticeable in ovens than ranges.

No flambe. So let’s go: instant heat and lots of it. Here induction puts gas to shame with a new level of “instant” and as much power as you dare. Gas uses an open flame which heats the bottom of the pan, with the heat conducting through the material before it gets to the pan content. Induction heat is sourced inside the bottom of the pan, meaning that there is no loss to the surrounding area and it is faster. Induction wins.

Second one: instant and variable setting control: “instant” is a repeat so induction wins there, then we have variable setting control. My Cooktek has 100 power levels: way more variable than gas, another win for induction.

Durability/reliability: can’t say gas cooktops are prone to fail so pretty solid there, but a professional induction unit like Cooktek doesn’t fail either. With all the auto ignite failures of gas, I would call it even but I think gas has the edge here.

Moisture level. Yes, burning propane creates a lot of moisture. For every pound of propane you get 1.6 pounds of moisture iirc. But this moisture is created at the burner and will flow up along the sides of the pan, straight into the boat interior, creating mold and mildew. It certainly doesn’t go up and over back down into the pan. Big win for induction here.
Also, for ovens: there are no induction ovens.

So now you come up with flambé haha. Yes, you win
(But it’s a win for induction because you burn your boat down while flambéing )

[chris mac]

Now it's getting interesting. You would be fun to have a beer with!
You said all the advantages of gas are done better by induction(paraphrasing, keyword "all") that's where my answer of flambe came from
Yes I do flambe aboard, no I have never burnt my boat down or even come close. And it's very tasty[emoji39] Pork chops finished with Jack Daniels and flame kissed is spectacular!
For variable control, we were comparing professional level gas to professional level induction. Force 10 vs your cooktop... Yes, yours wins. But this comparison is faulty in my mind. You are throwing extra wattage, while we are using lower btus. If we increase the btus, take on demand water heaters as an example, water can be boiled instantly off gas.(no setting control at all of course) so it's more a question of how much power you can put in, watts or btus. And quality of the individual device.
Induction is more efficient though for sure, no argument.
For durability, again I was comparing commercial to comercial. Glass tops just can't hold up to the abuse of all day, every day and when they do break it requires a specialized repair.
On a boat it would be pretty comparable but I still give the edge to gas.
For moisture level, food tastes better when cooked with moist heat. Electric(dry) heat pulls moisture out of the food. As I said though, this is more noticable in in ovens. Especially in items like breads and roasts, and it's electric vs gas, I never said there are " induction ovens"
I agree, and have from the start that induction is quick heat. Boiling water is faster for sure. Heating up some soup, yup definitely faster on induction. If speed and efficiency is your goal, then induction is your game. Provided you have the available power.
I cook for pleasure though. I get much more pleasure from cooking on gas. The foods taste better. I have done tortillas on both, side by side same time, and I noticed a difference. It's subtle, but still there. With sauteed meats I have found the same thing. I believe it's mostly due to the moisture levels, but that's a guess.
As I said, it's a subtle difference but noticable.
I still use my induction plate, especially when underway motoring. It's great for what it is, and maybe if I had a cooktex it would be even better.
But I doubt I will ever invest that much into the power system.
I have used several high end home units at friends houses, and they worked fine. But I did not find any improvement on quality of finished product. The majority of people will probably prefer induction for all the reasons you list. But I still think the majority of professionals prefer gas for the reasons I list.

[CarlF]

We also have a one burner Duxtop induction and four burner propane stove. I"ve never had problems with uneven heating - perhaps because of our pans. The induction is by far the best for boiling pasta water, searing something, keeping a slow simmer and eggs (since you can get the temperature exactly right).

We find the Duxtup "tri-clad" pans heat evenly and are not expensive. I have another heavy tri-clad pan from a different manufacturer and it also works well. Besides a heavy pan you want the bottom dead flat. Even a little warping or rocking will ruin performance on an induction burner.

We had a cruising friend loose their inverter in the Bahamas. They had replaced the propane stove with all induction so they had to start the genset everytime they wanted to cook something.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by CarlF

We also have a one burner Duxtop induction and four burner propane stove. I"ve never had problems with uneven heating - perhaps because of our pans. The induction is by far the best for boiling pasta water, searing something, keeping a slow simmer and eggs (since you can get the temperature exactly right).

We find the Duxtup "tri-clad" pans heat evenly and are not expensive. I have another heavy tri-clad pan from a different manufacturer and it also works well. Besides a heavy pan you want the bottom dead flat. Even a little warping or rocking will ruin performance on an induction burner.

We had a cruising friend loose their inverter in the Bahamas. They had replaced the propane stove with all induction so they had to start the genset everytime they wanted to cook something.

Yes, this is why I recommend multiple inverter/chargers in parallel instead of a single big one. It’s the same as with the house batteries: make sure you have redundancy. But an emergency camp stove and cockpit grill running on a small propane bottle also makes sense. I guess I have all of that.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

The rice cooker (a good one) is well worth it in my mind. It's one of the only single-use kitchen appliances I strongly recommend. You just put the rice and water in, push the button and properly cooked rice comes out. Much better than fussing around in a pot on the stove (I can never get the texture quite right) and less cleanup than dealing with rice stuck to the bottom of a pot as well.

Try making rice in a pressure cooker?

[newhaul]

Quote:
Originally Posted by rslifkin View Post
The rice cooker (a good one) is well worth it in my mind. It's one of the only single-use kitchen appliances I strongly recommend. You just put the rice and water in, push the button and properly cooked rice comes out. Much better than fussing around in a pot on the stove (I can never get the texture quite right) and less cleanup than dealing with rice stuck to the bottom of a pot as well.

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Try making rice in a pressure cooker?

Just get a simple rice cooker it's well worth it to me for 100wh of solar output to have well Cooked rice with minimal need to monitor . Not to mention the lack of heat put into the cabin in summer.

Same for the induction plate vs any other heatmsource for cooking it doesn't place unused heat into an already warm cabin ( especially when in the tropics) .

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Just get a simple rice cooker it's well worth it to me for 100wh of solar output to have well Cooked rice with minimal need to monitor .

I have nothing against rice cookers, but it does add the burden of making space for it. Most cruisers have (a) pressure cooker(s). In my galley, counter-space is at a premium, but there's usually extra space on the stove-top. Stove also has a pot-holder(/restraint system); counter/table don't.
But if you want the electric rice-cooker, then you might want to pop for the Instant Pot, which has a "rice" setting, and gives added versatility.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

I have nothing against rice cookers, but it does add the burden of making space for it. Most cruisers have (a) pressure cooker(s). In my galley, counter-space is at a premium, but there's usually extra space on the stove-top. Stove also has a pot-holder(/restraint system); counter/table don't.
But if you want the electric rice-cooker, then you might want to pop for the Instant Pot, which has a "rice" setting, and gives added versatility.

Really that's a bad day then if you can't find space from a 6 inch round by 7 inch tall ride cooker that can do many more things than just cook rice. I even do my soft and hard boilde eggs in it . Heating the water for my French press coffee . To many more things to list .
Have an insta pot at the house but no way for me to have room for that unit on my 29 ft sailboat

[rslifkin]

Interestingly, at the house I ended up with both an InstantPot and a rice cooker. The rice cooker takes longer to make rice, but it's got excellent non-stick so it's easy to clean, and I think it makes better rice than the InstantPot ever has. So far I haven't put either on the boat (I'd want smaller versions I think), but I keep debating which one should go in the boat galley.

[PaulCrawhorn]

How does the Magma induction set do in combatting the OP issues ?