this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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Very focused on the north American market. Where I live induction stove tops have been more or less standard for 20+ years. BUT I didn't know special round coils existed for round wokpans. Pretty cool. Although I think a wokpans with a flat bottom is fine for home cooking, maybe get one that is slightly heavier so its able to retain more heat as you work your food. It is kind of ridiculous that this would be an argument to get a gas stove, given that standard gas stoves don't have a rocket engine flame that is required to get the real wok experience at home anyway. I don't even think you would want that in a home kitchen. Also it is a bit niche for most people.
I wouldn’t exactly call it niche if you’re an Asian family who cooks with a wok every day. Yes, Technology Connections videos are heavily focused on the North American market because this is where Alec’s audience is largely from.
North Americans love gas stoves because of how simple and performant they are. North Americans also tend to have a fascination with wanting to cook with professional, restaurant-grade equipment (including ultra-expensive Sub Zero refrigerators and freezers, for some reason).
Having said all that, induction cooktops are still pretty niche in North America because large ones with large cooking surfaces that can handle large pans (without creating intense hot spots that literally warp and destroy your pans) are insanely expensive here ($4000++). Even the best Wolf professional induction ranges cannot do what a gas range does with carbon steel pans: heat the bottom and sides of the pan evenly. You always get intense heat where the bottom of the pan makes contact and then the sides are hundreds of degrees cooler, which means your French omelettes stick to the sides of the pan and get ruined.
This induction wok device from the video is cute but it only works with woks that are the exact same shape as the one included with the device. A carbon steel pan with a flat bottom and gently sloped sides won’t work at all with this thing.
See, the thing Alec complains about with gas stoves (the flames going around the pan and heating up the room) is actually a feature for people who know how to cook and want their pans to heat evenly and perform really well. There’s no electric stove on the market (radiant or induction) that can replicate this!
We've been using off-the-shelves induction stoves for about 10 years and never had this problem. I would definitely love to see a longer duration of comparison of the heatspots in traditional (non-induction) and induction cookware though.
Do you not have nonstick cookware (cast iron, carbon steel, etc)?
I have carbon steel and stainless steel, as well as cast iron. I don’t use nonstick whatsoever. It is well known that induction doesn’t perform well with carbon steel. The issue is carbon steel’s poor heat conductivity which makes it very difficult for heat to spread up the sides of the pan. Gas doesn’t have this issue because the flames and hot gases wrap around the sides of the pan and heat them directly. Having hot pan sides is critical to prevent the eggs from sticking when you tilt the pan to roll up a French omelette.
As for warping? Just search on YouTube. There’s tons of videos showing how easy it is to warp a pan on induction: just use high heat. This is never an issue on gas because of the superior evenness of heating, so you can crank gas as high as you want. Yes, you can turn the induction heat way down to avoid warping but then your performance and responsiveness goes out the window and you spend a ton of time waiting around for the pan to preheat.
Another issue is when you’re searing meats, frying eggs, or sauteeing veggies and basting by spooning hot fat over them. To do this you need to tilt the pan at an angle so the fat pools on one side and then rapidly baste the food. Unfortunately, induction burners stop heating as you try to lift and tilt the pan. Plus the sides of the pan aren’t getting hot so the fat cools when it reaches the sides of the pan as you tilt. You can still do the technique but it’s much slower, clumsier, and less effective without gas (which continues heating no matter how you tilt the pan).
Here’s some videos on the technique:
Steak
Eggs
I bought a flat bottom wok for my flat top stove and learned that wok tossing is actually a bit awkward with the non-continuous curvature, as all the food and especially oil constantly slides over the kink, often causing it to splash around and out. But you learn to get around that quite quickly and apart from that it's no worse than round woks.