I saw an induction cooker at work for the very first time in a flower show. That was a few years back. It looked a bit devilish to me at first. The sales man placed a pot of water on the stove and the water started boiling in hardly any time at all. And there was absolutely no flames of any sort. Once the pot was removed, I was asked to touch the stove. I was skeptical and did not take the bate. After the sales man himself touched the stove and proved that the stove is not hot, I touched it myself. And it was not hot at all. I was really amused and asked to see if it needs a lot of electricity for its operation. The sales man told me that the electricity cost will be only a third of what propane needs. As sales men are known to hyperbole and try to sell stuff, I did not buy the instrument that time.
It took me another couple of years before I got an induction stove for myself and started using it. It seemed to me to be a bit similar to microwaving except that you cannot use metallic cookwares in a microwave. But in an induction cooker, only a magnetic flat bottomed metallic cookware can be used. In a microwave, the food is getting heated and then some of the heat is passed on to the pot. In induction cooking, the pot is getting heated first and then transfers most of that heat on to the food.
In normal electric cooking instruments, the cooking element gets heated due to electric resistance to the metal, and then transfers that heat on to the cooking pot. In induction cooking, the stove is not getting heated at all. What it does is heats up the cooking pot directly and thus warms up the food inside it.
The process of induction cooking is achieved through magnetic hysteresis loss. The cooking element on the stove will generate an alternating magnetic field on the cookware and this will in turn create heat due to magnetic hysteresis. This works only on certain type of cooking utensils like cast iron cookware, enamel-covered iron cookware, carbon steel cookware, some stainless steel cookware etc. Not all stainless steel cookware can be used for induction cooking.
How do you figure out an induction friendly cookware?
Any cookware which attracts a magnet to its bottom can be used for this purpose. It should have a flat bottom too. If the bottom of the cookware is not flat, the cooking won’t be efficient. Of late, many cookwares has a description on it saying whether it is suitable for induction cooking or not. If you are not sure about this, you may ask the sales man and clarify your questions.
Some Advantages Of Induction Cooking Over Electric Cooking
- Cooks faster
- Heats up faster
- Much more easier to clean
- More child safe
- More energy efficient
- Do not heat up the kitchen as much
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