Portable INDUCTION Cooktops & suitable utensils etc

Food & Drink Food & Drink: Chat / Discussions
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The more we learn the more we realise how little we really do know… :shushing_face: :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

INDUCTION COOKTOPS & suitable utensils.

I’ve been intending to buy myself a small PORTABLE SINGLE ‘BURNER’ INDUCTION COOKTOP for a variety of reasons.

Yesterday on my way to my planned destination to pick one up, I dropped into one of our cheapie? recycled op shops hoping to find a temporary cooking pot ( ie magnetic, stainless steel etc )

In the shop I was really pleased to find EXACTLY what I wanted.
Smallish, stainless steel, and with a glass lid.

Was about to leave when I thought to have a brief perusal in the ‘recycled’ electrical goodies area.

LO & BEHOLD !!! what did I find but a SINGLE INDUCTION COOKTOP … it appeared to be as new.

Tag attached said “ELECTRICALLY UNTESTED” so…

At home I plugged it in … ( can find a 'destruction" manual later. ) :innocent: :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

It gave one single BEEP and that was it ! Hmmm?
Time to try with now washed pot & water…
This time the “magic” all began to happen.
I’ve since boiled and cooked a variety of items & have even cooked some delicious home made lamb soup.

But now FINALLY to get to my as yet unresearched question, to which I suspect I already know the answer…
but thought to share the topic with others here…

My newly bought small pot works perfectly.
I since found in one cupboard TWO ( 2 ) more “stainless steel” pots complete with lids.

HOWEVER … ONE works perfectly but DESPITE the other one being actually IMPRINTED as being made of stainless steel and it LOOKING like any other usual STAINLESS STEEL pot — IT DOES NOT WORK & brings up an error.
Yes it is flat based and
Yes it is correct diameter

but

NO it is NOT magnetic when tested, and obviously why the INDUCTION COOKER is having a dummy spit & reporting an error.

Whilst well aware that SS is not just one composition I am nonetheless a little surprised.

So Folks, what have been your experiences? & what bright ideas might you have? :wink: :hugs: :shushing_face: :thinking: :yum:

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Some of those SS cooking pots have an alloy sandwiched base for heat conduction. Your ID hob works by exciting the iron contents of the pot and wont work with alloy bases.

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No advice here. I think Longdriver had the answer to your question.

Just wanted to thank you for sharing this topic. I have been thinking about getting an induction burner for a long time. It was billed as great for older people because there’s no flame involved so less chance of fire. I like the idea of it.

I’d be interested in your experience of it. The trend toward induction burners didn’t take off the way it could have. It was popular a while back but not as much now. I wonder why that is.

I read there’s a high pitched sound from the magnetic resonance. Have you experienced that?

Could you cook everything in it? Are there things that can’t be cooked that could be done on a regular stove?

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I’ve an Induction hob it’s great very easy to clean no special cleaner needed as nothing burns on , unlike ceramic hobs that are a real pill to keep clean

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I love my induction hob…I just accepted some pans don’t work on them and cleared them out for new ones that do…im glad i did…really worth the investment

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[quote=“butterscotch, post:3, topic:98687, full:true”]
No advice here. I think Longdriver had the answer to your question.[/quote]

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Yes he did butterscotch, and I gave his posting a like, but again Thanks LD :smiley:

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Just wanted to thank you for sharing this topic. I have been thinking about getting an induction burner for a long time. It was billed as great for older people because there’s no flame involved so less chance of fire. I like the idea of it.

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Yup, flames and old flames … both can be hazardous if not handled carefully :innocent:

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I’d be interested in your experience of it. The trend toward induction burners didn’t take off the way it could have. It was popular a while back but not as much now. I wonder why that is.

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Maybe? that depends where you live? :thinking: :thinking:

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I read there’s a high pitched sound from the magnetic resonance. Have you experienced that?

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Quite simply NO
although I have read about it and suspect it would likely depend on the particular
model of Induction cooker and the cooking utensil/s used on it.

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Could you cook everything in it?

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Yup, I could even cook YOU… if you’re prepared to sit still on it long enough.
:innocent: :laughing:

But seriously ? If you can put it in a pot then I guess you could cook it or most things

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Are there things that can’t be cooked that could be done on a regular stove?

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Gee, I’m sure there are, but nothing comes immediately to mind. Others here I’m
sure will offer their thoughts.

I’ve boiled water for my tea & coffee :coffee: :coffee:, cooked up a very tasty homemade lamb soup, :sheep: :sheep: fried a couple of bubble & squeak patties, & today in a hurry to get out to shop I popped on some plain old baked beans and had them on toast. ( toast was done in toaster strangely enough :innocent: But that’s just just a tiny example - the sky is the limit ? or should I say it’s only limited by your ingenuity and own imagination ( and quantity of course )
Oh and fried a couple of :chicken: :hatching_chick: “HEGGS” at another time.

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The upsides of the Induction cooking include that the heat intensity responds very
quickly & similarly to gas ( & should work out a damned sight cheaper )

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As well bear in mind ( not my reason to buy ) that gas will NOT be allowed to be
connected in increasing numbers of new houses for reasons which include health issues that we have long ignored or simply been ignorant of - and then as you mentioned - no flame.

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Hope some of the above is of some help :smiley:

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I have an induction hob fitted into my kitchen worktop and have found it performs much better than any other electric hob I have used in the past.
If you are comparing induction hobs to gas hobs, however, there is a couple of things which cook better over a gas hob than an induction hob.

The old style electric hobs used to take ages to heat up or cool down when you changed the heat setting - with induction hobs, the change is as instant as turning the gas up or down on a gas hob.
It is also much easier to clean an induction hob than any other type of hob.

The only things that I find tricky to do on an induction hob, is stir-frying in a Wok or frying something that needs frequent basting as I’m cooking it.

The induction hob requires the base of the pan to be in contact with the hob, so any cooking that requires you to tilt the frying pan to gather a pool of oil/butter/meat juices from the pan bottom to baste what you are cooking can be tricky.

I also found that using traditional shaped Woks for stir frying wasn’t as successful because the Wok base is a small surface area and the sides of the Wok don’t get hot enough for fast stir-fry cooking.
I do have an induction-friendly Wok but I have found that using a large flat frying pan works better for stir-frying on an induction hob.

If I could only choose one type of stove top, it would be an induction hob.
But if I already had a gas supply in my kitchen, my ideal would be a combination induction / gas hob fitted into the worktop.

Just one gas ring would be enough for me but I’ve seen them with other combination splits.

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That and the rest of what you said Boot is really excellent advice. :smiley:

Ah yes, the Wok, one of the greatest cooking utensils ever created ( imho )
I had thought about that tilt issue after reading elsewhere re the same.
I have a couple of ideas about “a fix” but need refine or discard them, prolly the latter.

Oh, and as I’m living alone these days, part of my cooking combo is a couple of microwave ovens - “cover all bases eh ?”

BTW just back from a bowl of Potato and Leek soup with the last of some toast from earlier. Not home made soup but nonetheless tasty. It’s all pre made & out of one of those big foil? sachet? thingy packs - rip it’s top off and pour it into the pot. :grinning:

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