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Magnetic FieldsInduction cooktops cook hot, stay cool |
I first used a portable induction cooktop when cooking at Ducasse in Paris. Like most cooks in a new kitchen, I started at the garde manger—essentially the salad station. At Ducasse, it was much more than salad. We’re talkin’ $700 cans of osetra caviar, delicate langoustines, foie gras, and, when in season, $2,000-per-pound fist-sized white truffles—sensitive, expensive food that needed to be cooked carefully and kept very cold beforehand.
We used a portable induction cooktop at our station, rather than a normal stovetop, to heat things. We could move it around, it didn’t radiate heat that would have destroyed the ingredients lying nearby, and it cooked at precise temperatures, which allowed us to closely monitor the fragile foods. It was indispensable for carefully warming a foie gras emulsion, which, if it got too hot, would separate. We’d foam the emulsion with a hand blender, then spoon bubbles of warm foie gras on top of a cool foie gras mousse, while calling runners to whisk away the dishes immediately to waiting diners.
Whether they’re portable or built in, induction cooktops look just like electric smoothtop burners. But instead of heating the burner surface in order to heat your cookware and, in turn, your food, induction cooktops directly heat your cookware while leaving the cooktop surface completely cool. This may sound nonsensical, but here’s how it works: There are magnetic coils inside the cooktop that produce an electromagnetic field when electric current is passed through them. When a metal pan is placed on the burner, it reacts with the electromagnetic field, inducing a current, which is then converted to thermal energy in the pan; this energy heats up your food. Induction cooktops are considered safe. Because there’s no open flame or exposed heating element, they’re actually safer than gas or classic electric.
Stainless steel pots and pans, as well as cast iron and enameled iron cookware, all work on an induction stovetop because they’re magnetic. What won’t work, generally, are aluminum, copper, and definitely not glass, including Pyrex. For a quick compatibility test, try sticking a magnet to your cookware. If it sticks, that cookware should work; if it doesn’t, the piece probably won’t. But don’t worry, nothing will explode if you put an incompatible pot on an induction cooktop—it just won’t heat.
I tested portable induction cooktops, both single-burner models, from Sunpentown and CookTek. The former is a Taiwanese manufacturer of small appliances, and its induction cooktops are some of the most widely available in the United States, at Amazon and Target. CookTek is the only manufacturer of induction cooktops in the U.S. Ducasse in Paris uses CookTek, as does Alinea in Chicago.
With both, instead of heating foie gras foam, I boiled water for two packs of my favorite instant noodles—the super-spicy NongShim Shinramyun—and also pan-fried fish in an open cast iron skillet, the bane of home cooks’ existence because of the smell and the mess.
Induction Cooktop (SR-1881S)
By Sunpentown, $189 (silver finish)
The compact unit (12 by 3 by 14 inches) costs less in white, but for $20 more I thought it was a worthy upgrade to the sleeker silver finish.
It’s very flat, it’s lightweight, and it actually blinks if you put an incompatible piece of cookware on top—a huge timesaver if you think you’re waiting for a pot of water to boil.
The noodle water boiled in 11 minutes in a covered stainless steel pot, compared with 14 minutes on a gas burner—not a big difference.
But the showstopper came when I heated two tablespoons of water in a cast iron skillet. Almost instantly the water steamed, and in less than a minute it boiled. Meanwhile, the skillet’s handle stayed not just cool but cold. More treats were in store when I pan-fried salmon outdoors. (Remember, it’s portable!) I just plugged it into an outside outlet and let it splatter away while the skin crisped, leaving no smell or mess in my kitchen. A quick wipe was all that was needed to clean up—rather than taking apart my burners and scrubbing.
While the Induction Cooktop does have some considerate features, such as a timer (up to 99 minutes) and an automatic overheat shutoff (at 446°F), it’s a little inflexible with its temperature settings, with only nine possible choices (from 120°F to 420°F). Why would you need a temperature setting on a stove, you ask? For one, unlike gas and electric burners, an induction cooktop doesn’t show any heat source, so you can’t tell how hot it’s getting. Temperature settings give you a benchmark. It’s also great for sous-vide cooking, in which you would typically use a thermal circulator to set your water bath at a precise temperature. This allows you to go without a thermal circulator, as your water will be roughly the same temperature as your chosen stovetop setting. Todays’ recipes tell you to set a pan over low, medium, or high heat, but what’s low on one gas or electric cooktop is blazing high on another. Imagine if a standard evolved in which recipes specified a cooktop temperature? Less chance of overcooked fish or undercooked chicken. No need to play with the gas burner and infrared thermometer.
All Sunpentown induction cooktops bought directly from the manufacturer come with free induction-compatible cookware—a free frying pan or stockpot upon request.
Apogee MC-1800G
By CookTek, $1,224.50
The noodle water clocked in at 8 minutes—again, not an enormous difference from gas nor from the Induction Cooktop, and the cast iron pan skillet-fried fish just as well as with the Induction Cooktop.
But where the Apogee comes out ahead is in the subtle yet powerful—and hidden—details. It has a timer that goes up to 11 hours and 59 minutes, which is great if you want to cook things like sous vide that require a lot of time. It also has temperature settings either in numbered steps—think volume controls, from 1 to 100—or actual temperature. The control panel is so fun to play with, you might be afraid that people will come screw up your settings while you’ve got a pot on the stove. But luckily the unit features a lock button, which keeps them from doing so. Again, good for sous vide, where you might leave your cooking food unattended for several hours.
And as I’ve seen at both Ducasse and Alinea, CookTek induction cooktops maintain their precise performance in the most punishing restaurant conditions.
If you’re not sure whether you want to drop the considerable cash for a CookTek cooktop, they have a 30-day trial program. The company will send you a unit for free, and if you want to keep it, they’ll send an invoice. Or you can just send it back for no charge.
When the time comes to replace your cooktops, consider induction—safer, faster, cleaner, and far more precise than gas or electric. Until then, portable induction cooktops can give you a taste of the future.
I'm doing a big kitchen renovation, replacing all existing appliances. I'm seriously considering replacing my dual fuel range with a 5-burner induction cooktop and electric ovens. Does anyone have an opinion about losing the traditional range altogether? Most of the info I see about induction cooking involves portables - everyone raves about how much better induction is, so it's strange that there are no free-standing ranges that have induction tops.
Wolf makes an induction cooktop in a 15-inch width with two burners. Combine two of those and you have a four-burner induction cooktop or use one 15-inch induction unit and one 15-inch conventional heating surface or even a 15-inch grill to make a normal 30-inch cooktop. The Wolf induction unit is fabulous. Hotter and faster than gas with a truly low "melt" setting. Would never go back to gas or hot coils.
karrieleague - old habits die hard, that's all. At El Bulli the primary cooktops are built-in induction - there are also planchas. I loved them - cool, fast, clean. When you're done cooking you just let the surface cool down a bit - it heats from the bottom of the hot cookware - and then wipe down. It's a huge knuckle-saving difference when compared to having to break down a gas grated cooktop or horrible traditional electric. When I do my kitchen I'll go induction all the way.
Louisa did you cook at Bulli?! if you did, much respect. anyhow, at the last restaurant i was at, in the pastry kitchen, we used solely induction units. at skool we used them, too. these things rock. the only slight (and i know this sounds a bit silly) drawback is that they just dont SEEM (appear) to heat things. in other words, with a flame or glowing electric ring, you KNOW theres heat going on there, yknow? not a point of contention for the professional, but in the home kitchen this may in fact be worth considering.
My mom had the Supentown version as soon as it came on the market years ago and we've been using the same machine for hotpot since we were all teens. It's still going strong--very well made.
I convinced my office to buy one a few years ago because it was a safe way to heat up water in a stoveless office where everyone wanted tea in the morning and a microwave was impractical. People were amazed, and that machine's going strong too.
ben61820 - I did cook at El Bulli - and thanks. I know what you're saying but there is no heat going on on an induction cooktop - it's just an electromagnetic field. The heat will be all in the cookware on contact with the cooktop - and then transferred to the food. You could flip the thing out to 450F and nothing bad would happen - you could put your hand flat on it - until you put induction-friendly cookware on it. The only danger comes when dim-wits put dry, empty cookware on cooktops - but that unfortunately can happen with gas or electric too.
Pei - props to your mom for being an early induction adopter - and for the old-skool hot pot no less. That's great to hear about the Sunpentown - that it's survived well out in field tests for so long. And good for you too for comandeering the cubicle cuisine.
I had an induction cooktop for years at home and hated it! Though the portable ones are one thing in terms of pastry cooking and very specific applications I think it's different altogether at home. In my commercial environment to me nothing beats a high, strong flame. At home these were my problems with the induction cooktop: A) limited pots and pans. Could only use "magnetic" pans, so if you have some great cookware that you're attached to better make sure you can use it on the induction. B) It's noisy. In a commercial kitchen you have fans going all the time so it might not make a difference, but the home unit had a fan that ran whenever the burner was on and it was annoying. C) Screwy controls and when you don't see a flame, or even a light sometimes you don't know which burner you're trying to use.
I'm a great beleiver in simplicity. When I finally got the money I threw the induction cooktop into the garbage and got a beautiful Wolf gas range. Love it.
chefmo - Only magnetic? That's stainless steel, cast iron, enameled iron - that's quite a lot. True that if you have alumnium. copper or glass you're outta luck. At least with the current induction models - manufacturers are developing induction cooktops that can be used be used with almost all cookware for wide release sometime soon.
The newer models are pretty quiet - not much louder than gas and way quieter than an average home exhaust fan set on low.
Hey, if you have the money I guess it's no big deal to throw it away - but it doesn't have to be one or the other.
I wonder if you guys have any experience with this Sunpentown Digital Turbo Convection Oven, currently for sale at Target.com. For years I wanted a convection oven for occasional heating of small amounts of crispy items, but I don't have much counter space. Will this portable induction guy be my answer? My concern is that if the mechanism is heating through magnetic metal, will the air in the oven (a glass bowl) be really heated? Will it take long to heat the that air? Any input/suggestion is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
A couple of companies that make induction cooktops...
Fagor
Thermador
Diva De Provence
Kuppersbusch
Electrolux
Viking
A virtually complete list of induction-equipment makers, with model data, can be found at The Induction Site (theinductionsite.com), along with full explanations of how the process works, suitable cookware, and other induction-cooking information.
Exactly how "magnetic:" does a piece of SS cookware have to be to work on an induction range? If I hold a magnet to my calphalon tri ply, it doesn't really stick, the attraction is VERY weak. If I hold the magnet near my All Clad SS, it practically leaps out of my hand and jumps onto the pot!
foodstorm - generally speaking, if a magnet doesn't really stick to the BASE of your cookware, it's not induction-compatible.
Louisa, yes, that's where I was testing it with the above-mentioned results. It's actually a non-issue for me, since I have a gas range. But if someone is looking to purchase induction compatible cookware, it probably wouldn't hurt to take a magnet with them to the cookware store just to be sure.
We have a Diva DDP-36 (5 Hob) cooktop and LOVE IT. It's FAST, excellent to control and the kitchen doesn't heat up like it did when we had a 6 burner Thermador gas top. We got it before Viking, Thermador and others came out. Cleanup is a breeze...just hit it with some Windex after it's cooled about 5 minutes...no mess from boiled over pots and grease is a non-problem. We use All-Clad, LeCruset and the lowly Lodge CAST IRON wares. They all work great. We had to can some other nice cook ware, but if a magnet won't stick to it, it just will not work with induction. I think we got a 3 pot set of All-Clad with the cooktop. I don't know if this deal is still being offered. If you can afford it, GO FOR IT. You won't regret it.
We did a new kitchen in a weekend beach house with the 4 burner Kuppersbusch and the induction wok...couldn't be happier and the wok is a miracle !!! As dlcole stated no heat in the kitchen, cleaning is totally simple and instant heat ..less than a minute to boil water ( much less) Only caveat is when you're new at using it keep an eye on how quickly it achieves the desired heat as it is fast ...really fast . we have a 4 burner and grille gas Viking in our city house and there is no comparison for ease of use
Just wanted to know if anyone has had trouble with viking induction portable cooktop? I want to check elsewhere but first thought I would here. Using the new one worked for about an hour. Noticed an odd wire burning odor? Do you have a small odor when you are cooking is my first question that comes from unit. Second, ours just stopped and we have not been able to get it to turn on again. Has anyone else had this problem? We did not see anytype of switch to reset or anything? Would love to get some ideas.