Learning to Use an Induction Stovetop

I’ve previously commented on how many new tools, systems, and devices I’ve had to learn to use in adjusting to life in France. One that made a good impression was induction stovetop cooking.

Over the decades of living in the United States, I had kitchens equipped with electric or gas stoves and ovens, sometimes both in the same kitchen. For example, in my last home, the kitchen had an electric oven and a gas stovetop. I loved the stovetop gas burners because the heat was immediately responsive to changes in the controls.

I never quite figured out how to achieve the same effect with an electric burner when working in other kitchens. I tended to overcook or undercook whatever was in the pan.

Learning a Third Way to Cook

In France, however, I had to learn a third way of cooking. Newer kitchens come with induction stovetops, although the ovens are traditional electric ovens. I think inductive stovetops are used widely in new construction in France because they are significantly more energy efficient than their gas or electric counterparts.

I was curious about how induction heating works. I found out that when the burner is turned on, alternating current passes through a coil of copper under the ceramic stovetop. This creates an electromagnetic field that excites the molecules in ferromagnetic (iron-based) pots and pans placed on top of the ceramic stovetop. The magnetic energy interacts with the pan to create heat.

The impact, as with gas, is immediate. As soon as the burner is turned on, the heat begins. Similarly, as soon as the burner is reduced or turned off, the electromagnetic energy is reduced or ends. As with gas, it’s a speedy and very even cooking method.

Another plus is that an induction stovetop is not affected by breezes or fans—a real problem in my former kitchen. If I turned on the fan to remove food odors, the fan also sucked up the heat from the gas burners.  

Induction cooking also doesn’t heat the kitchen, a particular advantage here in the south of France where the summer heat is oppressive. Reducing the expense, not to mention the strain on the environment, of using air conditioning is always a good thing.

Faster and Less Expensive

Two other pluses should also be highlighted: speed and emissions. Tests show that it is “faster to heat food or liquids on an induction stove versus a gas stove (5.8 seconds vs. 8.3 seconds to boil water in one experiment). And, data from the US Energy Information Administration shows that while burning natural gas is marginally better than burning coal (to power an electric stovetop) in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, induction beats both hands-down (propane gas is the worst offender).”

From a cleaning perspective, induction stovetops are great! No burned food ever has to be cleaned off: a quick wipe and the ceramic top is once again gleaming. And I never have to worry about a gas leak.

The Downsides

Learning to use my stovetop was challenging. First, I had to purchase different pans because induction heat works only on pans with a high iron content. My beautiful, carefully transported US pans had to go.

Ironically, I didn’t bring the one frying pan I could have used, my cast iron skillet. But since the skillet would have easily scratched the ceramic surface, it is just as well I left it behind.

Learning to use the controls on the ceramic stovetop wasn’t easy either. They are more like the symbols on my computer than on any stovetop I’d used before.

I also had to learn that if you use a pan that is too small for the coiled area of a burner, it won’t heat. But contrary to my logic, it doesn’t work the other way. I can put an oversized pan on a small coil, and the burner will function, although the food will heat more slowly.

Incidentally, it took me a half hour to figure out how to turn off the child lock I accidentally turned on. In truth, however, all of the downsides were minor problems. Overall, I’m adjusting well to the new cooking method on my stovetop.

Like Learning to Play the Violin

One of my favorite authors as a college student was a 19th-century English writer and critic, Samuel Butler. Amazingly, he wrote only two books, yet those two volumes are still in print. One is Erewhon, a satirical utopian novel whose title is an anagram of the word nowhere. The other is The Way of All Flesh.

Apropos of getting through life (and, in my case, adapting to a new culture), Butler wrote, “Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”

Which is to say, I am still learning to play the violin.