Quote:
Originally Posted by dchan
In terms of actual cooking, I love gas stoves. They heat up and shut off immediately through the twist of the knob. Electric resistance range tops are so annoying - they take forever to heat up and cool down. I hear induction is very gas-like in terms of its response, but it only works with ferrous metals. So it's a no-go for copper, aluminum, or clay.
As homes become more airtight, the issue with bad IAQ becomes more pertinent, especially as the public becomes more aware of the effects of bad IAQ. We know CO2 as a greenhouse gas, but don't typically think of it as a poison that can affect our mental faculties in high-enough concentrations. We are also blissfully unaware of the amount of pollutants released by burning gas. In addition, there's also the pollutants that come from the actual cooking of food itself.
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See above for the real issue with induction. Yes it can be turned up and down quickly (but pushing buttons like a thermostat rather than a quick twist of a knob - incredibly annoying if you’ve got things on different burners at the same time). The real issue is that they overheat.
I cook mostly with cast iron or carbon steel pans, which are ferrous and “work” on induction. But they work because of heat retention (and the amount of ambient heat they can then release). By the time you get the thing ripping hot, as necessary to get a good sear on a piece of meat, it starts beeping and turns off because it’s overheated. A range top that gets too hot to work. Imagine that.
As for indoor air pollution, I’m not going to worry about what my gas range is releasing into the air (which is probably cleared by a good extractor fan anyway - which you obviously need for high heat cooking because of smoke anyway), and then get on my bike to get around London trailing diesel vans and buses blowing exhaust in my face. Have a bit of perspective.