I’m thinking about replacing my faithful 20-year-old electric coil stove with one of those gleaming convection double ovens, but I have misgivings about the adequacy of the cooktops on those things. Sadly, gas is not an option.
That old coil-top has been taking a beating under heavy cast iron skillets for years without complaint. And by hovering a steel wok over the heat in its metal ring, I can get it viciously hot. I have no use for an expensive new oven that I have to be dainty with, and I definitely don’t want to watch a stir-fry collapse into a lukewarm pile of mess.
Will I end up destroying a perfectly good smooth-top with my recklessly delicious ways? Are there diffusers out there that can withstand the punishment while delivering all the heat? Am I destined to remain culinarily old-school while the wonderful world of convectional double-ovenry passes me by?
I use cast iron pans on a glass flattop range. I’ve found that the flatter the pan the better, obviously, you have to let it heat a looong time - 10 min minimum, 15 is better, and never slide it across the range. But they cook just fine.
Woks, not so much. I did buy a flat bottom wok when we got the stove, but gave it up as unsatisfactory.
We had a smooth cooktop in our new house and we HATED it.
It SUCKED! Never got hot enough, the top scratched, it was a bitch to clean…
I was unbelievably happy when the damn thing died and we could replace it.
My advice is don’t do it.
That seems to be the prevailing sentiment among people who do real cooking in their kitchens. Apparently I can shake a sauté pan over glass ceramic only if I’m willing to risk an indelible stain, a permanent scratch or catastrophic damage. It’s so very discouraging, especially when I could be roasting two turkeys, a pheasant and a suckling pig while keeping five pies warm at the same time!
You have to go high end on smooth tops to do any serious cooking on them, mine is not high end but it does pretty good with a wok and I haven’t scratched it with ceramic/iron, or cast iron, heavy gauge stainless works better than most, but the rings are too small for a 12" plus skillet. 2000.00 Yankee dollars (just for the stovetop) will solve all those problems, though.
There is a HUGE difference between just a “smooth top” stove and an induction stove. My induction is a glass top, cooks amazingly (can melt chocolate or make hollandaise without a double boiler, can sear super hot, etc.) and handles cast iron just fine. I regularly cook with a 15 inch cast iron pan that I swear must weigh over 10 lbs and it work brilliantly. Now, induction-compatible woks I know nothing about, but I make plenty of stir fries in my cast iron pans.
[QUOTE=Labrador Deceiver]
Not really. Saveur magazine chose to install flat top ranges in their test kitchen, and they abuse the hell out of them. Everyone there loves them.
Of course, theirs are made by Wolf.
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Amusingly, they had the same dilemma that many of us have - gas was not an option in their building, so it’s go electric or move.
Or Plan B - buy a propane-fired turkey fryer. If you don’t mind going outside to do your stir fry, you can get around 50,000 BTU for $50-100, especially now when the things go on sale.
I have one of those big propane burners. I also have a very old and perfectly seasoned round-bottom wok. Having to cook outdoors because I put a fancy new stove in the kitchen would be an unacceptable irony.
FWIW, at home I have a glass-top induction stove and it is fantastic.
I also have a couple of woks that can be used on induction stoves and I have cooked quite a lot of stuff with them. Obviously their bottoms are not totally rounded, but have a flat area to put them on the stove. Nonetheless, all in all the results are excellent.
Personally, if there is no access to what I think is the best (cooking with gas), then I recommend induction stoves (even though then you can only use iron/steel cookware) because they heat really fast, use quite a bit less energy than the standard ones, and in my experience give very good results food-wise.
Just my 2 eurocent!
EDIT – Although, homo litoralis, unfortunately your wok would not be usable with it. The pot needs contact with the induction stove for it to work and heat the pot.
Is gas completely out of the question for your kitchen stove? In my book nothing is better than cooking with gas, but I understand that it is not available everywhere.
First, at the Asian grocery, in the cookware section, you’ll find a wire metal ring thingy. It has pointed legs, 3 or 4, and appears to be a stand for something. If you invert it, (so it looks like a wire crown!), you can set it on your stove top and the wok on top. This works perfectly on my stovetop. (Mine IS a gas stove, but I had issues stepping away from a full wok, for even a second, without it falling over! Grrr!)
Secondly, also at the Asian store, they ought to have a portable, single gas element. They work with tins of gas, (also available there!). These are what you see caterers use for display cooking, like omelette bars, etc. If it’s only your wok giving you issues, you might consider going this way, they aren’t expensive, large, or difficult to use.
I’m afraid this discussion has done little to solve my quandary.
I like the idea of a double oven. Whirlpool has an induction model. I have some professional quality cookware that will work, but I would have to replace a couple of nonmagnetic stockpots, a nonstick frying pan and saucepan, a huge lobster pot and of course the beloved wok, all of which work beautifully on electric coils. This upgrade is approaching the neighborhood of three grand. Ouch.
I could forego induction and remain with a coil-top, but nobody makes one with a double oven. A nice toaster oven is a hundred bucks, but come on!
I could settle on one of those very pretty and feature-laden double oven smooth-tops, but then I’m back to worrying about that annoyingly delicate surface. Please don’t make me cook on eggshells.
That builder-grade vintage workhorse sitting in my kitchen is looking more and more attractive. Sigh.
We have an Amana smooth top range and we both love it. It heats up fast and we use cast iron skillets with no problem… though they need to be pretty flat, of course.
The only wear showing on the thing after a decade of heavy use is that the white designs on the surface have been scrubbed off, around the burners. Otherwise, pristine.
I got the Lodge cast iron wok for about $70 at Crate & Barrel, and it is an amazing piece of cookware. It is round inside but the bottom is flat. It heats up really evenly and is so thick and heavy that throwing in cold ingredients does not instantly cool everything down (a problem I’ve had with thin woks). It is also so heavy that you can stir with one hand without having to hold it with the other. Highly recommended. I think it would be especially amazing on an induction cooktop.
That’s encouraging, Sattua, especially because yesterday I crossed my fingers, said a little prayer, and ordered a non-induction glass cooktop. I reckon I’ll be content if I manage not to smash the thing into a thousand shards while frying an egg, and I’ve resigned myself to the notion that in a few years it might look like one of Jackson Pollock’s lesser known works.
Thank you for mentioning your cast iron wok, Aeschines. I figured that a lightweight, flat-bottom, carbon steel wok was the way to go, but you got me thinking about stability and heat-retention. I’m just not too keen on storing and retrieving such a heavy and unwieldy beast. (Retiring my old wok was heartbreaking, but then I realized that I could repurpose it as an outdoor smoker!)
