This a worthwhile essay. Almost forty years ago I worked briefly in a high-end restaurant kitchen. It is where I really learned to cook. I've subsequently done three kitchen renovations in my homes. In the first two homes I put in Garland 6-burner commercial ranges with Garland commercial exhausts. I could deep fry to my heart's content. In my last reno, I put in a BOSCH induction range and a high-end residential exhaust (to the outside as should always be the case). The induction range is faster than the gas ranges and temperature control is more precise. Most importantly, because I am not heating enormous volumes of hot air as was the case with my gas ranges, the smaller externally-vented exhaust still works perfectly. In general, consumers are ill- informed and the appliance industry helps them remain that way. The most overlooked appliance in every kitchen renovation is the exhaust. People dream about their ranges and the exhaust is an afterthought. Induction ranges ameliorate the impact of such misguided prioritization. They produce no hot air (which can be 20X the volume of room temperature air) and they produce no CO2, CO, or NO2 all of which are to some extent toxic. The truth is houses/apartments should be fully electrified. Burning gas to do anything in a home is inefficient and potentially harmful. But our governments are short-sighted and chickenshit, and corporations fight such change. Remember how long it took governments to (kind of) address the harms caused by smoking.
Every so often a friend would ask my advice. They’d expect me to focus on the range. I’d always ask about the exhaust and air supply. My first Garland hood would, if used on high inattentively, extinguish candles. I love to deep fry and it would create huge volumes of air that would get exhausted and need to be somehow simultaneously replaced. It’s a simple concept but largely ignored. I enjoy your essays.
"Others, mainly men, sentimentalized the open fire of the old fireplaces, believing that adopting a cook stove would ruin domestic life and social intercourse that occurred in the glow of an open fire."
Isn't it just like men to sentimentalize the existence of an earlier stress- and care-free period of time that never actually existed?
Cooking easily qualifies as the quality application for the quality heat source. I have seen people build super-duper insulated homes and then put in gas fireplaces and ranges. It boggles the imagination.
We bought an induction range recently....very nice.
So fascinating- had never viewed gas stoves in this way before. I used to think gas was the best because they were “chef-y” and restaurant quality but I am so excited to replace with induction when our current gas range goes out. It works well but the knobs need replaced and at $175 USD a piece, it may be worthwhile to simply upgrade to induction sooner rather than later!
You rarely speak into anyone who cooks a lot and who switched from gas to induction who isn't glad they switched. I learned to cook on gas and it was fine. Then I tried induction. So much better.
Same goes with EV owners. I know several and none will ever buy a fossil fuel vehicle.
Same here. 6 years ago we switched to induction and I never want to go back. 5 years ago electric car.
One obstacle to induction is many homes do not have an electric outlet for the stove which increases the cost. Building codes should specify an outlet even if gas is installed.
Great read as always! One missing element here is getting commercial kitchens to convert to electric/induction. I think as long as there's the perception that gas is more "professional," there will be a demand for it over the electric options. Get a high end, high profile chef to embrace induction, teach it as part of the curriculum at CIA, and then you'll see the changes dribble into the home.
Speaking for myself, I always thought I preferred gas. We bought a home 18 years ago that had a ceramic top electric range and an open basement below. Top of my to do list was to run a gas line and replace the stove, but then I fell in love with the clean ceramic top. Such a better design, easy to clean, etc. When we moved to a new house 2 years ago, my first task was to rip out the propane stove and add a ceramic electric range that I bought for $100 on Craigslist!
I like cooking on gas. My stove is an investment in the quality of my life (as long as the tank doesn't explode, I don't run out of propane, and the stove doesn't leak). When the wind blows and the power is out, we can still cook.
The answer to all this was missed decades ago: population control.
When I renovated my very average budget kitchen 4 years ago, I really wanted an induction stove, all I could find was one approx $1000 ish one at ikea that they were discontinuing so that concerned me and all local appliance stores only offered inductions starting at over $3000. I really wanted a decent priced one for my decent new kitchen. Had to opt for a pretty crappy electric Samsung to stay on budget. maybe by the time it dies there will be more budget wise inductions to choose from. I hope. I hope the appliance stores phase out gas too.im with you on this article, just need more choices in the market for us average folks..
From the perspective of someone who has rented apartments with both gas and electric stoves, the gas stove has been much better. I just don’t see your average nyc landlord putting quality induction stoves in rentals outside of new luxury buildings. It would be nice to have a new induction stove, but until I own and am able to renovate my own kitchen, I’d rather have gas than a low end electric stove.
There's another aspect to the conversation about induction cooking.
Years ago my electric range died and I decided to try just cooking with induction hotplates. I was gobsmacked by how easy it was to cook an entire meal on two hotplates. When my wife moved in she wanted an oven, so we got a small commercial 20 amp convection oven (OMG--what an improvement over the oven in any range I've seen). Later on, we got a third hot plate. They have amazing control, kept the kitchen much cooler in the summer, and I found I could use them for stuff like water-bath canning (they worked wonderful for slow simmering to make tomato paste). AND THEY ARE DIRT CHEAP!!!!!!!! ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE CHEAPER THAN EITHER A GAS RANGE OR A MAGNETIC INDUCTION RANGE!!!!!
I think this is the real fear of the people who make and sell ranges. There are already on the market alternative systems that are much cheaper and more flexible to use. If people figure out how much money they are wasting on any type of cooking range the whole industry will collapse like the Hindenburg.
I hear this a lot, but those just in case gas connections are expensive. 3 people in Dallas just lost their lives, 5 injured, in a gas explosion. Last year an improperly installed propane tank exploded a few miles from me. I've never felt anything like it. The people who lived nearby had garage doors blown in and roofs collapse. Thankfully, the home owners hadn't moved in yet.
I keep a small propane tank in my garage over the winter and a small stove and heater for emergencies. As soon as the winter weather risk is over, we donate the tank to our Cub Scout pack for spring camp out. Costs $60. In 5 years we've never needed it. But I've saved thousands on not having a gas bill.
Lots of people say that. I live in Maine, where the power often goes out for a day or six. Pretty much everyone has a generator because with no electricity, your food spoils, your well doesn't pump, there's no hot water and your heat doesn't work. Not being able to cook isn't the number one problem.
So when the power goes out, I use my generator to run everything, including my induction cooktop.
When we renovated our apartment in 2012, we wanted to install an induction cooktop. When the electrician was called to do the installation, we discovered the apartment's electrical supply wouldn't handle the higher electric demand (over a 'conventional' halogen cooktop). That problem may now be mitigated by the lower-initial-electrical-demand stemming from the partially battery supplied induction tops. The development we are in was originally built to to CMHC low-cost standards in 1979, and the 2000 'renovation' was basically from the paint inwards...
When the N. American brand microwave/hood exhaust fan was about to die along with the same-brand oven, we replaced both with a reliable German brand - except the new hood fan is extremely noisy, and still dependent on the roof-top common exhaust fan serving all the apartments below us. So - check what your building can handle as we move to more electrical reliance!
I've got an induction hob for the convenience of cleaning and a gas ring for everything else. It remains unparalleled for control, because it comes with a twiddly knob. I've never used an induction hob with a twiddly knob, and if I could I'd probably fully convert.
New home construction in Canada has stalled due mainly to market uncertainty and the costs of new developments. One way to reduce costs of new residential development is to forgo installing Fossil Gas pipelines. Like much the present Ontario government does, they have forbidden cities from taking this action. If you really, really want a gas stove, propane is readily available in Ontario.
That's infuriating. We have the same thinking here, and I keep hearing it's all about customer choice. Yet somehow when my parents-in-law bought their home and wanted electric, they couldn't opt out of the gas line or gas cooktop. They could pay extra for a 240V outlet for a future electric range. So after being forced to pay for and install a gas cook top they never wanted, they were told they could have it removed and buy an electric after they moved in. So much for customer choice.
Great article! Sharing some references below on the health impacts of gas stove cooking:
Gas stoves release nitrogen dioxide (an irritant linked to asthma) and benzene (a known carcinogen) into our homes. Switching to induction is an immediate win for indoor air quality.
Let's not forget the bigger picture. About two billion people worldwide ---many of them poor--- cook on propane and another billion or so cook on kerocene. Our absurd war in the Middle East is threatning to cut off those fuels.
In the long run, let's hope that everyone can electrify cooking. In the meantime, cooking food for humans is no doubt the best and highest use of fossil fuels.
This is not entirely on topic, but I’m wondering whether you recommend a particular brand of induction range. I want to switch but don’t want to get something that’s so complicated, it’s hard to repair. That is the appeal of the gas stove to me (i.e., its simplicity). TIA!
This a worthwhile essay. Almost forty years ago I worked briefly in a high-end restaurant kitchen. It is where I really learned to cook. I've subsequently done three kitchen renovations in my homes. In the first two homes I put in Garland 6-burner commercial ranges with Garland commercial exhausts. I could deep fry to my heart's content. In my last reno, I put in a BOSCH induction range and a high-end residential exhaust (to the outside as should always be the case). The induction range is faster than the gas ranges and temperature control is more precise. Most importantly, because I am not heating enormous volumes of hot air as was the case with my gas ranges, the smaller externally-vented exhaust still works perfectly. In general, consumers are ill- informed and the appliance industry helps them remain that way. The most overlooked appliance in every kitchen renovation is the exhaust. People dream about their ranges and the exhaust is an afterthought. Induction ranges ameliorate the impact of such misguided prioritization. They produce no hot air (which can be 20X the volume of room temperature air) and they produce no CO2, CO, or NO2 all of which are to some extent toxic. The truth is houses/apartments should be fully electrified. Burning gas to do anything in a home is inefficient and potentially harmful. But our governments are short-sighted and chickenshit, and corporations fight such change. Remember how long it took governments to (kind of) address the harms caused by smoking.
I have written so much about kitchen exhausts over the years, including "The Most Screwed Up, Badly Designed, Inappropriately Used Appliance in Your Home: The Kitchen Exhaust" https://www.treehugger.com/the-worst-appliance-in-your-kitchen-4856416
Every so often a friend would ask my advice. They’d expect me to focus on the range. I’d always ask about the exhaust and air supply. My first Garland hood would, if used on high inattentively, extinguish candles. I love to deep fry and it would create huge volumes of air that would get exhausted and need to be somehow simultaneously replaced. It’s a simple concept but largely ignored. I enjoy your essays.
Governments, at least as we know them, are for the people, by the people. Talk to your friends, write book. Create an induction revolution.
"Others, mainly men, sentimentalized the open fire of the old fireplaces, believing that adopting a cook stove would ruin domestic life and social intercourse that occurred in the glow of an open fire."
Isn't it just like men to sentimentalize the existence of an earlier stress- and care-free period of time that never actually existed?
Then stop berating men please. wtf
Will do...
Do you hate yourself that much?
Not that much.
Cooking easily qualifies as the quality application for the quality heat source. I have seen people build super-duper insulated homes and then put in gas fireplaces and ranges. It boggles the imagination.
We bought an induction range recently....very nice.
So fascinating- had never viewed gas stoves in this way before. I used to think gas was the best because they were “chef-y” and restaurant quality but I am so excited to replace with induction when our current gas range goes out. It works well but the knobs need replaced and at $175 USD a piece, it may be worthwhile to simply upgrade to induction sooner rather than later!
You rarely speak into anyone who cooks a lot and who switched from gas to induction who isn't glad they switched. I learned to cook on gas and it was fine. Then I tried induction. So much better.
Same goes with EV owners. I know several and none will ever buy a fossil fuel vehicle.
Same here. 6 years ago we switched to induction and I never want to go back. 5 years ago electric car.
One obstacle to induction is many homes do not have an electric outlet for the stove which increases the cost. Building codes should specify an outlet even if gas is installed.
Great read as always! One missing element here is getting commercial kitchens to convert to electric/induction. I think as long as there's the perception that gas is more "professional," there will be a demand for it over the electric options. Get a high end, high profile chef to embrace induction, teach it as part of the curriculum at CIA, and then you'll see the changes dribble into the home.
Speaking for myself, I always thought I preferred gas. We bought a home 18 years ago that had a ceramic top electric range and an open basement below. Top of my to do list was to run a gas line and replace the stove, but then I fell in love with the clean ceramic top. Such a better design, easy to clean, etc. When we moved to a new house 2 years ago, my first task was to rip out the propane stove and add a ceramic electric range that I bought for $100 on Craigslist!
I like cooking on gas. My stove is an investment in the quality of my life (as long as the tank doesn't explode, I don't run out of propane, and the stove doesn't leak). When the wind blows and the power is out, we can still cook.
The answer to all this was missed decades ago: population control.
PS. Get off my lawn :)
When I renovated my very average budget kitchen 4 years ago, I really wanted an induction stove, all I could find was one approx $1000 ish one at ikea that they were discontinuing so that concerned me and all local appliance stores only offered inductions starting at over $3000. I really wanted a decent priced one for my decent new kitchen. Had to opt for a pretty crappy electric Samsung to stay on budget. maybe by the time it dies there will be more budget wise inductions to choose from. I hope. I hope the appliance stores phase out gas too.im with you on this article, just need more choices in the market for us average folks..
From the perspective of someone who has rented apartments with both gas and electric stoves, the gas stove has been much better. I just don’t see your average nyc landlord putting quality induction stoves in rentals outside of new luxury buildings. It would be nice to have a new induction stove, but until I own and am able to renovate my own kitchen, I’d rather have gas than a low end electric stove.
My daughter got an Ikea stove with induction cooktop. She likes it. I've used it. It's really fine.
There's another aspect to the conversation about induction cooking.
Years ago my electric range died and I decided to try just cooking with induction hotplates. I was gobsmacked by how easy it was to cook an entire meal on two hotplates. When my wife moved in she wanted an oven, so we got a small commercial 20 amp convection oven (OMG--what an improvement over the oven in any range I've seen). Later on, we got a third hot plate. They have amazing control, kept the kitchen much cooler in the summer, and I found I could use them for stuff like water-bath canning (they worked wonderful for slow simmering to make tomato paste). AND THEY ARE DIRT CHEAP!!!!!!!! ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE CHEAPER THAN EITHER A GAS RANGE OR A MAGNETIC INDUCTION RANGE!!!!!
I think this is the real fear of the people who make and sell ranges. There are already on the market alternative systems that are much cheaper and more flexible to use. If people figure out how much money they are wasting on any type of cooking range the whole industry will collapse like the Hindenburg.
I think this is the future of cooking- you take out as many induction cooktops as you need. A friend of mine designed a kitchen that way over a decade ago. Here is an Italian design where you just hang them on the wall. https://www.treehugger.com/hang-your-hobs-wall-when-you-arent-cooking-them-4858010
As long as there are storms and elec trical outages, gas appliances have a purpose and should be an option for the consumer.
I hear this a lot, but those just in case gas connections are expensive. 3 people in Dallas just lost their lives, 5 injured, in a gas explosion. Last year an improperly installed propane tank exploded a few miles from me. I've never felt anything like it. The people who lived nearby had garage doors blown in and roofs collapse. Thankfully, the home owners hadn't moved in yet.
I keep a small propane tank in my garage over the winter and a small stove and heater for emergencies. As soon as the winter weather risk is over, we donate the tank to our Cub Scout pack for spring camp out. Costs $60. In 5 years we've never needed it. But I've saved thousands on not having a gas bill.
Lots of people say that. I live in Maine, where the power often goes out for a day or six. Pretty much everyone has a generator because with no electricity, your food spoils, your well doesn't pump, there's no hot water and your heat doesn't work. Not being able to cook isn't the number one problem.
So when the power goes out, I use my generator to run everything, including my induction cooktop.
When we renovated our apartment in 2012, we wanted to install an induction cooktop. When the electrician was called to do the installation, we discovered the apartment's electrical supply wouldn't handle the higher electric demand (over a 'conventional' halogen cooktop). That problem may now be mitigated by the lower-initial-electrical-demand stemming from the partially battery supplied induction tops. The development we are in was originally built to to CMHC low-cost standards in 1979, and the 2000 'renovation' was basically from the paint inwards...
When the N. American brand microwave/hood exhaust fan was about to die along with the same-brand oven, we replaced both with a reliable German brand - except the new hood fan is extremely noisy, and still dependent on the roof-top common exhaust fan serving all the apartments below us. So - check what your building can handle as we move to more electrical reliance!
I've got an induction hob for the convenience of cleaning and a gas ring for everything else. It remains unparalleled for control, because it comes with a twiddly knob. I've never used an induction hob with a twiddly knob, and if I could I'd probably fully convert.
New home construction in Canada has stalled due mainly to market uncertainty and the costs of new developments. One way to reduce costs of new residential development is to forgo installing Fossil Gas pipelines. Like much the present Ontario government does, they have forbidden cities from taking this action. If you really, really want a gas stove, propane is readily available in Ontario.
Ford even overturned a decision by the regulator to have the cost of gas installation charged upfront instead of spread over 40 years because they knew that it would be a stranded asset. https://lloydalter.substack.com/p/why-is-the-ontario-government-so?utm_source=publication-search
That's infuriating. We have the same thinking here, and I keep hearing it's all about customer choice. Yet somehow when my parents-in-law bought their home and wanted electric, they couldn't opt out of the gas line or gas cooktop. They could pay extra for a 240V outlet for a future electric range. So after being forced to pay for and install a gas cook top they never wanted, they were told they could have it removed and buy an electric after they moved in. So much for customer choice.
Great article! Sharing some references below on the health impacts of gas stove cooking:
Gas stoves release nitrogen dioxide (an irritant linked to asthma) and benzene (a known carcinogen) into our homes. Switching to induction is an immediate win for indoor air quality.
NO2 citation: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adm8680
Benzene citation: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c09289
Let's not forget the bigger picture. About two billion people worldwide ---many of them poor--- cook on propane and another billion or so cook on kerocene. Our absurd war in the Middle East is threatning to cut off those fuels.
In the long run, let's hope that everyone can electrify cooking. In the meantime, cooking food for humans is no doubt the best and highest use of fossil fuels.
This is not entirely on topic, but I’m wondering whether you recommend a particular brand of induction range. I want to switch but don’t want to get something that’s so complicated, it’s hard to repair. That is the appeal of the gas stove to me (i.e., its simplicity). TIA!