Ranges: Gas or electric?

Which do you prefer to cook on & why?

HI,

Are you shopping for one or just curious?

Regards,

I prefer gas for the faster response.

Conventional wisdom favors dual fuel ranges, with a gas cooktop and an electric oven. Personally, I prefer all gas. On the stovetop, it gives you instant control of the heat level. Electric has a considerable lag time. Of course, this is not as big an issue with the oven, but I prefer the more moist heat of gas for the oven as well.

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

Are you shopping for one or just curious?

Regards,

Just curious. I prefer gas, myself.

I prefer gas. I love my 5 burner gas cooktop, and convection gas oven. It was one of the first things I picked out, & purchased when we built our home 2 years ago.

When I was stuck living in an apartment for 18 years I dreamed of the day I could have a gas stove/oven. I do not like the electric burners, or oven. I find the gas burners better, and more responsive, and the gas oven circulates the heat better than just a set of electric coils at the bottom of an electric oven in my opinion.

I also got used to cooking with gas when I was a cook back in the day.

stevez wrote:Conventional wisdom favors dual fuel ranges, with a gas cooktop and an electric oven. Personally, I prefer all gas. On the stovetop, it gives you instant control of the heat level. Electric has a considerable lag time. Of course, this is not as big an issue with the oven, but I prefer the more moist heat of gas for the oven as well.

Not to hijack the thread, but this response reminded me of a question I had. I know gas is better than electric when it comes to responsiveness of heat level control, but what about induction cooktops? I've never used one before, and I'm curious to hear opinions.

I am now a convert to gas, having been using it for the past 5 years. I'd never used it before - I don't think they're as common out in the NW. In all the apts/houses I lived in over there, none had a gas range.

I'm stuck with electric since that's what my apartment came with.

On the issue of lag when it comes to heat control in electric stoves, the solution is to keep a second coil at a lower/higher heat setting. When you need to instantly change to a different heat level, simply move the pan over to the second coil to eliminate the lag.

gtgirl wrote:Not to hijack the thread, but this response reminded me of a question I had. I know gas is better than electric when it comes to responsiveness of heat level control, but what about induction cooktops?

Induction burners are used at Volo - where my wife used to cook.
She claims you have even more control over the heat than gas.
Also, from a safety standpoint, you don't run the risk of accidentally burning yourself on the stovetop when the pan is removed.

gtgirl wrote:Not to hijack the thread, but this response reminded me of a question I had. I know gas is better than electric when it comes to responsiveness of heat level control, but what about induction cooktops?

We rented an apartment for a week or so in Barcelona that had an induction cooktop. I found it to be pretty fast in heating up, but harder to gauge the temperature on than a gas stove -- I personally like with gas that you can see the level of the flame and use that as a visual cue as to the right level. [On preview based on johnny's comment about his wife's experience -- I don't doubt you can learn to control it better than gas if you have more time to get to know it.] The other iffy thing with induction cooktops is that only certain types of pots and pans work on them (interestingly enough, several of the pots and pans included at the place we rented did not work on the stovetop). I would probably say I prefer the induction to electric (it seemed to heat up much more quickly than electric and provided a cooler looking stovetop), but it is much less preferable than gas, in my book. As with electric, induction might also be a challenge for things with a smaller surface area that touches the burner, such as woks.

As I understand it, induction is the most energy-efficient form of cooking (between induction, gas and electric), so you might make up the extra cost of an induction stovetop over a period of time with lower energy costs. For the vacation rental, with a toddler in tow, I also appreciated that there was no burning risk from the stovetop once the pans were removed (the stovetop was also lower than ours at home, so there was probably more of a burning risk).

I had nice electric cooktops at my last two places (ex. Dacor) and it has been a dream to have gas in the new house. The two main reasons are 1) Even the best electric burners take some time to cool down, so I was constantly moving pans around to the sides of burners to keep foods from burning while the burners cooled. 2) Its very hard to judge how hot an electrical burner is at low levels. Any burner can boil water, but cooking at lower temperatures is more difficult. With gas you get instant response and can also judge the temperature by the look of the flame. My new cooktop has separate low temperature simmer settings on all five burners which I find very useful. I feel much more in control of the cooking process on a gas range v. electric.

Never cooked on induction, but they seem to be very good at heating-up/cooling-down quickly.

For an oven though, electric has been fine, and convection very useful at times. Then again I don't bake a lot, and my main experience with gas ovens are with old run down units with inaccurate temperature settings and wild fluctuations in temperature - old period pieces that look nice in old mission style homes or New England row houses owned by people who don't cook.

I prefer gas cooktop to electric but there have been improvements in electric. I had a smooth top electric in my new home for a month before I got the gas line set up. It was a Maytag and was pretty responsive.

Gas oven have their merits. My electric oven (dual fuel) has been performing exceptionally well, with very even temperature. The prior stove was the all gas version of my current stove (DCS 305). I noticed a higher moisture content in the gas stove, which is good or bad, depending on what you're using the oven for!

I also voted gas for the simple fact that a paratha or tortilla
tastes much better if it's heated over a flame instead of a range...

~GS

I absolutely abhor the electric flat top that I have in this house. It takes forever to bring anything to a boil and is a real PITA to clean up.

The oven is alright.

Greasy Spoon wrote:I also voted gas for the simple fact that a paratha or tortilla
tastes much better if it's heated over a flame instead of a range...

~GS

or, pappadum, for that matter