Cooking on an electric stove is not as hard as you might think. Yes, it can be a tricky job figuring out how it works and controlling the temperature initially.
To be honest, the cooking process on an electric stove is pretty simple. You prepare the food as you do it on the gas stove. But the tricky part is to understand the temperature settings.
If you can manage the temperature settings properly, the rest is the same as cooking the gas stove.
Through proper maintenance and getting the control mechanism in your hand, you’ll be able to cook on an electric stove like a pro.
Follow up further as we go through all the bells and whistles in the discussion below.
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How Does an Electric Stove Work?
Unlike a gas stove, an electric stove doesn’t heat up your food with flames.
There are two types of stovetops one is conventional stovetops and the other one is ceramic or radiant stovetop.
Each stove top works in a different manner. How? Let’s have a look.
Conventional Stovetops:
The conventional stoves have coiled heating elements and are exposed directly to cook your foods.
A conventional stove top has about two to four burners and each of the burners has a separate circuit unit that is controlled by an infinite heat switch.
When you turn the dial on electric coil stove, the switch closes letting 120 volts travel through each circuit.
The cooktop’s coil has two separate sides to control heating. Each one opens and closes to provide your required heat into the coils.
Ceramic or Radiant Stovetops
The ceramic or Radiant stove tops hide their heating element under a thick smooth glass surface.
This circuit process works in the same way as conventional stovetops but has a built-in limiter. This kind of stovetop comes in single to triple coil varieties.
On the limiter, there are terminals for the high limit switch and the indicator switch. The high limit switch is for shutting down the element if it gets overheated.
The indicator switch for informing you when the cooktop is hot enough. The switch will indicate when the temperature is past 150 degrees.
Cooking Methods With An Electric Cooker
Want to know how to cook your food on an electric stove? These methods in the following segment will help improve in cooking on the electric stove.
Pre-Heating The Stove’s Coil
Slow heating is one of the significant disadvantages of using an electric stove.
The electric stove’s coil takes a bit of time to heat up properly. Typically, an electric stove takes about 4 to 5 minutes to heat up properly.
To avoid any delay, you can preheat the cooker for some time before you start cooking.
We suggest you can turn on the burner and finish chopping up the veggies while the furnace heats up. It’s an excellent way to be efficient in the kitchen.
Understanding The Stove’s Temperature Settings
Finding the right temperature is the key to making your recipe delicious. But first, you need to familiarise yourself with the electric stove’s temperature settings.
You should know the temperature of the stove varies in between different models. Some have two or three temperature settings, and another model has four stages.
Let’s find out what’s the usage of these different temperature settings.
Simmer-temp. (50 to 80 degrees celsius.)
It’s used for keeping your food heated for some time. It comes in handy when you need your food to stay heated for several minutes. Remember, don’t keep it for long. Otherwise, your food can dry out and get burned.
Low-Temp. (80 to 100 degrees celsius.)
You can use this temperature setting to reheat your cold-cooked food. Suppose you cooked extra food and need to reheat those foods again. In such cases, the low-temp feature comes in real handy.
Medium-Temp. (100 to 150 degrees celsius.)
Most used settings while cooking your food like veggies and meats. The medium-temp. is your default setting. You can cook your daily meals at this temperature without any fuss.
High-Temp. (150 to 260 degrees celsius.)
It’s only used when you need to cook your red meat or other foods that take longer to boil properly. Though it has a high probability of burning your food, be extra vigilant while cooking at the temperature.
Although nowadays, some electric stoves have artificial intelligence that heats up and cools down on its own in accordance with the settings.
Getting used to managing the electric stove’s temperature is a valuable part of becoming an expert.
If you can manage it accurately, you can cook any kind of food on an electric stove.
Basic Cooktop safety
A cooktop is also known as a stovetop. It’s used to cover up the frying pen’s top while cooking food. It helps to navigate the heat into your food in a concealed manner.
The cooktops tend to get heated over time. If you don’t exercise proper safety measures, an accident might occur while you’re cooking. We’ve listed down some safety measures. You can follow them to avoid any accidents.
- When cooking on an electric stove for the first time, be aware of burners on the stovetop. Otherwise, you might burn yourself.
- If you’re unsure of the burner’s condition, check the warmth by putting your hand over the coil. Remember, don’t put your hand directly on the stove and keep a minimum distance.
- You should not leave any towels or rags near the stove. It can ignite flames through heating.
- Make sure the pot or panhandles are kept in a proper manner. Otherwise, you might knock it over while moving in the kitchen.
- When you’re not using the electric stove, make sure the furnace is turned off.
If any accidents occur and your arm or legs get burned, immediately use a first aid kit. If the burning caused major damage, you should see a doctor.
Why Choose An Electric Stove?
Nowadays, the usage of electricity is increasing gradually. Evidently, natural gas is a limited source globally, and an electric stove is a dependable substitute for a gas stove.
Using an electric stove has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s look at the pros and cons of an electric stove. So you have a better understanding of an electric stove.
Pros
Here are the advantages of using an electric stove
Cheap installation
Compared to gas stove installation, an electric stove is relatively cheap. That means the setup process of an electric stove won’t cost as much as a gas stove would.
Easy to clean
An electric stove is much easier to clean than a gas stove. You can easily clean an electric stove with a moist towel which will take a minute or two. Whereas cleaning up a gas stove can take hours to clean up.
Different settings
One of the best things about the modern electric stove is the pre-set settings.
That means you can pre-set what you’re going to cook. It allows you to cook different types of food with just the press of a button.
Cons
Here are the disadvantages of using an electric stove.
Higher electricity Bills
It goes without saying the electric stove is run on electric current. So it’s obvious, the cost of electricity would be higher than using a gas stove.
Less responsive
An electric stove is considerably less responsive than a gas stove. Its uneven heating takes a while to get used to.
Last words
Yes, indeed, an electric stove has its shortcomings, and it takes a bit of time to get used to.
However, once you get used to it and learn all the perks and tricks, using an electric stove won’t seem that difficult.
We tried to cover all the basic things you required to cook on an electric stove in the discussion above.
Also, we’ve discussed the pros and cons to help you choose better. The rest is up to you. Good luck.