If you visit a high-end kitchen appliance store, you will see a bunch of induction cooktops for thousands of dollars. You hear of people who have started using them, and they also seem to have to buy brand-new saucepans to suit them.
But what is induction cooking, and is it any better? To understand the technology, I recently tried the Westinghouse Induction Cooktop 2000W Super Slim Single.
Induction cooking explained
On a traditional cooktop, you use gas or electricity to heat a pan. Whether by fire or a red-hot electrical element, you transfer heat to the pan to cook. An induction cooktop uses electromagnetism to generate a magnetic field that interacts with the pan. The pan heats up, but not the cooktop.
The pan must contain iron to work, so if your saucepans or wok are made of aluminium or have a copper base, you will be off to the shops to buy some new induction-compatible ones. The easy test is to grab a fridge magnet. If it sticks to your cookware, the cookware will work with induction.
A lot of people like cooking with gas because it heats the pan faster. An induction hob will heat up three times faster than a gas hob. You have instant control over your heat, but you do have to learn to cook differently as a result.
I also found that you get more of a power surge on and off, like a microwave. This can lead to burning as you will turn your induction up to get the heat going, as you would traditionally when you do not have to. To illustrate induction cooking’s power, it would take half the time to boil a cup of water. For cooks who take a saucepan off the hob to reduce heat quickly, on an induction cooktop, it will turn off, so you would need to switch it back on.
From a safety perspective, induction is also a winner as the cooktop surface does not get as hot. There will be some heat that transfers back from the pan, but no more burning yourself on the stove. The induction surface is made of glass, which is easy to clean but also easy to scratch, much like a glass-top stove.
Energy efficiency is higher with induction cooktops, transferring more energy to a pan than a gas stovetop does.
Testing the Westinghouse Induction Cooktop
Whilst a fancy European induction cooktop may be expensive, you can dip your toe in the water with plug-in Westinghouse induction single hobs starting at $135. I tested the slimline model at $170. For $270, they sell a double hob model. It’s sold through major appliance retailers, including Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, and Appliances Online.
Measuring 28 x 35 x 2.3cm, the Westinghouse Super Slim Single is highly portable and is equally at home in your kitchen or, if you have the means to power it, camping (it is not affected by wind like gas is). It requires a standard 240-volt power outlet.
To cook with the Westinghouse induction cooktop, you use a touch-sensitive LED display to choose whether to cook by temperature or by wattage. Both are the same, just a different way of depicting the traditional 1-9 on a stove. For temperature, you choose between 60 and 220 degrees Celsius, while you choose 200-2000W for wattage. A timer is also built in, which switches off the stove after the set time. If you have young children, you can also activate a child lock.
We have benefited from an induction cooktop in our caravan for a few years now, and although converted, we have not rushed out to upgrade our home cooktop. With this plug-in model, we can now benefit from the best of both worlds. My advice is to start cooking at a lower heat as you learn this new method and gradually increase the heat to achieve the right result.
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