The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #79856   Message #1452228
Posted By: Stilly River Sage
04-Apr-05 - 09:27 PM
Thread Name: BS: Stove (range, oven) question...
Subject: RE: BS: Stove (range, oven) question...
I have also cooked on all of the above--wood, gas, and electric. Mostly I haven't had a choice, it was whatever the housing came with. Mostly I've used electric, so it is what I'm accustomed to.

I can't imagine having to cook something so fast that you need to heat a pan so quickly that the difference between gas and electric is really going to MAKE a difference. I have no problem overheating (!) my pans if I turn on the electric and put the pan on the burner empty. Whether gas or electric, you can still do a lot of damage in a hurry if you're not right there paying attention the whole time you're cooking.

P-Vine, you're a woman after my own heart. I also love cooking with the cast iron pans, and was told several times that they won't work on the flat stovetops. (My aunt had a very early one that required special pyrex flat-bottomed pots. Are they still so picky?) The thought of losing access to my pots makes my decision very easy. The style of cooking with cast iron is probably like cooking with electric--you have to sense when things are just hot enough and how long you have before you have to turn it or pull the pan off of the burner. The pan holds heat when it's off the burner. Like Susan says, you have control of the pot. I can see the small burners being a problem for cooking with big pots. I haven't canned (I want to start, though--my mother always did a lot of canning, and I have several friends who do) but I do grow tomatoes. LOTS of tomatoes. So I need to learn to can. (At this point, I know how to blanche to remove skins and freeze!)

On my electric burners I make the best popcorn, and I've always made it on an electric stove. Put some oil (usually more than you think you need, to get enough) and a few kernals in the pot, and with the lid in place, turn it on high. Once those start to pop, I dump in the measured amount, then using two hotpads on either side to hold the lid in a just slightly off-kilter position to let the steam out, I shake the pot over the electric eye, still on high, for anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. I've never actually timed it. But in no time flat, I have the best popcorn around. Makes that microwave stuff look like packing material. I can do the same thing with a gas stove, and I could probably even pop corn on a wood stove, but I'd have to give it some thought. (Probably better over the fire in one of those special fireplace poppers). Anyway, as easy as it is to make popcorn, it's always easier to burn it faster over gas. The electric averages out the temperature more effectively for something that has to cook hot.

Bottom line: Whatever you cook on, you have to pay attention.

SRS