You’ve probably cooked on a gas or electric stove before, but using induction might be new to you. As more communities and households wean themselves off natural gas, it seems induction cooking — and thus induction ranges — will only become more common.
Induction ranges have long been used in Europe and in professional kitchens, but they are still relatively new to the U.S., thus many home cooks have never used this method. I’m a chef, not an electrical engineer, so I won’t pretend to know all the intricacies of how these things work — here’s a better primer — but I can tell you that induction ranges heat cookware fast and efficiently. This is true whether you are using a built-in induction range or even a portable induction burner, like the one pictured above that I regularly use (my main range is gas).
But not all cookware works on induction. However, those that do all have this one thing in common: They’re magnetic.
Continue reading “The Easiest Induction Cookware Test”