[vsskanth]

This is surprising because gas cooking is considered a "premium" feature here in NC, and people look for it during their house search. Personally, it is a better cooking experience than electric. Induction might be the best, but it's still expensive.

[bwb]

That might be a bit of propaganda from the gas industry over the last 50 years. I heard similar but when i dug into it appeared to be bunk… i cook on electric now and love it.

[thsksbd]

I grew up on electric, and Im looking to switch from my current gas to induction. Mostly for safety reasons - I don't like open flames. So Im about as biased against gas as possible.

Electric heating elements suck. They take an appreciable time to warm up, they stay warm long after forcing the cook to adjust accordingly. Also, only gas can really work with woks, but I don't use woks so that's a non issue.

If the power is out (which happens a lit in my corner of the USA) electric is MIA. Every electric heating element (except induction) is annoying to clean.

Finally, people like gas. Who made us better that we are to tell them that they've been brainwashed by evil corporations? I imagine people have at one point used electric, Americans do move a lot, and they just done like it!

(Induction rocks though)

[Kirby64]

Glass topped electric (induction or not) beats gas in cleaning every time imo. You take a razor blade and some scrubbing solution and you can actually clean it fully. Gas stovetops have nooks and crannies that get gross and are much more difficult to fully clean. I dread cleaning my gas stovetop.

[thsksbd]

I find the scrapping sound jarring. Also, I'm not convinced of the (material) toughness of glass top. A heavy laden iron skillet is shatter poison for glass top.

That being said, I'll accept glass top to get induction. Arrest i won't have to scrape.

[fatbird]

We replaced our electric with induction instead of gas, which my wife much prefers to cook on. One of my best arguments against gas was that every gas stovetop available has a heavy iron framework over the flame to hold pots, and it's a pain to clean under them.

[legitster]

I really like the heavy grates though. Some of my recipes require me to really go to town on heavy cast iron pots and pans. Busting a glass top is a real bummer. In such cases it's almost better to have the old-school electric burners (there's a reason apartments almost never have a "nice" glass range).

[Kirby64]

Are you… dropping cast iron cookware on the stove? I don’t know any recipe that would require some movement that would damage a glass cooktop. Cast iron cookware seems to scratch glass tops over time, but that doesn’t seem to crack or damage them (unless you drop something on it, of course).

[legitster]

I've got a large 15lb enamel dutch oven. If I am doing any sort of speedy operation where I have to scrape off crusted ingredients, I might do some real clattering about. I have some real good chicken curry recipes where I do this.

It's also worth noting that certain things like home canning might actually void the warranty of your glass cooktop. The extreme weight put on them during the process can actually put more pressure on the layers than they can handle. Older canning equipment might not even be compatible with the flat surface.

[c0pium]

Every apartment I ever lived in that had electric had a glass range. If you’re even a little careful it’s perfectly fine. It sounds like you enjoy performative clattering, and if that’s your preference then more power to you, but that’s highly abnormal.

[vsskanth]

I don't know about your specific circumstances but for Indian cooking, gas is just miles ahead. We have electric at home, It just takes forever to cook anything and it's hard to control the heat. Our friends with gas cooktops get done in half the time.

[kaibee]

This might be a problem with your range. I bought a house recently with a new flipper-grade electric range and the first time I used the large burner on it, the amount of heat it put out completely eclipsed what the range in my previous apartment did. The only difference is that the new one has a glass top. On the high setting I can't even bring my hand within 6 inches of the burner once its up to temperature.

[vsskanth]

Heat isn't an issue. It's the lag. Feels like forever when you want to cook in high heat and ramp down.

[legitster]

The glasstops come with their own issues if you are doing a lot of cooking with heavy cast iron pans. I have some recipes that you really have to go to work on the pots and bang them around.

A gas range is really just the ideal setup for the most varieties of cooking, and there's a reason they are almost a requirement for most professional kitchens.

[bwb]

Something is off there, I grew up cooking on gas, and previous place I had a nice Bosch 6 burner. The electric one we have is better and I prefer it. It is fast and never had issues like that.

[RetpolineDrama]

>We have electric at home, It just takes forever to cook anything and it's hard to control the heat.

You like have an under-powered resistance range. A proper 240v 60A circuit powered induction range will out-heat any residential gas range and do it with laser-like precision.

[NewJazz]

Are you using an induction stovetop?

[vsskanth]

No. Just plain electric.

[NewJazz]

OK. That is indeed a sucky experience.

The only thing induction doesn't do well is cooking with things like woks, where you have a curved surface that you want to heat evenly.

[legitster]

Or any large pot or pan. Gas heat distributes heat nicely across the bottom and sides of any size pot you put on it. Even rectangular pans and dishes.

Even an old school electric is better in this regard than an induction top. If you lay a big cast iron pan across your induction top (which you wouldn't want to to begin with) it will literally only heat up the molecules directly above your biggest burner.

So while an induction is superior in 80% of cases, you still ultimately get more versatility out of gas.

[ska]

> That might be a bit of propaganda

Not really, there are a number of techniques that are harder (some not possible) on electric which has less control and high latency.

But ... it only matters if you are going to use such techniques.

[wharvle]

I can’t even cook scrambled eggs well on resistive electric. I mean, I can, but they won’t come out as good and there’s a much higher likelihood I’ll ruin them.

Delicate sauces? Getting a custard to come together just right? Maybe some people can, but me, forget about it. This is basic stuff, too, I don’t even know how to do anything fancy. I know that when I finally tried gas it was like “oh, I can cook now!”

Toasting flatbread and tortillas directly on the burners is handy.

IDK if I can do any of that on induction. I’ve only seen those in-person at the store and at one airbnb. We have a working gas stove and induction’s expensive, so I doubt I’ll own one for another decade or so, at least.

[RetpolineDrama]

Induction is faster, more precise, more efficient/green, safer, and most importantly not spewing toxic crap into your kitchen/living room where you presumably spend time with your family/children.

Even with an externally-vented vent hood (most dump back into the room) + make up air system (that most do not have) gas ranges still contaminate your kitchen.

[bsder]

On old school electric.

Induction is way better for control and latency than gas.

The only issue is if you need to genuinely ignite something (like in wok cooking--but, then, get a blowtorch--if it's good enough for J. Kenji Lopez-Alt it's good enough for you).

One real problem is that the standalone induction burners are only 110V in the US and that hamstrings them dramatically. Induction cooktops, however, do not suffer from that issue as they will be wired into 208/220V.

[ska]

Agree induction is pretty great, although it limits cookware and still doesn't work for all techniques (blowtorch doesn't replace everything). And you are right that the 110V are underpowered.

The ones I've used are less granular than gas (which is essentially continuous) and latency is similar. From what I've seen europe is still way ahead on induction offerings, but it seems to be getting better.

I'd probably lean towards induction these days because the particulates from gas are obviously a problem and not easily dealt with - but I won't pretend induction is a 100% drop in replacement/improvement.

[bsder]

> The ones I've used are less granular than gas (which is essentially continuous) and latency is similar.

However, I find that gas has no granularity at the lowest settings. Induction has like 4 or 5 settings below the minimum setting of gas. This is really great for melting or softening things.

Maybe this is different on a professional gas stove, but I've never used one of those.

[wharvle]

Induction’s still pricey, too. The low end of gas ranges is low-priced, indeed. And ranges (can) last a long time, so old-school electric is gonna be the “normal” electric range for many years yet, I expect.

Just checked Lowes. Cheapest induction range, $999. Four gas options are $499 or lower, four resistive electrics $499 or lower.

[ska]

True. Even Ikea's cheapest seems to be about 800.

[thsksbd]

Wok is impossible on electric.

One technique to recover lost heating control though is to place the pot partially on the element. You need a flat top electric and high quality cookware for that, but it works in a pinch

[snapplebobapple]

As someone who cooks quite a lot, it's not propaganda. Induction has 2 minor/moderate annoyances vs gas: It gets low temp by varying the time the burner is on full and heating diminishes rapidly if the pan isn't in close contact with the element. The former can be super annoying in some situations (i.e. making a sauce) as the sauce boils for a second, then gets too cold non stop. The latter can be a big problem if your pans warp even a bit (i.e. most non cast iron pans) or if you are basting.

That being said, I currently cook on induction at home because the annoyances above have work arounds/mitigations and the cleanup/ lack of heating the room of induction vs gas is worth more to me than not being annoyed sometimes. I don't like the pressure to get rid of this stuff, it should be individual choice depending on your own personal situation.

[RetpolineDrama]

>it should be individual choice depending on your own personal situation.

Your average individual is completely unequipped to make an informed decision on this topic. They have no idea their crappy gas stove is spewing high volumes of carcinogens and other nasty things into their kitchen.

We do the same thing for toys, my wife should be able to buy my child a toy at the store without having to bring an XRF gun to look for lead paint. Everything in the store should be safe by default. If you want to make a difference _at scale_ that's how you do it.

[snapplebobapple]

So, either your comparison is false equivalence or lead is way safer than it has been made out to be and probably deserves less restriction, because gas ranges are not default unsafe.

[RetpolineDrama]

>because gas ranges are not default unsafe.

They are in fact unsafe by default in basically every metric. In a brand new one spews toxic byproducts into your home, which for most people lacks the ventilation to remove it.

It also comes with the fun side effect of blowing up dozens of houses per year, being environmentally wasteful, and being inferior to induction for cooking.

[snapplebobapple]

It's code here to have ventilation and usually make up air for gas ranges, so maybe your area just sucks when it comes to building codes?

It's kind of amusing citing dozens of homes blowing up from gas when NFPA has just a bit under 50,000 electrical fires in homes in the USA due to electrical failure/malfunction each year with ~400 deaths and ~1400 injuries with ~1.5 billion in damages each year. If you add in electrical failure of lighting and distribution equipment in the home you slightly more than double the deaths, and 1.8X the other numbers each year....

Again, it's not inferior to induction cooking, it's better in many ways, but it's really personal preference and people should be allowed to make those choices themselves (as I said, I personally choose induction but I get why people like gas and recognize the ways in which it is superior, as well as the drawbacks).

[JohnFen]

I found the induction ranges are far more trouble than they're worth to me. The low temperature thing is a serious problem, and I really dislike that you have to use certain types of pans. I've used gas stoves enough to know that they're fine -- but for me they offer no important advantages over electric.

> I don't like the pressure to get rid of this stuff, it should be individual choice depending on your own personal situation.

So much this! Different strokes for different folks.

[encoderer]

Cooking food over an open flame has been the standard since prehistoric times.

Possibly the idea that a hot electric coil is just as good is the propaganda?

[Incipient]

A hot electric coil IS true garbage, it's inefficient and slow (I have one of these at home). When we say electric here, we mean induction.

Personally I'm a fan of cooking with gas. The inability to lift and move the pan on induction I don't like, and the glass tops they come with I find far too delicate for my liking.

[legitster]

> That might be a bit of propaganda from the gas industry over the last 50 years

What a crazy conspiracy theory. It assumes electric companies and appliance makers do no marketing of their own.

Gas cooking is obviously a more luxurious experience and anyone who says otherwise has not tried to make a hollandaise sauce on each.

[TheCoelacanth]

I've never had any trouble making hollandaise on an electric range.

[JohnFen]

> Gas cooking is obviously a more luxurious experience and anyone who says otherwise has not tried to make a hollandaise sauce on each.

I've made hollandaise and other delicate sauces on both. In my book, they're both perfectly fine. Excluding induction (which I have struggles with), I wouldn't call either better than the other.

[Incipient]

Don't you make a hollandaise sauce with a double boiler type approach? So shouldn't that really make the heat source even less relevant? As you lift the inner bowl to adjust cooking temp?

[RetpolineDrama]

>Gas cooking is obviously a more luxurious experience

Maybe for the 60+ boomer crowd, for everyone else Induction is way cooler than gas.

[JohnFen]

It's the opposite where I am. People tend to avoid gas. I've even seen people go to the extent of having gas service physically removed from houses they've bought.

[infecto]

Where is that generally? I am super conscious of air quality, would flip my stove but not sure I would rip out gas heat unless it already needed replacement.

[JohnFen]

I would prefer not to say very specifically, but I'm in a part of the US where electricity is less expensive than gas, which is probably the largest reason why people avoid gas around here.

Also, the majority of houses never had gas piped to them in the first place. Most people are used to electric and it's a nonissue for them, so there is little desire to use gas.

[hasty_pudding]

I would literally buy propane camping stove and a big bottle of propane rather than use an electrical stove.

[wharvle]

Resistive electric? I’m with you, I truly would just go for my own propane supply before going back to that crap. But you can get propane conversion kits for natural gas ranges, no need to get the camping stove.

I haven’t had a chance to try electric induction yet. I don’t know anyone who has one.

[PCI-eX16]

Why is that?

[hasty_pudding]

Latency on adjustments primarily.

If you're cooking a roux for example or sauteing garlic, 30 second latency is enough to ruin them.

Also, I have a feeling that the heat is distributed more evenly but no concrete evidence on that.

[dfxm12]

As the article says, gas cooking is poor for our health & the environment. Utility firms have to fight against buyers who are getting more educated about this, along with stricter codes also informed by this knowledge. At some level, you have to decide where you want to be on the axis between your cooking experience & your child's health (if that's a concern in your situation). If you feel induction is too expensive, you may qualify for assistance, under a state program or under the inflation reduction act.

Other than that, it's become a bit of an ID Pol issue [0], [1], [2], so I can see why considering it "premium" would be a thing in a sorta purple, sorta red state.

0 - https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-guest-alleges-electric-stove...

1 - https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/5-ways-biden-still-coming-yo...

2 - https://www.axios.com/2023/01/12/gas-stoves-conservative-bac...

[legitster]

The correlation between gas and children's asthma is pretty weak. And there are already existing correlations between gas usage and cold climates, and cold climates and children's asthma.

There are also strong correlations between electricity in the home and harm to children, but anyone in their reasonable mind would understand that you can improve consumer protections. So it's a bit of whataboutism to imply that only gas users are making safety tradeoffs.