One of the greatest deterrents of nutrition in our present, fast-moving, and fast-food culture is the excessive heat used during food preparation.
For instance, we grill at temperatures of over 1000 degrees, deep-fry at temperatures of 350-450 degrees, and even use our stoves at even higher degrees.
While this may be fast and easy, it comes at a high nutritional cost because the nutrients in our food cannot withstand very high temperatures.
Induction cooking is one of the next big things in the world of technology.
Induction cooking uses the concept of electromagnetism to cook and heat food.
The cookers' temperatures range from as low as gentle melting of butter to boiling a large pot of water in less than three minutes.
This is why we need the induction hob temperature guide.
It simply entails using electromagnetism to turn cooking pans into gas.
In essence means to create energy from inside the pan itself, rather than having it from outside.
This is an efficient method as it endures food cooks more quickly and using less energy.
Using an induction cooker is more efficient and fast as compared to other cookers.
Most of the heat is produced in the pan which ensures that a lot of the energy goes directly into the food, ensuring it cooks faster.
Most induction cookers are also created using glass cooktops. The glass tops are immensely easy to maintain and clean.
The lack of an open flame in this type of cooker guarantees safety during cooking, especially where there are children in the household.
In addition, the cooker has some great features which include:
- Built-in timers,
- Temperature sensors,
- Easy to switch on or off,
- Remote control by smart apps.
Most times it is impossible to achieve anything good by using too much heat.
In this case, It becomes essential and wise to identify the different types of temperature requirements.
The requirements are needed to cook different types of food when using an induction cooker.
In as much as different models of induction, cookers have different temperature settings, cooking temperatures cut across all induction cookers.
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Cooking Different Types of Food
As a standard, induction cookers temperatures range between 38 and 301 degrees Celsius (100.4 to 573.8 ° F).
This is effectively the temperature setting range for cooking a large variety of foods.
As you deliberate on purchasing or using an induction cooker, here are some induction cooking temperature guides you should use.
Induction Cooking Temperature Guide
Temperature Range in ° F | Temperature Range in ° C | Cooker Setting | Function |
---|---|---|---|
98.6 ° F - 149 ° F | 37° C - 65° C | Low | Steaming Vegetables Slow Cooking function Heating Cooking oil Melting Frozen Foods |
190.4 ° F - 212 ° F | 88° C - 100° C | Medium Low | Simmering Vegetables Slow Sauteing food Boiling soups |
248 ° F - 275 ° F | 120° C - 135° C | Medium | Cooking Eggs or Noodles Suitable for pasta Boiling Potatoes |
302 ° F - 365 ° F | 150° C - 185° C | Medium High | Deep frying Beef, Chicken Stir fry french fries. |
392 ° F - 449.6 ° F | 200° C - 232° C | High | Searing Meats Heating Pop corn Browning turkey skin after roasting |
572 ° F - 575.6 ° F | 300° C - 302° C | Max | Sear function |
High Heat
- High heat settings are rarely used and it is advisable not to use them. This is because high heat is not necessarily needed for normal cooking.
- You may use high heat when boiling large amounts of water for instance.
- Other than that, it is advisable to stick to low or medium temperature when heating food.
Low Heat
- If you need to prepare delicate food, use the lowest heat option while using slow cooking methods.
- An induction cooker is very handy as it has very low heat settings which can melt chocolate, as well as maintain the warmth of food at the lowest temperature levels.
- Please note that you should not deep fat-fry your food, as this could lead to smoking.
- Contrary to many misconceptions, deep frying food does not always require high temperatures.
- Steaming vegetables also require low to medium heat of the induction cooker, as this allows the vegetables to retain their tender softness.
- This also ensures the water of the food does not boil or steam too fast.
- As an alternative, consider heating cooking oil slowly using low heat and maintain it at that heat and at most medium heat levels.
- For melting frozen food or to maintain the warmth of the food after cooking, it is worth considering using the low-temperature settings.
- This is to ensure even heating while maintaining the nutritional content and taste of the food.
- This also prevents over-cooking or burning, as in the case of cooked food.
Medium Heat
- For boiling vegetables, you will have to use simmering heat levels. The temperatures are slightly lower than the temperature of boiling water.
- For finding the perfect simmering heat, you should continuously adjust the heat levels until your water or veggies start bubbling over.
- When dry frying food, you need to take caution of the food’s temperature levels as the more the temperature, the higher the chance of your food being overcooked.
- For well-fried ( whether stir or fry fried food), it is advisable to use medium temperature which is enough to ensure your pan becomes hot enough for frying the pan dry at just the right temperature.
- Moreover, if you are planning to host a barbeque party and you intend to use the induction cooktop to prepare the food, you need to ensure the heat level is as consistent as possible.
- It is advisable to set the temperature between 93 degrees and 121 degrees as a standard amount of temperature heat as this is the most appropriate heat for cooking many types of food.
- In this regard, if you are setting up your induction cooker it is advisable to select the right temperature by using grill plates and adjust the heat levels according to the heat that induction performs best at.
- It is important to note that the intensity of heat is not as crucial as the consistency of heat levels when barbequing.
- Sautéing food often requires higher heat levels for ordinary cookers, but not the case for induction cookers. If you are doing this, select temperature levels slightly lower than medium, as this will allow proper heating of oil to ensure your meat cooks slowly and perfectly.
- If you would like to sauté meat to perfect brown and right crispiness, it is advisable to choose the temperature setting just below medium.
- Using this heat setting would ensure the oil in the food cooks slowly. The setting ensures that the meat cooks well, gets the crispy texture and look while having the perfect brown color.
When you purchase an induction cooker, you will find highlighted the specifications and temperature settings to help you as you prepare food.
Depending on the type as well as your method of cooking, you should be careful about the different types of temperature settings for the food.
It is important to note that induction cookers are extremely energy efficient and savers, which provide the required sophistication as we cook.
They also allow specialized temperature levels for precision.
For instance, certain brands of induction cookers have as many as 19 different control settings while others have as little as 5 different settings.
However, you should not worry much about determining and using the right temperature settings.
It takes some amount of practice and experience to determine and use the best heat setting for the induction cooker.
You can also watch tutorials and video guides on using induction cookers and induction hob temperature guides.
There is a lot of knowledge and information that available online.
One more suggestion would be that you should not be afraid to experiment in order to find out the best settings to suit your cooking style, as well as the type of food you prepare.
Despite this, induction cooking is a different type of cooking that you may need to learn and get used to.
For instance, you would have to learn which number on the cooker’s dial parallels the amount of heat needed.
This is an art that requires patience and practice.
Drawbacks of using Induction Cooktop
One of the greatest and most significant challenges of purchasing and using an induction cooker is its expensive pricing.
For instance, an average induction cooker may cost significantly higher than an ordinary cooker, and some cost four times as much.
This may be a high investment for a cooker, considering other purchases that need to be made as well.
Another challenge is that you may need to have the right set of cooking materials for this type of cooker.
This is because induction cooking only works well with only certain types of cooking pans, such as iron cooking pans.
Special cooking equipment is needed because iron is the only metal that produces electrical current and heat from magnetical fields.
In this regard, copper, aluminum as well as other certain types of glassware may not function using this pan.
If you don’t have compatible cookware, you may have to incur an additional cost of purchasing new iron cookware sets.
Please note that as you cook, you should not place your hand on direct cooktops which have been recently used in cooking.
This is because these cooktops may be very hot due to the cooking pans which have been used on them, as this may cause a severe accident.
Why you should purchase an induction cooker
When you are looking for faster and more efficient ways of cooking food, not to mention a safe and convenient way, consider adopting induction cooking as your preferred cooking method.
The high initial cost of investing in an induction cooker will be recouped by the amount of energy and gas bills you would save.
It is your best companion in cooking, not to mention the ease of cleaning the induction top.