MAGNETIC INDUCTION REALLY COOKS

While my column is primarily about computers, it's also about technology and every once in a while, something really amazing crosses my path and I feel compelled to tell you about it. For the past few days, I've been using a magnetic induction cooktop and I have seen the future of cooking.

I remember as a small child when my parents were introduced to microwave cooking. There was great excitement in the Crossman family when in 1967 we bought our very own Radar Range. It was the first consumer microwave oven and it was made by Amana. Amana didn't call it a microwave oven in hopes that the Radar Range brand name would catch on but of course it didn't. My folks were so excited about it that they invited many of their friends over to our home and literally threw a big party around the thing. I remember my father proudly rolling the Radar Range out on one of those little portable bar tables followed by a small procession of foods to be nuked. My dad began the whole thing by slicing a peach in half, removing the pit, adding a teaspoon of brandy to its center, some brown sugar and then he popped it in.
Everyone oohed and aahed as the delicious treat came out piping hot in under 60 seconds. We thrilled to a potato being baked in under 4 minutes. The grand finale was when on an impulse, he put in a marshmallow all by itself.
Everyone watched as it and their eyes swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe. Those were the heady days of microwave cooking.

Until then, cooking in the modern home was done using appliances that incorporated either electrical heating elements or gas flames. Microwave technology introduced a whole new alternative to conventional cooking.
Today, magnetic induction technology once again takes another similar leap forward over those conventional cooking methods.

There are two key things about magnetic induction cooking. It has the ability to produce heat instantly, and you can control that heat with a great deal of precision. While a gas flame is instantly hot, the pan in which your food sits still takes some time to heat up before things begin to sizzle. And forget about how long a conventional electric range element takes to first heat up let alone the pan which sits on it. But with magnetic induction, the cooktop's surface doesn't heat up. The pan that sits on it does. The magnetic induction field causes a flow of electricity within the pan's metal and its resistance to that flow generates heat directly in the pan itself! Current flowing through the resistance element of a conventional electric range's coil is how it generates heat but the difference is that here, the heat is generated directly in the pan itself and not in any part of the cooktop. The result of all this is that you get virtually instant heat to the food along with a high degree of temperature precision. It's amazing to watch. I put a half cup of water in the pan and turned it on. The water came to a boil in just 15 seconds. That's faster than gas and even faster than a microwave oven can do it. On that very same cooking surface, an ice cube I had placed next to the pan of boiling water remained frozen.

While the technology is being used in Europe, only now is it making its appearance here in the U.S. GE Appliances has just introduced their Profile line of home induction cooktops. The one I've been using is their GE Profile 36 inch induction cooktop with 5 cooking areas, model PHP960DMBB ($2349). GE also makes a smaller GE Profile 30 inch model PHP900DMBB
($1849) with 4 cooking areas. Both feature touch sensitive electronic controls (no ugly knobs) that display glowing red digits within the sleek, glossy black ceramic surface. They are absolutely beautiful. The temperature controls offer 19 levels of heat including a Burst mode that really heats things up.

The GE units have a whole lot of smarts added in, especially when it comes to safety. If you remove the pot or pan while cooking, the surface detects its absence and cuts off. If you place something with less mass on the surface such as your ring or a spoon, they won't heat up. Only pots and pans will be allowed to generate the cooking heat. There's even a control lock setting that provides the ability to lock the cooktop's controls, helping protect it from unintended activation. One other thing. Your cookware has to be made of something that's magnetic, namely iron or steel.
The cookware I use has an aluminum core but the inner and outer surfaces are stainless steel clad so they work just fine. The best test is to see if a magnet will strongly stick to it. If it does, it will work.

For those of you who live in an area where gas is just not available for one reason or another, and you've been lamenting that you can't cook with gas, you're actually in luck. Because now you have a whole other option that in my opinion, is a lot better. Magnetic induction cooking really is the next big thing in cooking technology. Other than possibly having to buy some new cookware and being somewhat pricey, I can find no real downside here. It's faster and more precise than gas, and it has the convenience and safety of electricity.

Just like my mother and father, I'm already planning a party around it.

www.geappliances.com

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