Cooking on gas

[jfc]

Just got my range cooker hooked up and i'm wondering what burners to use I've always cooked on electic so these gas burners are weird . Do i cook on the small one ( thats my thinking ) as it heats the middle of the pan and spreads the heat or do i cook on the big one that heats the outside .... or do i cook on the wok one that heats everything

[davyowen]

What are you cooking and how big is the pan ;D

[jfc]

Just veg on the hob and a nice rump steak under the grill . I can handle the electric grill it's this gas hob that is wierd .

[jake]

Look at the flame, you want to get as much flame as possible (assuming you are heating something up, and not simmering), but not licking up the sides of the pans. The bigger rings will give out more heat at the top of their range, but you need a bigger pan to stop the flames going up the side. The smaller rings will go down lower, if you are simmering (size of pan is then irrelevant)

Gas is the best. Induction is OK. Other electric is rubbish.

[jfc]

Gotcha , so bring to the boil on the big ones and the simmer on the small ones .
Just as gas prices go up i get a gas hob , just my luck really

[dom]

Whilst the flame is important, more so is the pot you use.

Saucepans must be made of materials that are excellent conductors of heat. Copper is the most responsive to heat and is the first choice for sophisticated sauces. Copper, however, interacts with food and must be lined with tin, stainless steel or nickel. A tin lining will give you the greatest heat conductivity but from time to time wears out and must be replaced. A copper saucespan is ideal for delicate sauces because it not only conducts heat effectively but it also losses heat quickly when the pan is removed from the heat---a great advantage with heat sensitive recipes. If you make sauces regularly, it’s helpful to have one copper saucepan reserved for sauce work.

Aluminum heats well too, but acidic or alkaline foods can cause it to corrode and give food an off taste. Anodized aluminum has been treated to protect it from corrosion. You can use it with any ingredient but it is not dishwasher safe and its dark color can make it difficult to see subtle color changes in the foods you are cooking.

Stainless steel saucepans are the most versatile, but to heat effectively, they must have an aluminum or copper core or thick aluminum disk at the bottom.

Nonstick saucepans come in handy for preparing simple foods like vegetables, for reheating foods like soup and especially for sticky foods like oatmeal or rice. These pans don’t respond to heat as well as other pans and are not recommended for fine sauces.



Although saucepans are usually straight-sided, some take a different shape for specific purposes. WINDSOR PANS have flared sides that expose more of a food’s surface area, for better reduction of liquids. SAUCIERS have wide, rounded bottoms. The rounded edges make it easy to stir foods like pudding, whose ingredients might otherwise become stuck in the corners of a standard saucepan. The wide bottom provides room to brown ingredients before adding liquid to the pan.

Saucepans (like all stove-top pans) must have a perfectly flat bottom and sit on the burner without wobbling. They should also be heavy and durable, and resist denting and warping. However, they should still be easy to lift. Avoid thin gauge, cheap aluminum pots ---they dent easily and develop hot spots that can ruin food.


A saucepan’s handle must attach securely, preferably with rivets or thick, deep screws. Although it is always wise to use a potholder when you cook, the handle should stay as cool as possible. To cut down on heat, handles should be made of materials that are different from the pan or be hollowed in some way. Phenolic handles stay cool but are not broiler-proof. Wooden handles stay coolest but cannot be used in the oven, except at very low temperatures, and they are not dishwasher safe.

Saucepans usually come with lids. A good lid should sit on top of the pot snugly so it won’t rattle during cooking. Look for large knobs that stay cool or loops that leave room for potholders.

[sainty]

Dom are you the love child of Scrit and Delia Smith?


Sainty

[Alf]

sainty said:

Dom are you the love child of Scrit and Delia Smith?

I'm gonna print this off for my mum to explain why my cooking's a bit iffy - it's her pans! ;D

Cheers, Alf

[nickw]

Use the largest ring that does not result in the flame going up the side of the pan, thereby wasting energy. This goes for boiling and simmering.

[davyowen]

sainty said:

Dom are you the love child of Scrit and Delia Smith?

+1 Karma for you sir!

;D

[jake]

nickw said:

Use the largest ring that does not result in the flame going up the side of the pan, thereby wasting energy. This goes for boiling and simmering.

Not necessarily, my 5kW wok burner won't modulate down far enough to let me simmer anything even a massive (full) stock pot - in fact I have to use my smallest simmer ring on minimum, with a diffuser (the engineer set the simmer high because of our drafty old kitchen, now demolished).

With a good pan the base should conduct heat enough that it doesn't matter, unless you are trying to get max heat transfer.

[dom]

sainty said:

Dom are you the love child of Scrit and Delia Smith?

Yes, 'tis true, it is I, I am the love child of Scrit and Delia Smith.

I feel so much better now that the whole world knows.

[engineerone]

are you sure that a guy who only recently was asking about boiling pasta, can handle all the technology you have just loaded on him dom

personally i have found that the pans that look nicest in the shops are generally the worst, ie solid metal handles etc,
unless you are going to bung them in the oven like they do on some cookery programmes, they are a waste of time, and you always forget to use a cloth or oven glove to hold them, hence burning your hands a LOT

i have some german ANC stainless which are really neat and well made, great for one pot meals.

as for being the love child, are you really sure you wanted the world to understand so much about you

paul

[dom]

It coul;d have been worse, say, Jason and Amy Winehouse ;D

[jfc]

Now that would be one messed up kid

[engineerone]

you're not ;D

paul

[mrspanton]

Wot about good old cast iron? Traditional and works well as it holds the heat for a long time evenly (I dont undestrstand why as compared to aluminium what cools quicker?) We have a french hunter casserole and a small frying pan. In fact seriously we were discussing last night about trying hay box cooking with it seing asgas/oil/elecrtic is costing so much now and set to increase.
When I boil the kettleon our gas range it works best on the medium sized burner, if I use the biggest it is faster but the handle heats up a fair bit which would sudgest that a lot of heat was wasted