How can I adjust to cooking on an electric stove?

Question

I've never cooked on an electric stove before.

Answer 1

Don't let it scare you.
I moved into an apartment a year ago and had the same problem. You should have no problem at all with the oven.
I suggest you try what I did. Fry some bacon either for bacon & eggs or a BLT. Set your heat fairly low to begin with and gradually increase it until you are comfortable with the heat range for cooking.
Another way is to just boil some eggs. Start with a higher heat range keeping and eye on the water to see how fast it takes to reach the boiling stage and adjust heat until you have an even boil.
Doing both of these will give you a memory level of where to start your cooking heat and then adjust it. Actually no different then cooking with gas.

Good Luck

Answer 2

Cook several very different things and figure out what setting works best for those specific things. This is how you learned to use a gas stove in the first place! Same thing goes with a different element.

I love an electric stove, which is good, because I can't smell gas and it's not safe for me to have gas appliances because of it. The newer electrics are even better. The thing with electric is that you can't use the cheap, cheap pans because once they warp, they don't stay in contact with the coils/burner. That is not a problem on a gas stove.

Canning is harder on an electric. I could only do small batches. It is the only reason why my sister doesn't switch to electric because her huge containers of tomatoes would ruin the coils and are too heavy for the glass/ceramic tops.

As others have mentioned, once done, you have to remove the pan from the coil immediately or it will continue to cook. It becomes automatic after awhile.

Note: in my apartment electric oven, once that big coil came off the little divits that keep it off the floor of the oven, burning it. Do check that now and again. It makes a weird sound. According to the manager (managing 5 large apartment buildings) it doesn't happen often.

Answer 3

You're going to screw stuff up in the beginning, and there's no way to prevent it. On a gas stove, you can look at the flame and know if you need more or less heat. It takes time to get a feel for how hot your electric stove is on any given setting - and they're all different.

The other thing is that if you turn down the heat on an electric stove, it doesn't immediately drop the amount of heat the burner is generating. If you need to move a recipe from medium to low heat (to simmer something after bringing to a boil, for example) your best bet is to move it from one burner to another.

Answer 4

Just a couple things that really seem to come to mind.

1. The pans seems to take longer to heat up and water seems to take longer to boil on an electric.
2. When the dish is done you should take it off the electric burner. The electric elements stay hot longer and continues cooking the food while on a gas stove when the flame is out, the heating has stopped.

For the most part, it should be an easy transistion from gas to electric.

Answer 5

What is happening is that the contents continue to boil full steam ahead because it takes awhile for the burner to cool back down to low. I dislike electric precisely because of this delayed response, but have learned to live with it over the past 10 years. . . The trick is simply to PLAN FOR THE DELAY. That is, when you want to boil something, crank the temperature up to the highest setting when you start and AS SOON AS BUBBLES START TO FORM at the bottom of the pan (maybe even a little before -- you'll get a feel for this as you practice), adjust back to the lowest setting. Do not wait until the contents are really boiling, as you will be too late. This applies to frying foods as well. Start with a high setting, wait for the oil to get hot and BEFORE ADDING FOOD (which will cool the pan) turn the heat down to med / med-high (depending on what you are cooking). You may need to lift the pan off the heat briefly until things cool a little. Basically, with electric stoves you just need to think about 2-3 minutes ahead of what you actually see. This takes a little practice, but don't get discouraged. You'll get the hang of it. Gas is easier, because what you see is what you get. . .

Answer 6

Wanna switch stoves?? I grew up with an electric stove and now our rental has a gas stove. I hate it. (I hated having to use gas at the restaurant too.) I cooked most of my foods on an electric stove on med-high. Does it have numbers? I used 7 for med-high. 3 for cream sauces. 5-6 for simmer. 2 just to keep things warm.

And yes, when it's done, take it off the burner and put it on another burner or a trivet until the burner cools down to whatever setting you want.

It's not difficult, you get used to it really fast. And there's no worries about gas leaks, open flames, catching yourself on fire (all of which have happened to me with a gas stove!)

Answer 7

It's terrible, isn't it?

Some things to remember -

1) it isn't as responsive as gas, so if you start too high, it'll be a while before it cools down to the right temperature. This will also depend on how much heat your pots hold.

2) the sealed tops are a lot easier to clean that gas stove tops.

3) number 2 isn't enough of a difference to make me love my electric stove - five years after I had to give up the gas one.

4) practice, practice, practice. You'll get used to it, but it will take time.

Answer 8

it depends on what you are cooking.... if you want to brown meat, use medium heat.... if you want to boil water, use high heat.....if you want to simmer something like gravy or sauce, use low heat.