The Best Cookware to Use for a Ceramic Cooktop
The ease of cooking on a ceramic cooktop makes it a welcome addition in a kitchen. Its smooth surface is relatively easy to wipe clean without the crevices and parts of a conventional gas or electric cooktop. Its glass surface heats up very quickly compared to traditional electric and gas cooktops, and it retains its heat. Its heat is generated by conduction and radiation through its electrical heating elements once the cooktop is turned on. This heat is then transferred to the appropriate cookware used on its surface to cook food. Does this Spark an idea?
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Features
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The best cookware for ceramic cooktops has smooth, flat bottoms. Curved bottoms do not heat well, and the cooktop surface can easily scratch from the bottom of an uneven, ridged pot.
Stainless Steel
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Stainless steel pots heat up easily but are durable enough to handle the heating sources of a ceramic cooktop. They are fairly easy to cook with and are best suited for quick cooking. Keep a close watch on your food, though, because as quickly as it heats up is as quickly as it can get burned.
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Cast Iron
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Although cast iron pots take a while to heat up, they are very durable in the face of high heat, and they evenly distribute and hold the heat to evenly cook foods. Cast iron pots are best for slow cooking foods, for sauteing, frying and stovetop roasting.
Enamel-coated cast iron pots prevent the iron from leaching into the food. While iron is a necessary dietary supplement, it may not be necessary to always add trace amounts of iron from the pots into cooked foods. This is the best option for those who have to monitor their iron intake, and it also eliminates the need to season the cast iron pots after each use.
Warnings
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Do not use glass, aluminum and copper pots on ceramic cooktops. Glass cookware poses a serious hazard since it cannot withstand the stress of high temperatures on its material. The extreme heat of a ceramic cooktop can cause it to explode with its hot cooking contents, which can cause serious bodily injury and irreversible damage to the stove.
Aluminum pots melt at very high temperatures. Avoid using these types of pots since the high heat will warp the shape of the pots, and heating an empty pot for a long period will cause the "boil dry" effect to occur. The aluminum melts at high temperatures, turning the aluminum into its molten liquid form, which can lead to physical injury.
Copper pots are not suitable for cooking on ceramic cooktops. The copper will melt, ruining both the pot and the cooktop.
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References
- Photo Credit squash and onions image by jimcox40 from Fotolia.com
