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Disclosure: this question and topic relates strictly to kitchen gadgetry rather than anything else.

My range is horribly lacking in multiple ways, and it has (despite my best efforts to accommodate for it) compromised countless baked/cooked resources.

Specifically, the entire stovetop component retains burners that supply a low-output BTU (the value of which I'm unsure of and wouldn't really trust if I could find it anyway), and this situation results in many dishes being destroyed or made too complicated, which in turn manifests in all other async operations being made avoidably difficult. For example, I have an All-Clad 8QT stockpot that takes ~20 minutes for 6QT of pure water to come to a boil, and that's unacceptably long. Moreover, it's made worse during thermal recovery when I plunge meats or pastas/dumplings into said pot (forget how awfully this gets when I'm working in batches, it's like scuttling your own ship), and the boil takes (at a minimum) 1-2 minutes to regain the boiling state, at which point (especially for pastas), the resource is totally ruined.

Without purchasing an entirely new range (or stovetop), what are some smaller, portable options I can use that will resolve my issue described here?

I've researched induction and other gas options like this but want some SME insight on a recommended path forward here.

nate
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  • I wanted to avoid asking this but (now that there's 3 currently) may I please receive some theories, reasons, and/or feedback in regards to why this question is voting to be closed (2 more are needed)? I believe that is indeed more than just opinion-based. I really want to add value to this SE channel and am unsure where else to communicate this point properly. please advise. – nate Mar 04 '22 at 20:42

2 Answers2

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I don’t know anything about your stove, but when I’ve been in a similar situation, I use more burners or alternate methods of heating large volumes of water.

For instance, if you have an electric kettle or even a microwave, you could use that to heat some of the water, while you only attempt to heat half of the water directly from the burner.

You might also want to check to see if any of your burners are more powerful than others. I had a similar issue at a friend’s house, and it turned out I was using the ‘simmer’ burner, and should’ve used the rear burner which had higher output. If they’re all having issues, you might want to get your stove serviced. There might be some sort of issue with it, such as a place that’s using LP but the stove is set for natural gas (which has a different amount of energy per volume)

Joe
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    Gas stoves normally make it pretty obvious which burners are more powerful. On most they're physically bigger (in diameter) but if not they'll have more or bigger flames. The design can be quite dumb though: mine has the 2 medium ones at the back (used for most things, including most tasks needing a lot of stirring); at the front it has a little one for simmering and the big one meant for a wok. So if bringing a huge pan to the boil, it ends up in front of the thing I'm trying to stir – Chris H Mar 02 '22 at 15:51
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As well as Joe's excellent suggestions, you should aim to leverage the heat capacity of your equipment and ingredients as much as possible. If you are boiling something and you will be adding a cool ingredient, bring a greater volume of water to the boil before adding the cool ingredient so that the overall temperature drops less. If you are frying or sauteing, use a heavy-bottomed, possibly cast-iron, pan (giving it lots of time to come to temperature) which holds more heat so will cool down less as ingredients are added. Lids will also make a difference to keep heat in, and starting with room-temperature ingredients rather than fridge temperature will also help.

You could also make greater use of your oven (if you have one) to keep things hot while cooking.

Finally, since you know how responsive your equipment it, aim to cook things that don't require rapid changes of temperature or precise short cooking times. You can avoid frustration by cooking things that your equipment is well suited to.

dbmag9
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