There have been a great many trends in cooking and catering in general over the last 30 to 40 years. Indeed if we are honest there have been loads of trends in cooking philosophy in the last few millennia but what I really mean is that ever since the era of mass communication and new trends tend to emerge on a fairly regular basis.

However the interesting thing and the common thread to all of this is that no matter how known you all trendy (for want of a better description) the new styles or techniques are. The one thing they all have in common is that all of them have their roots firmly in tradition and in the past.

Traditionally cook tops or hobs are all broadly considered to effectively into two basic types. Firstly there are electrically powered cookers and the there are gas powered cookers. Again, this is very much a simplification in that in reality there are several very different methods of electronic heating. A lot of these actually have very little in common with each other the only main connecting theme is that they are powered by electricity.

As has been mentioned by the topical off the article cooking is the application of heat to food and in its simplest sentence this is provided by putting a saucepan or container on an electrical or gas hob (or inside an oven) and then heating the container or whole cooking vessel itself. This then transfers the heat to the food and the end result is that the food is cooked.

However there is a third method of cooking that is completely different from all other cooking technologies. This does not involve generating heat which is then transferred to the cooking vessel. It makes the cooking vessel itself the original generate two of the cooking heat. It is called cooking by induction.

In its simplest, the element of an induction cooker is a powerful, high frequency electromagnet with the electromagnetism generated by electronics in the element underneath the ceramic surface of the unit.

When a good-sized piece of magnetic material such as a cast iron casserole dish or a skillet is placed in the magnetic field at the element is generating, the field transfers by way of a process known as induction energy into that metal container.

He transferred energy causes the cooking vessel to heat up and become hot. By controlling the variables in the strength of the electromagnetic field we can then control the amount of heat being generated in the cooking vessel itself.

The really neat thing about this is that these variables can be changed virtually instantaneously.

So basically what induction cooking does “in a nutshell” is provide the Caterer or chef with the versatility and overall usefulness often only provided by an electrically powered cooker with the immediacy that is normally only associated with gas cooking.

This makes it a very useful technique to use Patti is quite considerably environmentally friendly. This makes it a powerful technique for any forward thinking caterer.

Advantages
- Nothing simpler than to use the plates with gas, the more so as they from now on are equipped with integrated ignition systems. In the same way, contrary to the other types of plates, the flame of gas allows a visual monitoring of cooking.
- More and more with plates to gas are equipped with systems of safety, and in particular of an automatic stop of the food if the flame is extinct by inadvertency.
- A the purchase, as with use, the plates with gas are among the equipment of the cheapest cooking. The prices vary the very accessible one (150 euros) with top-of-the-range (1000 euros).

Disadvantages
- Performances a little below those carried out by the induction, of which in particular a soft fire which remains rather strong all the same.
- A constraining cleaning, which supposes powerful upkeeping products. The grids are not in addition very practical to wash, just like the burners and candles of the plate, difficult of access.
- These plates are less practical and less sure from the food point of view, especially if one is not connected to gas for domestic use.

Comparing with those gas cookers and electric cookers, induction cooker is undoubted the best, even though it still has its disadvantages.

Advantages

• Allow adjustments of temperature at an extreme precision.
• Induction cookers heat relatively quickly, very good performance, using less than 10 minutes to heat 4 litres of water.
• There is almostno risk of being burned, because only the container is heated.
• Save nearly 30% of power compare to other cookers.
• Easy to clean

Disavantage:

• Cost a little too much with prices from 700 to 1500 euros.
• Cooking appliance is limited to steel and cast iron pans or equipped with a ferromagnetic disc

]]> http://www.zealux.com/press/2006/12/22/a-french-comparison-of-induction-cooker-to-other-cookers/feed/ http://www.zealux.com/press/2006/12/21/pressure-cooker-recipes/ http://www.zealux.com/press/2006/12/21/pressure-cooker-recipes/#comments Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:15:45 +0000 webmaster Pressure Cookers http://www.zealux.com/press/2006/12/21/pressure-cooker-recipes/ Pressure Cooker Recipes Group Have one of those new programmable pressure cookers but can’t find enough recipes for it? Or do you have a normal Pressure Cooker that you would like to get back into action to save time and money and vitamins??? Try join this yahoo group to get some tips. There are now over 2,000 members. It is a group for exchange of recipes and pressure cooker chats. Must join group in order to participate.
]]> http://www.zealux.com/press/2006/12/21/pressure-cooker-recipes/feed/ http://www.zealux.com/press/2006/12/20/french-families-accepted-induction-cookers/ http://www.zealux.com/press/2006/12/20/french-families-accepted-induction-cookers/#comments Wed, 20 Dec 2006 08:58:20 +0000 webmaster Induction Cookers http://www.zealux.com/press/2006/12/20/french-families-accepted-induction-cookers/ French Families Accepted Induction Cookers. There is already more than twenty years, the idea - from California had been exploited by French manufacturers. But the production did not follow, the original induction cooker were cumbersome, noisy, fragile and these cooking surfaces cost nearly 3.000 euros (20.000 frank of the time!). It should have been waited until 1990 so that induction cooker is marketed in Hexagone.
The beginnings were timid. But today, when their price can be lower than 800 euros, it is sold more than 100.000 tables with induction per annum. It should be said that meanwhile, the evolution of the electronic components cause a drop in the costs while improving the reliability of technology.
The miniaturization of the electronic circuits, for example, their heat strength, the improvement of the systems of radiators, all that reduced the obstruction of the devices. Result: the induction cookers are not any more of the apparatuses “except standards”. They settle and are used like the other cooking surfaces.
The possibilities and the advantages of induction constitute now a force of interesting proposal: it is the method of the fastest cooking, most precise and surest. “Induction became the technique of the most powerful cooking of the market”, the specialists estimate.
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