Induction cooking is a form of electric cooking that uses an electromagnetic field to heat the cooking vessel. Whereas a traditional electric cooking element uses electric resistance to heat an element, which then transfers its heat to the cooking vessel via conduction, an inductive cooking element does not heat up but rather heats the cooking vessel directly.
An induction cooking element uses an electromagnetic coil or coils to generate an alternating magnetic field. When a pot or pan is placed on the element, the magnetic field generates heat within the pot or pan via magnetic hysteresis loss. Hysteresis loss occurs only in ferrous materials such as steel and iron, therefore, induction cooking works only with ferrous pots and pans, e.g.:
cast iron cookware
enamel-covered iron cookware
carbon steel cookware
some stainless steel cookware
A general rule of thumb is that if a magnet will stick to the bottom of a pan, then that pan can be used for induction cooking. In addition, the pot or pan needs to have a fairly flat bottom. Because of the growing popularity of induction cooking, many cookware manufactures state whether their pots and pans can be used for induction cooking.
A growing number of manufactures make induction cooktops for the home or commercial kitchen. Drop-in induction cooktops are meant to be installed into a kitchen counter and are available with multiple elements. In addition, several manufactures make portable induction cookers that can be placed of the counter, table, etc. Portable cookers typically have a single element.
Induction cooking is very popular in Europe and Asia, and is rapidly gaining popularity in the Americas because of its advantages over gas and conventional electric cooking. Read the next article in this series to understand these advantages.
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