Keep Cool While Cooking

With summer just around the corner, standing in front of a hot stove doesn’t top my list of favorite activities. As much as possible, I try to put my husband on the BBQ, but sometimes there are things that require the stove. Or do they? I recently had the chance to try out the Kenmore Elite Induction Cooker – a hot plate that uses induction technology to cook your food – and nothing else. Let me explain…

I was pretty ignorant about induction technology so I did a bit of research on the benefits.

• No exposed flame or coils – a definite benefit with little ones wandering around.

• Instant heat adjustment - just like gas, induction cooking has instant adjustments to heat – without the flame.

• Heats only where in contact with pan – With induction cooking, heat energy goes directly to the pot/pan via a magnetic field. This keeps your kitchen cooler, the surrounding cooking area cool and means no lost heat. Check out these photos I found of extreme induction cooking.  The heat only goes to the pan leaving the ice in the first picture and the other half of the egg in the second picture untouched. Crazy!

• Easy to clean – a swipe of the sponge and done!

Other added benefits of the Kenmore Elite Induction Cooker include:

• Touch screen controls and LED screen

• Keep Warm feature and built-in timer

• Lock-out feature

• Included 12-inch stainless steel and aluminum saute pan

So I put this baby to the test with my dinner a few nights ago – grilled sausage and spinach/ricotta raviolis with lemon cream sauce. Instead of having to wait a few minutes for my gas burner to heat up the grill pan, the Induction Cooker had it ready in seconds. The sausage grilled evenly and I was able to adjust the heat with immediate results. Next up – pasta water. Normally, I’d say it takes a good 10 minutes to get a 5-cups of water to a boil on my stove, but with the Induction Cooker, it took only 4-1/2 minutes.

Before I’d tried the Induction Cooker, I admit that I wasn’t quite sure of how I’d use it, but now, after playing around with it for a few days I know it will come in handy: (a) when I want to keep all the cooking outside this summer, (b) for entertaining, when I need more burners, (c) for camping; we have an additional battery in our VW Westfalia that runs a a few outlets. I’m looking forward to how fast I’ll be able to make coffee water or get mac n’ cheese on the table using this instead of our propane camping stove. This also seems like a great gift idea for freshmen heading off to college in the fall. The Induction Cooker is also great for those in a wheelchair since the cooktop can be placed on any surface and is just over an inch thick.

One caveat: The cook pad only works with induction compatible cookware which means that the bottom surface has to be magnetic. Most pans in the store should list if they are compatible with an induction cooker or you can test your own pans at home by trying to attach a magnet to the bottom. The Kenmore Induction Cooker also comes with a 12″ non-stick stainless steel pan.

Visit Sears.com for more information or to purchase.

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Disclaimer: Sears sent a sample of the product for this review. Pictures of “extreme induction” via The Induction Site.

Tagged as: cooking, induction pan, Kenmore