Professional gas cooktop performance for sauteing/searing vs high power induction cooktop
I am renovating my kitchen. I currently have a 36" Thermador Professional cooktop, 4 burners plus grill. Seriously considering the Wolf 36" induction, 5 elements. I am so tired of the cleanup on my cooktop, but I am concerned that the induction unit will not be "hot" enough to do a quick sear on a batch of mushrooms or a couple of steaks. Anyone out there with insights for me? Buon Appetito!
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Still very high end stuff. With features like ability to inject steam for baking breads (and clean up), temperature controls that can go low to do sousvide waterbaths, steaming functions for high humidity cooking, and roasting function with combinging the two, and drying functions for dehydration of items.
Some are the price of a small car...but others are coming down in price.
http://www.gaggenau.com/US_en/products/product-detail.do?contentId=78b1160b-a568-4f52-8a4c-147fba99c97a
For what it's worth, there are "converters" that allow you to use non-magnetic pots and pans on induction cooktops. A little kludgey but they apparently work.
Also called "steam ovens" now in home markets. Here's one by Wolf.
http://www.subzero-wolf.com/oven/steam-oven/convection-steam-oven
My glass top looked great the first few years...but you'll skip cleaning sometimes and that builds up and becomes bonded to the glass.
I don't have gas service here...and when I do wok cooking, I still have to have to bring out a gas table top burner to accommodate a round bottom wok.
Oh, it'll sear alright. 4000 watts at 85 or 90% efficiency is a lot of heat! I don't know where Wolf sets its overtemp cutoff but certainly it's above the smoke point of your oil and that's all that matters until the meat hits the pan. From that point on it becomes a matter of how much power it can sustain which is one of the technology's strengths.
One thing to think about before deciding on induction are issues with the glass cooking surface. Easy cleanup comes at a cost. I know they call it "ceramic" but it's still relatively fragile and can scratch, discolor and burn. Letting a heavy pot of pasta water slip can result in disaster.
Another difference that may or may not matter to you is how they maintain low heat settings, by cycling on and off like an oven.