Ceramic-glass cooktops are common in more modern homes, and if you’re not familiar with them, you might not know which ceramic hob pans to use.
Ceramic-glass cooktops can be attractive in modern kitchens, but you must understand how to use them properly. The best cookware for electric glass top stove cooking is the first line of defense when caring for a ceramic-glass cooktops.
What Are Ceramic-Glass Cooktops?
According to Elan Technology, ceramic-glass cooktops are mechanically strong material that can withstand repeated and rapid temperature changes. It has much higher strength and toughness than glass materials at high temperatures. Despite having greater strength and toughness than glass, ceramic-glass cooktops must be handled with caution because they are brittle.
Best Ceramic Hob Pans
Stainless steel is a popular and recommended option when looking for the best ceramic hob pans. If you’re looking for stainless steel pans, make sure they have a clad bottom. All-clad pans or other clad pans, according to All-Clad, combine aluminum and stainless steel to achieve the best of both worlds.
Make sure the stainless steel pans you buy have a sandwiched clad bottom. This means that the pan is made of a thick layer of aluminum sandwiched between two thin layers of stainless steel, according to The Cook’s Warehouse. High pressure is used to bond these two layers together. Sandwich-clad cookware bottoms combine the best of both worlds: stainless steel for durability and stability, and aluminum or copper for excellent heat conduction and distribution.
Another option that comes highly recommended is heavyweight aluminum. This material conducts heat more quickly than other metals, ensuring that whatever you’re cooking is cooked evenly. The only disadvantage of aluminum is that the residue appears on the cooktop as scratches. All you have to do now is clean it up as quickly as possible.
Not Recommended Ceramic Hob Pans
Unlike gas stoves, where almost any pan can be used, some pans aren’t the best cookware for an electric glass top stove, according to Cooking for Engineers. Glass, ceramic, stone, or pure cast iron cookware should not be used on glass top stoves. Although glass or ceramic cookware is attractive, it can scratch the surface of a glass stove top. Also, because glass is a poor conductor of heat, cooking dishes will take much longer, and you’ll have to hover over your food to ensure it cooks properly.
Another cooking material that has been known to scratch ceramic stove tops is stoneware, which is also a poor cooking material in general. If you enjoy cooking with cast iron, never use it on a ceramic stove. Your glass surface will be damaged if your pure cast iron cookware has a rough spot. Furthermore, cast iron absorbs heat slowly, but once it does, it holds a lot of heat, just like porcelain-coated cast iron. If your cast iron gets extremely hot, which it almost certainly will, the stove top will shut down in response to the extreme heat.
Testing Cookware Tips
You should make sure that your cookware has a flat bottom surface, according to GE Appliances. There are two tests you can perform to ensure that your cookware is in good working order. The ruler test is the first, and the boiling water test is the second. Turn your pot or pan upside down and place the ruler across the bottom of the pan for the ruler test. If you use the best pots or pans, the ruler should be able to sit evenly across the entire surface. It’s fine if the pan is slightly concave in the middle.
To perform the boiling water test, place a pan with 1 inch of water on a heating surface. Watch the water as it boils on high to see where the bubbles are. If the bubbles are clustering on one side or in the middle, the heat isn’t being distributed evenly, indicating that your pan isn’t flat and isn’t suitable for a ceramic-glass cooktops.
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