Wondering if your fancy new induction pan will work on your trusty ceramic stove? Wonder no more! We’ve got the answers.
Hey, home cooks! Maybe you were all about induction cooking, but now you’ve moved into a new place with a ceramic cooktop. Or maybe you’ve been rocking a ceramic cooktop all along, and you’re thinking of buying a pan labeled as induction-compatible.
But wait… Will an induction-compatible pan actually work on your ceramic cooktop? Don’t sweat it. Been there, done that, and I’m here to give you my take from hands-on experience. The best part? If you read on, I’ve got nothing but good news for you, my friend.
Yes, you absolutely can cook with induction-friendly cookware on a ceramic cooktop. In fact, you can cook with any type of cooking vessel on a ceramic cooktop because, unlike induction cooktops—which only work with ferromagnetic pans and pots—ceramic cooktops will heat up everything.
You read me? As I said, I’ve got nothing but good news for you. So go ahead; grab that pan that’s labeled as induction-compatible and use it with confidence. To your ceramic cooktop, it makes no difference if a pan is induction-compatible or not. It will heat up just as well as any other piece of cookware.
What’s the Deal With Induction-Friendly Cookware?
Confused? Let me break it down for you. It’s induction cooktops that require special cookware, not their ceramic counterparts. Induction cookware is regular cookware that has enough iron in it for a magnet to stick to it.
That’s because an induction cooktop doesn’t heat your cooking vessels the way a ceramic cooktops does. See, a ceramic cooktop heats a radiant burner, which then transfers heat to the pan, which in turn cooks your food. Induction cooktops work differently—they create an electromagnetic field that makes the iron in the cooking vessel to vibrate, heating the vessel up from the inside.
“No iron, no bueno” is the name of the game if you’re cooking on induction. Whereas a ceramic cooktop will heat anything, from aluminum to carbon steel to cast iron to copper to stainless steel, that you put on it.
Is Induction Cookware Better?
Not necessarily. I mean, if you have an induction cooktop, you’ll need to use pans and pots that are specifically designed for it. On a ceramic cooktop, any pan or pot can be used without any additional benefits or drawbacks. So just because a pan or pot is labeled as induction-compatible doesn’t mean that it’s any better or that it will perform any differently on a ceramic cooktop.
But here’s the thing: with the exception of copper pans and pots, most high-end cookware is almost always made to be compatible with induction cooktops. This is because manufacturers want to make sure their products are versatile and can be used on as many cooktops as possible, including induction cooktops.
As my statistics professor in college used to say, just don’t confuse causation with correlation.
Summing It All Up
If you already own cookware that’s labeled as induction-compatible and you’re switching to a ceramic cooktop, you can use that cookware without any worries. And if you’re buying new cookware and considering an induction-compatible pan, that’s perfect, it will work just as well on a ceramic cooktop as it would on an induction one.
