What’s better, gas or electric for cooking? Here are some things you should know

This is one of the reasons so many restaurants use gas stoves – they can significantly cut down on the cook time of any dish. Gas stoves and their elements heat up far quicker than electric stoves. With an electric stove you have to turn the button and wait for the burner to get hot enough to heat a pan you’ve placed on top of it. That can take a while. But with a gas stove you simply ignite that burner and the flame starts to heat up the pot immediately.

Moving from the stove-top to the oven, electric ovens win the battle. Gas emits a bit of moisture while it’s being used for cooking, which produces a wetter heat in the oven. Electric ovens however, have just heat and heat alone and that produces the dry heat that perfectly cooks roasts and baked goods. Gas stoves also don’t cook food as evenly as electric stoves, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be used. It just means that food should be placed further away from the heat source and should also be rotated regularly during cooking time.

While gas ovens may be a bit higher-maintenance than electric stoves, there are some things that gas stove-tops can do that electric stove-tops just can’t. This includes flambeing, charring, and even toasting more effectively than electric stoves. This is another reason why they’re a favorite of restaurants, and of dedicated home cooks.

No one wants a messy stove-top in their kitchen and if being able to easily clean it is a priority to you, you may want to opt for electric. Flat-top electric stoves win the cleanliness battle hands down. A simple swipe over the stove-top with a damp sponge will likely take away most messes. And even electric stoves with coil burners are not that difficult to clean. You just have to take out the burner, clean the plate underneath, and then plug the burner back into the element. Even when it’s been a while since you’ve cleaned your stove, the job shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

With gas stoves on the other hand, there are heavy grates that need to be taken out and in many cases, those grates have many different parts that are easy to break. Cleaning gas stoves can take some time and if you’re not careful, you could lose an important piece of equipment.