Can you congratulate you on your new glass-ceramic hob? Must upset you a little. The fact is that you have to say goodbye to your old (and maybe not very old) pans and pans. Perhaps they will still serve you in the country, but home cooking utensils will have to be changed. This must be done in order for your hob to serve you as long as possible. You will need special dishes for glass-ceramic plates.
Why are beloved and well-established pots and pans not suitable for a new and long-awaited stove? If you used to cook on a gas stove, then the bottom of your dishes has become uneven, since it is heated unevenly by the flame. The same can be said about the electric stove. Modern and popular glass heat-resistant glassware takes too long to heat up, and it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to quickly reduce the temperature, so it is not very convenient to use.
Glass ceramic cookware does not conduct heat well, and pots and pans with an aluminum or copper bottom melt, leaving almost irreparable traces on the surface of the stove. It would seem that there is no choice, but let's listen to the recommendations of the manufacturers of hobs, perhaps they know what kind of cookware their stoves need.
It turns out that making a choice is not so difficult. Glass-ceramic cookware should have a perfectly flat and flat bottom. This guarantees a large heat transfer from the hot plate to the dishes. It is important that the bottom does not have any roughness, relief patterns. Ideally, it should be dark and matte. It is equally important to pay attention to the thickness of the bottom. It should be thick. Due to this, it does not deform, and, therefore, thermal conductivity is maintained.
Special dishes for glass-ceramic plates, or rather, its bottom, is a three- and five-layer "sandwiches" of various metals and their alloys. This bottom is called heat distribution. For example, quite often for the manufacture of such a "sandwich" using two layers of stainless steel, between which lay a layer of pure aluminum.
If your hob is equipped with an induction burner, then when buying pots for glass-ceramic stoves, stock up on a magnet. The induction cooker is designed in such a way that it can work exclusively with ferromagnetic materials. If the magnet sticks easily to the bottom, then do not hesitate, such a pan suits you. Glass, ceramic, brass, copper and aluminum utensils on such a panel would be useless. Due to such high requirements for utensils, reviews about glass-ceramic plates are often quite negative. Many housewives simply do not want to part with their favorite pots and pans, in which they are used to cooking delicious lunches and dinners.
Glass-ceramic cookware has many engineering and technological solutions. In it, every element is calculated to the smallest detail. For example, the handle of the lid is thermally insulated, so you won’t get burned by accidentally grabbing it with your hand.
Today, a huge amount of tableware is displayed on the shelves in stores, which domestic and foreign manufacturers position as suitable for glass ceramics. Do not flatter yourself, this is far from always being true. In all this diversity, only a small part is really the dishes for glass-ceramic plates. Look at the marking, it will definitely indicate that this is the model you are looking for.