Turn the knob up or down on a gas burner and the flame and temperature changes immediately and you can continue controlled cooking on it. Not so on an electric burner where a knob change has no effect, as the burner stays too hot or cold for a minute or more. That’s why gas is favored. (Yah, induction is a little more responsive, but . . .)
“Oh, how I miss my Blue Star.”
But there is a way to offset that. When cooking on electric, ALWAYS use two side-by-side burners. (General Electric Profile is a very common electric stove top here. Its knobs are calibrated 1 through 9, with 9 being bright red hot.)
So, if you’re right-handed, set the left burner all the way to 9. Set the right burner to 6 or 7, which is medium hot. Now, get things started fast on the hot burner and then move to the cooler burner to prolong cooking without boiling over, without burning the product, without scorching the pan and without interrupting an even cooking process. Move back and forth as necessary to control the temperature of your pan, wok or pot.
I got this idea from Kenji Lopez-Alt, author of The Wok, Recipes and Techniques.
Try it, it works!
