annoyance with electric hot plate temp

[manarak]

Hello,

besides gas I also have very simple hot plates of brand Mex.

The problem is when pan-frying something (like sausage), step 3 will boil the food it and step 4 will burn the food.

is there any way to adjust temperature?

Ideally I would like to bring step 4's temperature down.

[bankruatsteve]

We don't use a hot plate but it seems strange there would not be any temp. control.  No knob?  Maybe just keep an eye on it and turn it off when your food is cooked.

[manarak]

7 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

We don't use a hot plate but it seems strange there would not be any temp. control.  No knob?  Maybe just keep an eye on it and turn it off when your food is cooked.

of course there is a knob, with 6 levels of heating.

I don't want to cook the food, I want to pan-fry it.

heating level 3 is not hot enough to fry, level 4 is too hot.

so the question is, does anyone know a way to tweak the temperature on such a hot plate ?

 

[bankruatsteve]

Then I suggest patience will be your friend.  Put it on level 3 or even lower and turn it every few minutes.  That's the "proper" way to fry sausage, bacon, things like that.  You don't want to zap them.

[sirmud63]

get a diferant frying pan . 

heavy , as in cast iron . it will even the heat out . 

thats what there designed to be used with . 

[manarak]

Just now, sirmud63 said:

get a diferant frying pan . 

heavy , as in cast iron . it will even the heat out . 

thats what there designed to be used with . 

that could work... will try.

[tropo]

1 minute ago, sirmud63 said:

get a diferant frying pan . 

heavy , as in cast iron . it will even the heat out . 

thats what there designed to be used with . 

You can also buy good quality heavy teflon fry pans. I'd throw the cooker away and buy a decent pan and induction cooker - approx 5000 baht for both. My induction cooker has 9 levels. Nothing beats a good quality pan and cooker if you use it every day.

[manarak]

2 minutes ago, tropo said:

You can also buy good quality heavy teflon fry pans. I'd throw the cooker away and buy a decent pan and induction cooker - approx 5000 baht for both. My induction cooker has 9 levels. Nothing beats a good quality pan and cooker if you use it every day.

it's built-in into the kitchen counter top, so no throwing away.

[Peterw42]

OP, I can relate to what you are saying, I find it difficult cooking on electric. Same sort of thing, low is to low and high is to high and no instant way to turn up or down. As others have said a good quality pan that inducts heat well etc. A new cook-top isnt that expensive and would probably be more acurate.

[bankruatsteve]

Again, cooking with electric usually requires some patience at the start.  If after 1 minute on level 3 you can't put your hand on the plate, then it's hot enough (for sausage, bacon, etc.)  You could put down a drizzle of oil and cover with a sauce pan cover to speed things up a bit.  But low and slow is how you want to do this whether it's electric or gas.

[tutsiwarrior]

if you use the hotplate for frying purposes only an electric frying pan may be the way to go...I've never used one but some folks swear by them, easier to control the heat...

 

I had a single induction hotplate that I cooked on for 18mos in rented accommodation and it took a while to get the hang of it...and then later I was doing all sorts of curries and anything stovetop after observing the hotplate behavior after continuous heat adjustment...they respond very slowly...sometimes leave a simmering pot au feu for a few hours unattended...

 

or one could go whole hog with:

 

https://instantpot.com/

 

believe that I'll stick with a gas bottle and my trusty, crusty Whirlpool 4 burner with oven...luddite cooking is the way to go...

 

 

[tropo]

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

OP, I can relate to what you are saying, I find it difficult cooking on electric. Same sort of thing, low is to low and high is to high and no instant way to turn up or down. As others have said a good quality pan that inducts heat well etc. A new cook-top isnt that expensive and would probably be more acurate.

Of course there is an instant way to turn down an electric cooker. It's called an induction cooking and it has been around for many years. These were first produced in the early 1970's so it's not new technology. They were being demonstrated in the mid-1950's. The first patent was issued in about 1909.

 

You can buy cheap ones in Thailand for under 1000 baht. The heat is not produced by an element (thermal conduction), but by magnetic conduction of the pot. Turning the heat down is instant just as turning up the heat is. It's much easier to use than gas. Very little heat is left on the plate once you turn it off. It's the most efficient cooking method of all as you don't lose any heat due to the direct heating of the molecules of the pot. You can buy induction cooktops too. Once you've become familiar with this method it's hard to go back to traditional elements. I use normal cookers for very slow simmering only.

[tropo]

2 hours ago, manarak said:

it's built-in into the kitchen counter top, so no throwing away.

I replaced the existing cooktop when I rented my new apartment last year as I couldn't live with it. When I leave I'll probably put the old one back and keep the new one unless the owner agrees to pay at least half its worth. That was a 23k cooktop discounted down to 14k. That's a normal thermal ceramic cooktop. I have a standalone induction cooker that I use for pan frying. You can buy cheap ones for under 1000 baht that should last many years. The cheap ones have 5 heat settings.

[sometimewoodworker]

There a couple of ways to do that, though I don't think you will have success modifying the cooker.

The first way is to put a sheet of something like steel between the cooker and the frying pan (you used to get asbestos mats for this purpose but they maybe banned)

The second is to use a  Silicone Baking Mat in the frying pan, just make sure you don't go over about 220 degrees C. Option 2 has the benefit of making cleanup much easier as well a spreading the heat.