How has the Impulse cooktop changed how I cook?

An anonymous reader writes:

As someone who is planning on buying an Impulse cooktop I would love to read more about how you use it and how (or if) it has changed how you cook and/or eat. Thanks!

I've had an Impulse Labs cooktop for about six months ago. It arrived in March, and I wrote a little bit about how I was using it then.

I've been meaning to write a longer and "with videos" review but I also have limited time to write this week and want to give an initial answer to the question without too much more delay, since I suspect the question is somewhat time sensitive.

It Boil Water Fast

I've been a little bit surprised to discover that the most important feature of the Impulse for my day-to-day life is: It boil water fast. It boil water very fast.

The temperature control features are very nice and I do use them when I cook with it but the thing that's actually changed how I cook is just that boiling water takes about 30 seconds. The important thing here is that it eliminates a period of uncertain waiting time, which my mind tends to magnify into a much bigger obstacle than it "really" is. I'm now marginally more likely to do things where the first step is boil water: Soft boil eggs, heat up soup, make pasta. Objectively it's not that big of a difference but while I'm doing it, it certainly feels life changing.

Just as an example: The other night I went to make chrysanthemum tea for guests. We have a nice Japanese water heater so usually there is lots of hot water available but at this particular time it was running low, and I didn't discover this until I was already committed to making tea. This would have been an irritating delay without the Impulse. With the Impulse, guests barely noticed — I put water on to boil and it was at the correct temperature pretty much as soon as I'd finished getting out the teacups and putting the chrysanthemum into the teapot.

If you are also prone to avoiding tasks that involve waiting, or to wandering off while waiting, I expect this will also end up being the main thing that the Impulse really changes for you.

Better Controls Make Cooking More Fun

Another surprisingly handy feature: The way the power setting controls are labeled— Low, medium, medium high and so on, but also with the power output in watts. The former labels have fairly specific meanings, based on sensory cues and the behavior of a gas range, but it's often hard to map those meanings onto a 1-10 range dial. Having a range that actually outputs specific amounts of energy and also labels them with the approximately correct culinary term has given me more confidence in setting those values.

I didn't take careful notes and there are some reasons I was cooking less than usual when I got the Impulse. I had just moved across the country, and I moved in right next door to some friends and for a while was going over to their house for dinner most nights. I also got a puppy around the same time I got the range, which made cooking harder. I do think I cook a bit more with it than I did before, mostly because it's fun to use.

I use my stainless steel sauté pan much more than I used to. Before the Impulse I was almost exclusively used one specific cast iron pan. I still use cast iron for some tasks but I give up some of the advantages of the Impulse when I use the cast iron pan, because it takes longer to heat up and cool off. I'm generally a lot less afraid of the stainless steel than I was, though more because getting the Impulse inspired me how to use it correctly than because the Impulse actually makes it easier to use.

Temperature Control

While the temperature settings aren't as big of a difference in my cooking as I expected them to be, they are the main way I use the device, and they are handy.

I've made hollandaise sauce much more and much more successfully with the Impulse than I ever had before. I'd tried a couple of times with "pan set in a second larger pan with water in it" method and never got good results. Now I just use a stainless steel saucier on a very low temperature.

It's generally dramatically easier to do anything that requires very low heat for an extended period of time. Melting butter, for instance, is no longer something I do exclusively in the microwave; I just stick it in a pan on the back of the range and forget about it. It's not going to burn.
I still haven't made caramel or chocolate with it but I expect to at least once over the winter holidays.

I'm generally more likely to reach for searing or sautéing as methods. It used to be that if I wanted to do something "easy" I would always reach for roasting. If I cooked salmon it was almost always slow-roasted in the oven. Now I'm just as likely if not more likely to cook it in a pan on the range, and then make a pan sauce. (And often to cook kale or broccolini in the pan sauce.) As a side effect I make pan sauce a bit more now, though this is really the latest turn of an old cycle; I go through periods where I try to make progress on really getting good at sauces, get bored or frustrated, avoid sauces for a while, and then return.

It's much safer to cook steak now. I used to be kind of prone to setting off the fire alarm, because I took instructions to get the pan hot very serious. Now I can set the pan to "maximally hot without going over the smoking point of beef fat."

It Feels a Little Bit Ridiculous

So, overall: I cook a little bit more and I enjoy cooking more. Boiling water and re-heating things like soup feel a lot easier. I'm more likely to do certain things that benefit from precise temperature control, like hollandaise sauce or cooking steak. I've made better friends with my stainless steel pan, and with pan frying or sauteeing in general.

I do feel faintly ridiculous owning it, because it feels like a collection of relatively marginal benefits. There's nothing (except the water boiling) that I absolutely couldn't have done with my old equipment, it's just either actually easier or "feels" easier. That said, I haven't actually cooked on another range in a while — once I try that again I might feel differently.

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