I made some red beans with the induction cooker yesterday. I have had a hard time articulating why this is such a better way to cook. I never took to the Instant Pot. You can’t stir easily and can’t see what is going on inside. It also isn’t good for cooking off liquids.

The induction cooker is pleasant in that you aren’t bombarded with a blast of heat from the stove flame every time you get near the pot. And all that heat isn’t heating up the house and driving up the air conditioning bills, at least in the summer.

After some use it is clear that the real advantage is actual temperature control. With a gas stove you control the size of the flame, but the flame is always the same temperature. If you have a heavy pot it (sorta) spreads out the heat. But a long slow cook for something like red beans needs lots of stirring and you still get burning and sticking on the bottom. With the induction cooker you are literally setting the temperature of the bottom of the pot. This sort of control is great but a bit novel and took some getting used to. By the way, this induction cooktop only has like six different settings. Enough I suppose but more would be better. I can see maybe 25F increments as being useful.