Home & Garden

Updating your kitchen with new appliances can reduce cooking time

by Sara Holtz

A kitchen redo may be high on your list of remodeling projects, but though the spirit is willing, the pocketbook may not be. If you must scale back your plans, you may want to consider buying new appliances rather than restoring the cabinets or floors. In addition to the facelift, saving money and energy could be worth the investment.

"You save money on energy if you buy newer appliances," says Greg Toczko, appliance manager at Goedekers in Ballwin.

Induction cooktops are among the top trends in the kitchen, especially for those serious about their cooking. They use an electromagnetic field to create heat in the pan or skillet you place on top of it. The only heat that exists is the heat generated from the pan itself; the cooktop surface remains cool to the touch.

This technology allows you to bring your food to a simmer in three or four seconds when it would normally take 15 minutes with an electric stovetop. You can keep soups and sauces on it for hours without burning the product.

Overall, this appliance is safer, easier to clean and more efficient than gas or electric stovetops. You can get water to boil in about half the time without the stress of having it bubble over.

"I can boil water in 90 seconds. Advantages are instant on, instant off just like a gas cooktop. It heats food faster and easier than any other gas range," Toczko says. "Professional chefs love it because of the immediacy."

Depending on the size of the cooktop, prices range anywhere from $1,600 to $3,000. One of the high-end products actually has a sensor that identifies the make-up of each pan. This way, the product can adjust its temperature accordingly in order to give the best performance.

Along the lines of popular, quick-heating kitchen appliances is the Advantium Speedcook Oven. Although this product has been around for eight or nine years, not many people know about it.

The four-in-one oven uses a halogen light to brown and cook food two to eight times faster than a conventional oven, producing a tastier end result because it doesn’t have time to dry out. You have the option to choose from Speedcook technology, convection oven cooking, microwave or warming modes.

Jeremy Turner, appliance manager at Callier and Thompson, says when people today are pressed for time and want to cook healthy, it doesn’t always go hand in hand. This technology permits us to cook chicken breasts or roasts in an hour and a half, whereas normally it would take three hours.

"With a speedcook oven, you can take something and cook it in half the time which is great for busy families," Turner says.