If you grew up with a Gas Stove and have to Migrate to an Electric Stove or if you just have high costs from cooking we are going to give you a few really simple tips to save money while cooking.
With only a few exceptions will you find that Electric Range Cooking is up to the same service as Gas Ranges. And Cost in your area may depend on many factors so Gas may not be any cheaper or easier.
A couple exceptions might be someone who uses their gas oven to dehydrate products or for raising bread dough when its cold in the winter. Other than that you can cook a great pizza and anything else in an electric range.
Keep The Lid On
One thing you should get use to doing is any time you need to cook something for an extended time on your range is put a lid on the pot. If you are boiling water for rice or pasta you can bring it up to a light boil with the lid on and then drop the temperature setting down to low or about 2 on a 10 setting stovetop and it will continue to boil for as long as you need. You will have to experiment with this to get the exact setting where it will boil but not boil over with a lid on but once you do then you just saves what? 50% of your electric or more to cook that meal? Add it up over time and it will make a difference.
The next trick I have is when making something like homemade soup where I need to boil a lot of vegetables I will start the water and then microwave the vegetables for about 1 to 2 minutes to bring them up to temperature and precook them a bit. It will save you money and time.
When you are using your oven to cook a large meal like a Lasagna I will normally also cook an Italian loaf of bread. They are very easy to make just water flour salt and rapid rise yeast. Form it into a bread and place it on a floured sheet pan and cook it right beside the Lasagna. The moisture in the Lasagna will make for a better bread too and you will have dinner ready all at the same time.
Adjust The Cooking Time
Almost everything you cook can continue cooking with the power off. If you are cooking lasagna just turn the oven off 15 minutes early. If you are cooking homemade soup on your stove that stuff will get as hot as lava and continue to cook on the stove top for another hour or two if the lid is on.
You don’t want to cut short the main processing of the food but often just turning off the stove a bit early and letting something cook on residual heat will reduce the chance you will burn it. Something like Pancakes this won’t work for but soup or whatever .. just give it a try.
You can only do this when cooking is not for immediate consumption or you will have hungry people waiting but even during regular meal prep .. try turning off the stove a couple minutes early and you will probably be surprised how well things keep going.
Final Note
Adjusting the way you cook with electric vs gas will make a big difference but as some people say the cost of either electric or gas is dependent on where you live. If electric is really cheap where you live its not a problem but if gas is expensive then you can deal with electric and not be any worse off as a chef.
Using a Microwave as a supplement can help but cooking in a toaster oven can take longer and not really result in any savings. You will have to figure it out yourself.
Another tip is .. when preheating an electric oven use the Broiler. It will bring it up to temp in just a couple minutes. Then turn to bake for even heating.