半世紀近く前の昔話になりますが初めて我が家を建てた時、ガス・コンベックを台所に入れました。それ以来うちでは欧州スタイルの4口ガスレンジが伝統ですが、当時選択肢は限られていて(今もそうですが)、ショルテスかロジェールというフランスメーカーの製品から我が家で選んだのはショルテスでした。
今のセカンド・ハウスのマンションにはドイツAEGのコンベックと食洗機が据え付けられていて、相当な年代物なのでガスコンロの点火が一発とは行かず、使うこちらも寄る年並みとあってカミさんから安全面も考慮してIHコンロに替えてくれとの強い要望が出るに至りました。しかし、コンロだけをスッポリはめ替えるというわけには行かず、コンベックごと撤去するとなると、カウンタートップも取り外す工事に発展しそうで、数十万～百万の出費になるだろうと予想すると腰が引けてしまいますお。そこで考えた挙句、食卓で鍋料理をする時に持ち出すIHコンロをひとつ台所に据付けてしまおうとラフな設計図を引いてみました。
ガスコンロの一部を大理石のプレートで覆い、右隅にIHコンロを設置、左手前のガスと使い分けという作戦です。これなら予算は2万程度。
これを実施してみると、今度は鍋に問題が波及します。最も多用しているT-falの28cm深鍋、26cmフライパンや雪平はIHでは使えません。雪平はともかく、すでにテフロン層も傷みが来ているT-falには代わりが必要です。実はIH対応のT-fal深鍋は26cmまでのようで代わりがなく、その結果選んだ28cm Thermosは深さ6.5cmでT-falの8cmには及ばないものの何とかなるかなという深さ、そして底面がフラットなのも利点だし、T-falの取手がそのまま転用できるのも乗り換えやすいメリットです。そして最大級の評価点は半額くらいの低価格でしょう。26cmフライパンの方は、赤坂離宮監修?の鉄のフライパン(写真中央、壁面)があるのでそれで済ませるか、先々のことを考えてステップアップに挑むか、これから思案です。
When we built our house for the first time nearly half a century ago, we put a gas convec in the kitchen. Since then, this European-style four-burner cooker has been our preferred tradition although the actual choices were limited (as they still are now), and we picked Scholtes before Rosière, among French manufacturers at that time.
Our condo, the second house, has been equipped with a German AEG convection system as well as a dishwasher. Because they are very old models, the gas burner can't be ignited all at once, and I myself the user am far older than they are, my wife strongly suggested me to replace it with an electric IH system in consideration of safety. It's not actually a simple matter of dropping in a new product for replacement, but we had to retire the entire convec. Then it's likely to remove the whole countertop for modification, a drastic project that would cost nearly a million Yen!
So, after a long thinking about it, I decided to set a small IH cooker product in the kitchen, a portable device often used on the tabletop during the dining: I placed marble plates over a part of the gas cooker and the IH one sits in the right corner. Strategically, the front-left gas burner remains in use, and this whole budget was about 20,000 Yen.
When this is done, a new problem now comes over the pots and pans. Our most used T-fal 28cm deep pot, 26cm frying pan and aluminum "Yukihira" pot cannot be used on IH. Aside from the Yukihira, the T-fal needs replacements definitely because their Teflon layer was already quite tired. Actually, the T-fal's IH-version deep pot goes only up to 26cm and there is no alternative, so I chose a Thermos while its 6.5cm depth was slightly shallower than T-fal's 8cm: I judged it manageable. Its flat bottom shape looks an advantage, and the T-fal handle continues to serve on Thermos. And the greatest is the much, much lower price.
As for the frying pan, I am now pondering as I have an iron pan (center on the wall in the picture) or I should consider other step-up...
Our condo, the second house, has been equipped with a German AEG convection system as well as a dishwasher. Because they are very old models, the gas burner can't be ignited all at once, and I myself the user am far older than they are, my wife strongly suggested me to replace it with an electric IH system in consideration of safety. It's not actually a simple matter of dropping in a new product for replacement, but we had to retire the entire convec. Then it's likely to remove the whole countertop for modification, a drastic project that would cost nearly a million Yen!
So, after a long thinking about it, I decided to set a small IH cooker product in the kitchen, a portable device often used on the tabletop during the dining: I placed marble plates over a part of the gas cooker and the IH one sits in the right corner. Strategically, the front-left gas burner remains in use, and this whole budget was about 20,000 Yen.
When this is done, a new problem now comes over the pots and pans. Our most used T-fal 28cm deep pot, 26cm frying pan and aluminum "Yukihira" pot cannot be used on IH. Aside from the Yukihira, the T-fal needs replacements definitely because their Teflon layer was already quite tired. Actually, the T-fal's IH-version deep pot goes only up to 26cm and there is no alternative, so I chose a Thermos while its 6.5cm depth was slightly shallower than T-fal's 8cm: I judged it manageable. Its flat bottom shape looks an advantage, and the T-fal handle continues to serve on Thermos. And the greatest is the much, much lower price.
As for the frying pan, I am now pondering as I have an iron pan (center on the wall in the picture) or I should consider other step-up...
