Cooking Stovetop Temp?

Geoff_135995

One of the things I love about modernist cooking and ChefSteps is that ingredients are given so precisely. Like in grams instead of cups. Also, many recipes give exact heat specification. But I noticed for stovetop cooking, direction is still given as medium heat, medium-high, etc.

I know that ovens differ. My last two ovens have been too low and I put a thermometer in and to get the recommended heat I need to go like 25F over. And I noticed improvements for obvious reasons.

TL;DR

So, my question is: should I expect the same thing on my stove? How can I calibrate this or test it? What temperature is supposed to correspond to each heat level? I never seem to hit it right. Or am I just missing something?

tshewman

Calibrating an oven and using temperatures generally isn't quite the same as stove top. You'll notice for most in oven recipes a cooking vessel is recommended along with the time ranges and fan settings (If applicable). On a stove often the pan type is different (so different heat transfer), and temp ranges are strongly dependant on your transfer of heat to vessel (then you have hot spots etc). So while there are often recommended temperatures for the product precise temperatures of the elements themselves woukd be a but more challenging.