Not Induction Ready

Next snafu? None of our cooking pots work on our induction stove. NONE of them. I assumed that since our cheap rental pots worked on the stove my nicer mid range ones would as well. Not true. Did a bit on research and I guess induction suitable pots need to be ferrous - that means that they need to be made of iron or iron based. But apparently that is not enough as not all iron or iron based pots are induction ready. According to this site, the best way to check is to hold a magnet to the bottom of the pan (if the packaging does not EXPLICITLY say suitable for induction cooking.) If the magnet has a strong cling it suitable for induction cooking. In induction cooking, the pot becomes the original generator of cooking heat *not* the burner. This happens through some electromagnetic process that I didn't really try to understand. The site said that induction stove tops are very common in Europe. This leads me to my next Moving to Europe Note.

Note#3 - Check the stove top or ask your landlord about your stove top *before* shipping your cooking pots over. I have a feeling (not based on any facts) that induction pots may be less expensive over here since induction cooking is more widely used. I'm going to IKEA tomorrow. Our rental pots were IKEA.

I forgot to mention in my packaging post that all boxes and items to be shipped overseas are sprayed with pesticides. This occurs twice, when leaving a port and when entering the new port. Everything is wrapped, so the spray is not directly on your things, but it is still worth mentioning. In a perfect world, it would be nice to open all the outer wrapping outdoors.

Note - stove top picture is not mine. However, our stove top and counter are nearly identical. Click on photo for credit.