Can You Use A Ridge Monkey On An Induction Hob?
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Ridge Monkey appliances are very popular with campers and those who like to spend time outdoors. They are great as they are prortable and can be used o either gas or electric hob tops. They are also all in one units so you can create a number of meals with that one appliance.
Unfortunately, Ridge Monkey cookware is not suitable for using on induction hobs. They are not made from the correct material that induction hobs require and so they are not compatible. Ridge Monkey will work with gas or electric hobs but not induction hobs.
In this article we are going to look deeper into the Ridge Monkey range and why they cannot be used with induction hobs and how you can use them instead.
Can You Use A Ridge Monkey On An Induction Hob?
Sadly, you cannot use a ridge monkey on an induction hob.
A ridge monkey is a wonderful piece of kitchen equipment designed to make it easy to cook a sandwich in a short period of time. The device itself is made up of two metal plates that are designed to press either side of the sandwich – squashing it in the process. Then the ridge monkey is exposed to heat, meaning that the plates would heat up.
When the plates are hot, the external surface of the sandwich is heated and thusly cooked – similarly to if you were making a sandwich in a frying pan or skillet. The difference is that heat is more all over the sandwich in this case, as the entire body of the ridge monkey will heat up when exposed to a heat source.
An induction hob doesn’t supply heat directly to the items that are on the surface of the hob, rather it generates heat through, unsurprisingly, induction. This means that an induction hob couldn’t supply heat directly to a ridge monkey.
However, you could use an induction hob converter plate. A converter plate is a piece of material that interfaces with the induction hob itself, thereby heating up after a few moments. The hot surface that is made in this situation would allow for a ridge monkey to gather heat from the stovetop. In this, admittedly very specific, use case, you could use a ridge monkey on an induction hob.
What Would Happen If You Use A Ridge Monkey On An Induction Hob?
To understand and properly answer this question we first need to people understand how a ridge monkey works, as well as how an induction hob works.
A ridge monkey works by having the outside casing of the appliance be made of a very conductive material. This material will pick up heat from the fire or heat source beneath it before transferring the heat to what’s within the ridge monkey itself. This is the process by which both ridge monkey and more traditional pots and pans cook – an efficient transfer of heat energy to your food.
An induction hob is an ingenious piece of engineering that works completely differently from a number of different traditional cooking appliances. Instead of having the hob itself heat up and supply energy to the pots and pans through conduction, instead, you watch a pan heat up directly without any conductive heat transfer taking place.
Induction cooking works by having a copper wire under the surface of the hob create a magnetic field as the current is passed through them. If a pan with a magnetized base is placed upon the hob, the magnetic field causes it to heat up quickly and efficiently.
This is a very efficient way of heating up pots and making food, as no heat is lost to the surroundings in the process of heating a pan. Instead, the pan itself is the only thing that gains heat, allowing for near-direct exposure to a heat source.
So, when combining these two appliances together, it’s likely that simply nothing would happen. The reason for this is that the ridge monkey needs an external source of heat in order to allow it to gain heat in its external plates. The induction hob simply can’t provide this, as it produces a magnetic field that the ridge monkey will not interface with. Therefore, you’d be left with a cool stovetop and an uncooked sandwich.
What Should I Use A Ridge Monkey With?
A ridge monkey should be used with anything that produces an amount of heat. This includes both gas and electric hobs.
When using a ridge monkey over a gas hob, we’d recommend regularly turning the appliance itself to ensure that the total surface of the sandwich is well-cooked and evenly heated. The reason to make sure you do this on a gas hob is that gas hobs lose the most heat by conduction to the air around them, meaning that your ridge monkey may not get as hot as in some other use cases.
When using a ridge monkey over an electric hob, you may only need to flip the main body of the appliance once or twice. The reason for this is that electric hobs will typically conduct heat to the pan very efficiently, leading to an impressively hot pan in nearly any situation.
The only other time that you may use a ridge monkey is when cooking over an open fire or a grill. This will likely be very similar to using a ridge monkey in any other situation, except open fires and grills can an awful lot hotter due to the sheer size of the burn area. Therefore, you may need to reduce the overall cook time.