Decoding BTUs: How Much Cooking Power Do You Really Need? - Remodelista
The last time I bought a new gas range was over a decade ago. Do home cooks benefit from more cooking power in the kitchen, or are we suffering from BTU creep? Photograph by Matthew Williams for Remodelista. A Viking Freestanding 48-Inch Range offers high-level cooking power in a Los Angeles kitchen by Commune Design. Since Viking was purchased by the Middleby Corporation (the largest food-service equipment manufacturer in the world), it has upped its BTUs and other professional cooking-like features. A BTU (British thermal unit) is a measure of heat output and applies to the power generated by gas stovetops and ovens. Photograph via Capital Cooking. The open burners of the Capital Culinarian Gas Range offer a 23,000 BTU output with a low-level setting that provides a 145 degree simmer. The higher the BTU capacity of a gas burner, the hotter the burner can get; the hotter the burner, typically the faster the cooking times. When it comes to stoves, are more BTUs better? If your pan is not sized correctly for the burner, the high BTUs can heat the room more than the contents of the pan (an argument many make for the induction cooktop, but that’s a topic for another post). Some manufacturers tout burners that are specially designed to direct all heat upward for more efficient heating. Photograph via Sub-Zero Wolf. Wolf Gas Ranges have dual-stacked sealed gas burners with two tiers of flames: One delivers high heat, the other comes on for low-heat settings. Julie likes “the super firepower and the fact that it’s easy to adjust the flame to a slow simmer” on her Wolf range. A cooktop with high BTUs does not a professional chef make. If you do a lot of cooking that requires quick high heat, such as stir-frying or searing, you may want to push the power up. Bluestar Ranges and Cooktops feature wok-ready burners with up to 25,000 BTU searing power. Despite the passage of time and the increase in BTUs offered on ranges his comments still seem on target Flexibility he says is most important in a range... ...A variety of burners one with high BTUs for fast stir frying and one with super low BTUs 200 or 300 for simmering offers the most flexibility for cooking Photograph by Dustin Aksland. A kitchen for two avid cooks by Elizabeth Roberts Design/Ensemble Architecture has a Bluestar range. Bluestar’s designs are handmade in Redding, Pennsylvania, and offer the highest BTUs on the market (25,000). When shopping for a new range or cooktop, don’t ignore ventilation or you might be in for an unanticipated purchase. Photograph by Liesa Johannssen for Remodelista. Gardenista’s Michelle spec’d a Wolf range in her Mill Valley kitchen redo. When buying a gas stove, besides BTUs, what other factors should I consider? Beyond burner power, there are a range of details and options that come down to personal preference. When will the BTU arms race subside? We do like the Amica Zen Oven, shown here, which mixes state-of-the-art technology with a stripped-down design.