I hate electric hobs

When we moved flats, we were blessed with an electric hob.

We obsess over cookware. We buy 5-ply copper-core skillets, debate the merits of carbon steel versus cast iron, and invest in high-tech induction hobs.

But there is a "hidden variable" in your cooking that ruins more dinners than poor seasoning: Concentricity.

I have noticed a common misunderstanding regarding how electric hobs work. We tend to assume that if the pan is mostly on the burner, we are getting mostly the heat. But geometry is cruel. Because both your pan and your burner are circles, a simple nudge of one inch doesn't just move the heat—it can drastically slash your effective cooking power.

The Venn Diagram of Dinner

Imagine your hob is a circle of blue light. Your pan is a circle of steel. To cook perfectly, you need a total eclipse—perfect alignment.

When you slide your 12-inch pan just one inch to the right to make room for a sauce pot, you aren't just shifting the heat; you are creating two dead zones:

The Overhang (The Cold Crescent): A sliver of the pan is now hanging over cool glass. No heat is entering here.
The Exposed Burner: A sliver of the heating element is radiating heat into the air, not your food.

The "Level 7 to Level 5" Drop

Why does this feel like such a power drop?

Let’s say you are searing a steak at Level 7. You nudge the pan. Suddenly, the sizzle dies down. You haven't touched the dial, so why did the heat vanish?

It comes down to Power Density.

Conduction Lag: Metal is conductive, but not instant. The heat from the center takes time to travel to that "Cold Crescent" on the edge. That area effectively stops cooking.
The Math of Intersection: The area of overlap between two circles drops faster than you think. While a 1-inch shift on a large pan might only reduce the total contact area by a moderate percentage, it reduces the useful cooking area significantly because the heat distribution becomes asymmetrical.

If 15% of your pan loses direct contact, you haven't just lost 15% of the heat; you've broken the thermal loop. Your pan is now bleeding heat into the air from the overhang faster than the element can replenish it from the center. The result? You are effectively cooking at a Level 5.

The "Cold Crescent" Danger

The real problem isn't just that the total heat is lower; it's that the heat is unpredictable. If you are making a stew, this doesn't matter much. The liquid will distribute the heat. But if you are:

Searing scallops: The scallops on the left will burn, while the ones on the right will boil in their own juices.
Making pancakes: You’ll get that tell-tale half-pale, half-burnt flapjack.
Reducing a sauce: One side will simmer, the other will stagnate.

How to Fix It (Without a Ruler)

You don't need to measure your stove every time you cook. You just need to respect the geometry.

The Water Test: Before adding oil, sprinkle a few drops of water in the pan. Watch where they boil first. If they dance in the center, you are aligned. If they only boil on the left side, shift your pan.
Match the Ring: This sounds obvious, but many of us put a 12-inch pan on an 8-inch burner. Even if you center it perfectly, you have a massive "Cold Ring" around the outside. Always match the pan base diameter to the ring size as closely as possible.
Listen to the Sizzle: Sound is your best feedback loop. If the aggressive hiss of a sear suddenly drops to a low murmur after you moved the pan, don't turn up the heat—re-center the pan.

The Bottom Line

Cooking is chemistry, but it starts with physics. Next time you feel like your stove is underpowered, or your food isn't browning, don't blame the recipe. Look at your feet. If you're standing off-center, you probably pushed the pan off-center too.

Align your circles, and you’ll get the "Level 7" you paid for.