Every homemaker knows that prices of daily essentials are always on the rise. Electricity, water, cable and internet bills, mortgage, rice and produce, transportation, and fuel costs, among so many other expenses, are items that continue to bloat our budget. As a recurring expense, cooking gas or Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), one of the most common fuels used for cooking, is one item you can closely monitor and conserve so you can chalk up savings that you can use for other household expenses.

Solane, the country’s leading provider of safe and reliable cooking gas, gives tips on maximizing your LPG:

Use the right pot for your burner. To make the most of your LPG, use a pot or cookware that is suitable for your gas stove burner and vice versa. If you’re cooking using a big pot, use the big burner and if it’s just soup for one in a tiny pot, then better use the smallest burner. This way, the amount of gas dispensed will be equal to the size of the burner. Using small cookware on a big burner will just be a waste of cooking gas.

Thaw frozen food before cooking.

For faster cooking, thaw frozen food before cooking. It lets you maximize your LPG as you save on the heat energy required to bring it down to room temperature.

Invest in a pressure cooker.

Cooking using a pressure cooker saves a lot of LPG. Compared to ordinary pans that cook food at around 100 Centigrade degrees only, pressure cookers cook at around 125 Centigrade degrees which means it helps get the food cooked quickly, thus reducing cooking time.

Check your gas flames.

Is your gas flame blue or yellow? Does it burn steadily or not? Blue gas and steady flames indicate that your burner is clean. If the flame is yellow or orange in color, your burner is chocked with soot, grease or food residue, causing it to not burn properly, and therefore waste fuel. To avoid this, clean the gas stove regularly.

Cover the pan while cooking.

Placing the lid on your pan while cooking blocks the steam from escaping and makes your food cook faster. It also reduces cooking time since the heat energy is used more efficiently.

Check your LPG tank and gas stove.

To ensure safety and to maximize your LPG, check the following regularly: regulator, pipes/hoses and burner for leaks. To avoid wastage, make sure that the regulator is switched off after cooking.

In addition to safety and saving money, it is important to get the most out of your LPG as every kilo counts and every peso that we save is an integral component in every household.

Discover more about LPG at http://www.solane.com.ph.