Why do prospective homeowners specify gas stoves most of the time?

Cooking on gas is considered more controllable than cooking over an electric source.

Once something is cooked you need to merely turn off the gas to stop the heating, while an electric stove top takes time to cool, which can result in overcooking.

The burners are much easier to regulate over a very smooth transition of temperatures, and you learn from experience to gauge degree of heating you desire simply by the height or intensity of the flame. Gas stoves are also more reliable, with such things as element burn out common to electric stoves. Gas stoves are also MUCH cheaper to operate.

I prefer cooking on gas; it is quicker because the fire is directly heating the pot/pan rather than having a surface that slowly heats up and then slowly transfers that heat into the pot/pan. Faster time to boil, etc. Most nights I’m cooking because I have to eat, not for the fun of it, so I like the cooking to go fast.

I’ve cooked with both, and I love gas. As others have said, there’s virtually no lag between turning the knob and the heat response, so you don’t have to wait for anything to heat up, and when you switch off the heat, it’s genuinely off; the burner doesn’t just heat things up more slowly. This means that you have to watch things a bit more closely, but I’m happy to trade that for greater control.

Also, as you say, the cleaning process is much easier. I miss that so much now that I have an electric range again.

Also, you don’t lose your range capabilities if the power goes out. A match can light the burners easily if the electric ignition goes out.

I agree with all the previous posts, and will add that cooking with gas is cheaper.

I agree with @canidmajor. If you lose power the gas stove will continue to operate. You can boil water, cook, and make hot water for showers without the need for a generator.

It’s the lag time on electric and smooth tops. I live in a neighborhood where there’s no gas main, and I don’t like it.

With electric cooking, as mentioned above, there’s a lag time while the element warms to the desired temperature. There’s also the time it takes to cool the element, during which it will continue to heat the cooking utensil, and ultimately the food. This means when a dish is finished cooking, you can’t just leave it on the burner like you can with gas.

I like cooking with both. The thing about a smoothtop electric is they really suck to keep clean.

You have much more control of the heat with gas, and with gas when the flame is off the heat is off, but I actually like electric because it stays warm.

We use the gas to make tortillas right on the flame, so we miss that when we have electric.

Right now, the gas is in fashion in terms of kitchen look. Chunky stove parts rather than sleek and smooth is very in.

I like the cooking results much better when I have a gas stove to work with.

@canidmajor is right.

I guess it was different back in the early to mid-sixties. The majority of the people wanted electric stoves and ovens; at least in South Texas. Our house was one of the few with a gas range and I recall that in the aftermath of a couple of hurricanes my family hosted large impromptu get-togethers with the neighbors.

Because we had one of the few working cooking ranges on the block; families would bring over food that was spoiling in the now-non-fuctioning refrigerators and cook at our home.
Everyone would set up chairs and card tables in the front yard and have a huge pot-luck meal for anyone who showed up.

It was one of the few positive high points in the storms aftermath and I think went a long way to fostering neighbor relationships. You may live next to a bunch of people for years without really knowing much about them but when you share meals and hardship with them you become so much closer.

Out of the 20 or so cooking classes I’ve have taken; none were on a Electric range including ceramic top.
I’ve had gas range tops, induction cook-top and BBQ grills with lump charcoal. Ovens have been gas and electric convection for bread and pastries and lump charcoal in ceramic BBQ; a Big Green Egg.

I’m in love with my gas range.

The trend in the 1960s and 1970s was all-electric homes/neighborhoods. The result is the occasional neighborhood in a town where there’s no gas main

Where I live, there’s no gas. There’s propane or electric. I just purchased a glass cooktop (electric). I love it. Very easy to clean. Friends who have them swear by them. A good friend who cooks a lot told me once you get one, you’ll never want to go back to the traditional cooktop again, when you find out how easy it is to clean. It’s way easier than taking apart the stove like I used to have to.

For me, an electric stove would be a deal-breaker. I’d move along and look at other houses.

I’m an avid cook – quite good, if I do say so – and I’ve always had gas stoves. I literally don’t know how to cook with electricity (yes, I’ve tried, when traveling or visiting).

- A gas jet gives an instant, constant flame that can be visually adjusted. The heat is reduced or turned-off just as immediately. The change in heat levels is instantaneous.

- Gas flames spread quickly and evenly along the bottom and sides of cookware. Food cooks quickly and predictably.

- Modern gas burners have electric pilots, so there’s no longer any need to use a kitchen match or have a continuously-burning pilot light.

Electric ovens are much more reliable than gas ovens, but that’s another discussion.

^^I agree with everything but the even heating. Gas stoves that don’t have at least two sizes in burners can leave the center of a pan slow to heat up. Sure, the better the pan the more evenly it heats, but for the average cook the center is not at temp as fast as the outer part of the pan. This is why I want a Thermadore the next house I buy.

I have had electric stoves that really really sucked, one was a GE, but I’ve dealt with GE stoves since and it looks like they improved it. I know I complained about it, and the company was already very aware customers were unhappy with that model stove. An older cheap gas stove is more consistent than an older cheap electric stove no question.

Most houses I see now are gas stove and electric ovens, and funny, I prefer to cook most things in gas ovens, and especially broil in gas ovens. Even something simple like an open cheese sandwich is better under a flame. For baking pastries and cakes the electric seems to be the choice because of the more even heating.

Edited by me.