I have a Swedish-design alcohol stove that I could use outside if I needed another burner.
Under suboptimal conditions (burning rubbing alcohol instead of the actual fuel, single digit temperatures, an interruption by the son of the family we bought our house from showing up unannounced at the door and asking incomprehensible questions while wearing a scarf as a belt), I was able to boil three cups of water in under ten minutes. I think that compares reasonably well with a commercial range.
Don't you most often find that your large pan keeps you from putting something non-tiny on the burner behind it?
Use the burner that's diagonally across from it.
Our actual stove, which was installed by people whose son showed-up asking questions that could easily be answered by looking at a publicly accessible website, is electric. We never have trouble getting all the pans that we are using on it, but I want to replace it with a gas range at some point.
I notice the same problem, but I very rarely have three big pots/skillets on the stove at the same time. If there are more than two things going, one of them is almost always small enough to stack behind a big pan.
Also goddamn those are some expensive stoves/burners.
Yes. You could get two regular stoves and save money.
You could get ten regular stoves and save money.
I wouldn't mind one o' those deep stove-tops, but it would require first getting a bigger kitchen.
Maybe that's why Costco sells bundles of ten stoves shrink wrapped together.
We really have run out of interesting things to talk about, haven't we?
The Round Table was just a lot of people telling jokes and telling each other how good they were. Just a bunch of loudmouths showing off, saving their gags for days, waiting for a chance to spring them....There was no truth in anything they said. It was the terrible day of the wisecrack, so there didn't have to be any truth...
-- Dorothy Parker
Not that that is relevant to anything, much less the troubling problem of stove depth.
I'd suggest that 12 should be the new mouseover, but frankly it's too similar to the old mouseover. So instead 13 should be the new mouseover.
(Also, jesus, lay off. The problem of stove depth may not be the most interesting topic of discussion, but some of us are bored and lonely enough to talk about basically anything, as long as someone out there will talk back.)
Cooking is a frivilous activity. Let us speak of the manly virtues.
Are they not just standard counter depth? Presumably JRoth knows.
There have to be, so that short people can clean the whole countertop.
14.2" Siri, why do my large pots not fit on my stovetop?"
I read this post and thought, "I have no idea what he's talking about." Then I clicked the link and realized we have that very stove in our kitchen. My only defense is that it was here when we arrived.
In other words, you're the 1% I keep hearing about.
It seems like it's just a change in venue-- originally, on streets like the Faubourg St-honore or 5th Ave, where a wider store meant higher rent, so fancy stores were narrow and deep. With stores in malls and suburbs (and maybe driving cities, Dallas or LA), wider stores were possible. More natural light inside and much more space for window displays.
Stoves I just read the comments, I see. No problem, same argument-- narrow and deep stove designs are suited to placement against a wall in a kitchen with empty space in the middle. If there's a kitchen island, the stove can become a broad edifice. Paltrow's kitchen with explanatory paragraphs
The basket is for Martha Stewart's head.
||
I've posted this before, but I came across it again today, and fuck this is so so good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2T274bXIxU
In the longer version you can see some of the players clapping each other on the back and watching Rollins with awe.
>
The burners on the left half of my stove are broken. Have been for several years now. It's fairly inconvenient, given that I cook almost every day. One of these days I'm going to get around to replacing the whole thing. But so far the inconvenience factor has not yet overcome my Olympic-caliber laziness.
I do run into the OP problem, but can usually work around it by juggling the order of the pots. Evidently it's better to regularly cook on the back burners (for indoor air quality), but I always start in the front, because the back burners are so close to the oven controls and vent in the back.
Evidently it's better to regularly cook on the back burners (for indoor air quality)
This is... weird? I assume this must only be true if you have one of those fancy vented range hoods?
"a dirty joke I can't finish."
Don't worry, ogged, I hear it happens to all guys sometimes.
I almost never cook on the back burners, and when I do I start with diagonal-back as urple suggests. Even at standard depth, the back burners are pretty far away (I'm short) and who wants to reach over something hot if one can avoid it?
Our stove fan is not connected to the outside. It just spews the air a couple inches away, into the center of the kitchen. Maybe they're all like that.
Our stove fan is connected to the outside, but poorly. I tried to fix it, but decided that it worked well enough.
Ours is connected to the outside and it is swell. FRY ALL THE THINGS.
Maybe they're all like that.
No, most vent outside (or should, anyway). The back burners are better handled by the range hood (and there's some ridiculousness about powerful range hoods drawing dirty air down from the chimney, but even among the 1%, that's probably not a common problem), but like redfox says, who wants to use the back burner anyway? So maybe that's the answer: nice cooktops are wider because they give you direct access to more burners.
What I find annoying is when the most powerful burner on mid-nice cooktops is in the middle. If you do stock pot cooking, that makes sense, but if your primary pan is a frying pan or wok, that's very inconvenient.
Also amusing: high-end residential stove makers trying to convince you that 20,000 BTU is some crazy magic that's going to make your wok cooking awesome. To quote Master Chef Dundee, that's not a wok burner, this is a wok burner.
Presumably JRoth knows.
Yes, it's the tyranny of counter depth, although fridges tend to be deeper (by about 4"), so it's not clear why stoves never got the treatment. Well, a few reasons:
- the starting point were really small stoves/ovens; if you look at an old fashioned gas appliance, you wonder how the hell anybody cooked for a large family with them. Every time I see It's a Wonderful Life, I marvel at Mary taking a little pot roast out of the miniature oven to feed both her family of 6 and the in-laws
- I'm pretty sure that small diameter pots & pans used to be much more the norm. Certainly having one large skillet has always been common, but I'm pretty sure that having several in a typical kitchen is new. It's possible that this is because, until fairly recently, most burners didn't really put out enough heat to effectively cook with a 12" skillet.
- Back in the '50s, when this stuff was getting standardized, a lot of the innovation was with distinct cooking components, like replacing a burner with a recessed well dedicated to boiling water or whatever (if you go to a place with lots of '50s and '60s stoves, it's amazing how much variety there was). In the end they settled on a straightforward 4-burner layout, but my point is that they weren't exploring absolute size at all.
- let's be honest: most people don't cook at home enough for ogged's complaint (which I share) to move the market. A deeper range wouldn't be sexy enough to charge a premium aside from other features that are irrelevant to depth. That is, stainless steel with 80,000 BTU burner and built-in griddle are all things people will pay for; extra depth, absent those things, wouldn't get you much extra $$.
Apparently that toss-into-the-flames-licking-up-the-wok is the key to wok cooking. Probably not happening at home, although this tinkerer is doing his best.
The burners on the left half of my stove are broken. Have been for several years now. It's fairly inconvenient, given that I cook almost every day.
This is just the thing: totally possible to manage with two or even one burner, even if you cook a lot. It's really amazing how the shiny things bore into your brain. Someone remind me of this every day, please.
We were on a tight budget when we redid the kitchen; at some point I'll have to upgrade the hood. We were starting from no hood, so it was still a big improvement, but it's noisy and not super-effective.
Domestic hoods aren't as effective as they could be because making them really effective would make them too prominent, and most likely head-bumping (commercial hoods extend at least 6" beyond the face of the burners, but are high enough to be above your head; that would be awkward in most residential kitchens).
Our range has burners of 4 sizes: going clockwise from front right, it's biggest, second smallest, second biggest, and smallest. So it's designed to accommodate diagonal cooking (there's also an elongated burner in the middle for a griddle/reducing roasting pan juices). The big flaw is that the knob for the warming draw/second oven is right above the back left burner (so second most used), and it gets hot as hell, plus the stupid foil finish has bubbled up (the other knobs don't seem to have the foil at all, so double-dumb).
totally possible to manage with two or even one burner, even if you cook a lot.
For the first~10 years in this house, we had the 1962 range it came with, with only 3 burners. I did Thanksgiving dinners for 12, parties for 50... hardly a problem at all. The only reason we replaced it was that it developed some sort of gas leak, and while the repair guy was able to fix it, the gas company told us that, if it happened again, they'd shut it off until we replaced it. Rather than risk it happening on an unpredictable schedule, we just took care of it. It was certainly nice having all 4 burners (especially since the missing one was the front right), but the real upgrade was having a much, much better oven. It's been 4 years and I still appreciate having a reliable oven.
Oooh, I just came up for a metric of SWPLness at any income level, the ratio of the cost of your oven to the cost of your car. If it's 2x-4x eg a $6,000 stove and a $12,000 car, you are Max SWPL (and we know that car's a 2006 Subaru Outback). Proper ratio for awesomeness should be 100x, like a $400 stove and $40,000 car.
Our former stove had 1.5 working burners (one was too feeble to boil water and the other had to be lit with a match). That was pretty frustrating, though we lived with it that way for two years and managed OK. We now have a six-burner stove. Four would have been plenty, but I do appreciate the excess, because it makes it much easier to skip using the back burners, and also because it makes for a nice roomy oven. The simmer burners are in the middle.
43, c'est moi. (1999 Honda Accord, so adjust downward accordingly.)
No idea what our stove cost; standard four-burner, house was built in 1998 so presumably it is 17 years old.
Apparently that toss-into-the-flames-licking-up-the-wok is the key to wok cooking.
Right, although I've recently learned* that there are enough other reasons to cook with a wok that the absence of that element isn't critical.
That link goes to a discussion of a converter that makes a home stove cook a bit more like a wok burner, but the same writer advocates for using a grill. Haven't tried it yet.
*scroll down to "Why Wok?" for the explanation.
Cars are stupid.
ACTUALLY, WE RATHER LIKE "CARS".
48: You didn't even click the link in ogged's comment, did you?
We're at 30x, but the car is almost 11 years old (still under 90k miles).
50: I screwed up and looked at the link in 36 before posting.
46 -- sounds like somebody's worried about their SWPL number.
the ratio of the cost of your oven to the cost of your car
I like this.
Wait, are we talking original purchase price of the car, or current Blue Book value?
If it's 2x-4x eg a $6,000 stove and a $12,000 car, you are Max SWPL
Blue Book for my current car is . . . $2,100 (and it's a Subaru), but I might be getting a new (used) car soon.
I don't know how well that works. Any poor person driving a beater car will look SWPL by that measure. And I'm not poor, but I recently bought a new $500 oven and until recently drove an wrecked, mid 90s corolla that was worth about $800. I've since bought a new car that right-sizes my ratio, but still, I don't think that my ~1.5 ratio was especially SWPL. More like just cheap.
My range vent is definitely not connected to anything exterior. The vent is just the above-oven microwave fan, which I suppose maybe in theory could be designed to vent outside somehow, but ours definitely doesn't. It has a filter that, when clean (which it usually isn't), does eliminate some cooking odor, but (1) most cooking smells are delicious, not unpleasant odors, and (2) it's for sure not doing anything more than that.
I'd be surprised if I'd get more than £500 for my car if I sold it [Peugeot 206: 140,000 miles on the clock]. We live in a rented flat, and didn't buy the cooker, but I'd be surprised if it was less than £500. So we probably have a 1:1 cooker/car ratio.
The microwave fan actually blows air directly into the face of anyone standing at the range, so we really don't use it ever.
If you call it a 'cooker' and live over here, you get +15 SWPL points.
Also amusing: high-end residential stove makers trying to convince you that 20,000 BTU is some crazy magic that's going to make your wok cooking awesome
It's not crazy magic, but it's heat, which is key so your vegetables don't get limp and watery because they're not cooking quickly enough. I'm a simple man of the people, so I can desire the wok burner in the OP without getting all wrapped up in class signifiers.
It's not crazy magic, but it's heat, which is key so your vegetables don't get limp and watery because they're not cooking quickly enough.
How many BTUs are in an ordinary $500 stovetop? Unless I'm boiling water, I don't ever really turn the dial all the way to high heat to cook anything.
I was thinking purchase price of stove/BB value of car, but maybe there's a better way.
63: That's what I was wondering. Because if I turn up the heat all the way on a vegetable that I'm sauteing, all I accomplish is testing the smoke alarm.
but it's heat
Heat good, and I'll get as many BTUs as I can get, but it's not a wok burner.
Urple and I have the same kitchen. Same microwave fan here.
63: It depends, but I'd say 9,000-12,000 BTU is about average for your basic, newish non-prosumer stove. The electric one I ditched a few years ago was probably well below that, and even the decent gas stove I have now, with one burner that's maybe 14,000, isn't as hot as I'd like for wok cooking.
I don't ever really turn the dial all the way to high heat to cook anything.
Many, many dishes benefit from high heat.
Here's a normal range with a 17k burner. The high-end stuff has up to 22k burners, that Miele wok burner I linked is 27k.
Except for boiling water, I only ever use high heat to cook meat. And I use the grill to get the high heat because outside seems like a good place for high heat and smoke.
but it's not a wok burner
Well yeah, but you could just keep the wok moving like the guy in the video. I kind of want one of the crude but effective-looking burner units from the Asian restaurant supply place around here, with three rings and dozens of gas jets, but something tells me that my insurance company would have good reason to deny my claim if I burned the house down with it.
just keep the wok moving like the guy in the video
I'm not totally sure I understand, but the point of the wok video is that the food is being partially cooked by the flame as the food is tossed. Even the 27k Miele isn't making a flame big enough to come around the side of the wok and cook your food.
70: Um, Swipply McSwipple, I dispute you claim that that's normal. A), it's not urple's $500, which I think is reasonable, and B), they specifically call it a power burner.
I kind of want one of the crude but effective-looking burner units from the Asian restaurant supply place around here, with three rings and dozens of gas jets, but something tells me that my insurance company would have good reason to deny my claim if I burned the house down with it.
I remember reading a thread a while back somewhere about the prospects of outfitting a home kitchen with actual restaurant appliances. The upshot was that it was a huge amount of effort (because you couldn't just put in a stove and be done with it, you'd also have to put in a range hood for safety, etc.) and not actually worth it unless you were going to be cooking at the scale restaurants cook at. My Google-fu isn't up to finding it at the moment though.
73: Just hold one of those kitchen torches (like for melting sugar on creme brulee) over the pan to flame the food.
73: It's not as though the flame is licking into the wok and cooking the food directly, it's just maintaining high heat uniformly over the surface, right?
It's not as though the flame is licking into the wok and cooking the food directly
Not licking into the wok, but coming over the edge enough to cook it directly. Watch the video in 36 again.
Not licking into the wok, but coming over the edge enough to cook it directly
Trying to make the Henley rule work here...I'll be right back.
I just looked up my range. 12,500 BTU on the big burner; 9,500 BTU on the two regular sized ones; 5,000 BTU on the "Precise Simmer" burner.
I woke up this morning honestly having no idea that I've been suffering along with an underpowered stove. Now I know better.
If you have a gas range, you can get more BTUs with a drill and a sense of indifference to human life and your property.
How is it that we've gotten this far into the thread without a discussion of the merits of gas vs. induction cooktops? I've failed.
82 was a joke. Don't drill into your gas appliances.
85: And be sure to wear eye protection when you don't.
Japanese cooking doesn't generally use ovens, so for most of my time there I cooked on two gas burners and a tiny fish grill. The ones in my last house were high-tech and I miss them: one had a thermostat that I could set at 160, 180, or 200 C to keep the oil at the right temperature for deep frying different ingredients, and there were other functions I never got round to investigating (automatic water-boiling, rice-cooking timer, and so on).
My oven was a 30-cm square combination microwave, convection oven, toaster, and grill, from which I somehow managed to produce Christmas dinner. A mail-order service catering to American expats helpfully sold frozen turkeys according to size, so I could buy a 28-cm one and be sure it would fit, though roast potatoes had to be done separately afterwards. You could supposedly connect it to the Internet to download recipes and cooking times (we bought it back in 2000), though it needed a PC to work and we were a Mac household so I never got to try.
What is a tiny fish grill? Electric?
No, it's gas too. The stove top looks like this, with the grill between and below the burners.
Mostly, that looks like an old reel-to-reel tape deck put on top of a VHS player.
88: I loved the tiny fish grill—tiny fish with miso soup for breakfast, hooray. I had a more primitive version of the oven, basically just an oversized toaster oven, in which I cooked the smallest turkey I could find at Kinokuniya for Thanksgiving. There was about a quarter-inch clearance all around.
The heat comes from above. Yes, I think you'd call it a broiler. In the UK we say "grill."
They had one in the dorm when I was in the U.K. I only ever saw it used to make toast.
There was an electric kettle on the wall, which I used to make instant mashed potatoes. I learned that if you make instant mashed potatoes and instant gravy in separate containers than bring them together, it tastes better than if you mix up the respective powers and rehydrate them all at one go.
Mostly, that looks like an old reel-to-reel tape deck put on top of a VHS player.
It looks more like reel-to-reel tape deck put on top of an 8-track player.
93: I never did become reconciled to miso soup for breakfast, let alone natto, though my younger son still much prefers it to cornflakes.
Why not just use an outdoor grill and whatever combustibles you fucking want to make flames for your fucking wok.
The dimension that was at the back when you shoved it into the tape whole was shorter when compared to the dimension that was at the side when you shoved it into the tape hole.
I haven't read the thread yet, but our range doesn't have this problem, really. In part, I think it's the design of the grate; they provide one linear space that allows you to cram two large pans on if you really have to. (No, the centre of heat isn't going to be perfect, but if you're cooking on all five burners and that happens, you're probably doing too much for it to really matter, anyway.) We spent a fair bit of money on ours, but I use it all the time (and it was less than the cost of an Apple laptop, so not crazy money given that I probably spend close to the same amount of time using both and expect the stove to last much longer).
I used to think a 12" pan was standard. When I moved to the UK and began work in a place that sells pans, I found that 12" (or 30 cm) is pretty much the upper limit of sizes that most companies do for home use.
Which width? The length?
The depth width, not the height length.
Assume a two dimensional tape because the height doesn't matter for either. For VHS, the longer side goes into the machine. For 8-track, the short side does.
In class just now, I sort of burst out laughing during a quiet moment because "I fucking love appliances" flitted across my mind.
We've got five burners, the extra being a wok one that may not be as massive as necessary but still does a sight better than anything else that I've cooked on, and a warming plate. My main complaint about ours - and what I know to look out for in the future - is that all of the burners are a little too strong to maintain a large pot simmering for a long time. You always get a bit of sticking/too much heat in the centre of one of the pans. (I have a heat diffuser, which works, but I'd rather just have a simmer ring.)
In class just now, I sort of burst out laughing during a quiet moment because "I fucking love appliances" flitted across my mind.
This is Halfordismo I can get behind. I do too.
I don't love fucking appliances, though.
Depends on what counts as an "appliance," doesn't it?
merits of gas vs. induction cooktops
What I'd really like to do is put in a four-burner induction cooktop with the Miele wok burner beside it. But I think I'd have to upgrade my 100 amp service, and the cable is buried, etc., and that would probably cost as much as the appliances.
Relatedly, my newly installed furnace frequently turns out my kitchen lights when it kicks on and then dies, at which point it, and the lights, can only be revived by me turning on a burner on my electric range.
I suspect poor grounding. Or possibly an intrusion by the urpleverse.
I don't understand by what metric induction cooktops are supposed to be better than gas. But perhaps I'm just imposing my knowledge of the shortcomings of electric ranges on induction ones.
118: Wow! How did you figure that out how to get the lights back on?
121: Remove "that" -- leftover from previous version of question.
by what metric induction cooktops are supposed to be better than gas
They heat your pans faster, hold more consistently at lower temperatures, don't radiate heat into your home, and they're easy to clean up, because you get the advantages of a smooth surface, with the benefit that the surface doesn't get hot enough to cook-stick stuff to itself.
|| This is going to be some horrifying reading. |>
(Further to 124, did you see that they spelled the author's name 3 different ways in the article. Shame on you for noticing that given the content of the thing!)
125: I didn't notice! 5 virtue points for me. Negative 5 proofreading points.
Curse a lot and place pans in the corners.
Our old range had three burners and a stock pot. The thing was a wide 50s Admiral beast, but our new range has five burners and no griddle because that just sounded like a bad idea to me.
I understand how 8-track players work. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the scale of the device in 90.
I guess I could be also. I don't have any current knowledge of how big a reel-to-reel tape player is.
I suspect poor grounding. Or possibly an intrusion by the urpleverse
You shouldn't have traded the cow for that magical bean thing. And you most assuredly shouldn't have planted the magical bean thing.
no griddle because that just sounded like a bad idea
Yeah. When am I going to use the griddle? Never ever.
My wife often flips the griddle onto the grill-esque side to make meat, but it's a pain in the ass to clean, way worse than the cast-iron skillet, into the oven, 5x/week plan.
No grains, man who is, all else being equal, dying slightly faster than I am.
Isn't a griddle also perfect for bacon?
Also no dairy, of course. And very little sugar. So you see that pancakes are out. If you're inclined to make pancakes, however, let me recommend this recipe, which makes a truly great pancake. I found, back in the day, that really low heat was important. Just enough to get them bubbling after several minutes on a side.
Isn't a griddle also perfect for bacon?
So the forces of evil would have you believe, but I've been making my bacon in the oven, and it's the best I've ever had.
We don't use our griddle either. We cook pancakes on the frying pan (because it is much easier to clean) and bacon in a baking sheet in the oven. Line the sheet with foil and you have an easy clean up there also.
139 before seeing 138. It's really much easier in the oven. The only advantage of using a griddle or frying pan is that the grease is all ready for whatever comes next.
I've been making my bacon in the oven
I assume by 'making' you mean 'cooking'. Otherwise, tell me more.
If you do in fact mean cooking, doesn't that (1) take about 5 times as long as cooking it in a skillet (or on a griddle!), and (2) use about 10 times as much energy? The end result would need to be pretty damn good to justify all that.
I don't see why it would take more energy. The oven doesn't lose as much heat to the room. It takes maybe ten minutes.
It takes ten minutes just to preheat the oven.
I do mean cooking. It does take longer. It is better. I wonder how much more energy it takes if you have a gas oven. I assume the oven uses more, but loses less, heat.
I'm going to cede the bacon discussion to Moby.
I don't see why it would take more energy.
Because you're heating a big box to 350 degrees (or whatever temp you cook at).
On a skillet, you just need to heat a small surface. You lose heat to the room, but who cares? Get the skillet hot, cook one side of the bacon, then the other, then done.
I don't preheat the oven for bacon. I just toss it in.
Oven-bacon rarely gets satisfyingly crisp, I think because the sheet pan doesn't get hot enough? I'm not sure, but I don't like it nearly as much as made in a pan - although it is the best if you've got lots of other things happening.
I turn the oven on, of course. I also don't bother to flip it.
Oven-bacon rarely gets satisfyingly crisp
False, man. I just made bacon this way a few hours ago. (I don't actually like it all that crisp, but some of the pieces were.)
150: That does seem credible. But twice as efficient doesn't seem like a very big gain when you can just double the amount of bacon in the oven with no extra energy.
I preheat and flip, but this page says that how you cook things is low on the list of ways to conserve energy. I think if you're having bacon, that battle is probably already lost.
The thing I would love about cooking bacon in the oven, which I've never thought of before right this minute, is that I could cook an entire package at once, and then in theory save the extra cooked bacon the refrigerator as an easy thing to eat over the next few days.
The drawback to this is that I'm fairly sure that even if I cooked an entire package of bacon, I would immediately eat all of it.
Right. We eat the whole package. But there are three of us and it is uncured, extra wholesome bacon.
I would immediately eat all of it.
This is in fact what my children do. Usually when I make bacon, I get none of it.
False, man. I just made bacon this way a few hours ago. (I don't actually like it all that crisp, but some of the pieces were.)
I think the second part refutes the first. I like mine extra crispy. (Plus, British bacon is thicker cut, even the streaky, which is possibly the reason, now that I think about it.)
Mostly, I like not having to clean up all spattered grease that you get when you cook bacon on a stove.
I like mine extra crispy
You just leave it in longer. Really, it gets crispy. I just added that bit about not liking it that way, so neb or someone wouldn't come along and say "You like your bacon crispy? You're a philistine!"
This is so topical, I was just shopping for an oven during my lunch break! Does anyone have a double-oven gas range? It seems like a nice energy-saving device since most of what we cook could go in the smaller oven (pizza, casseroles) and we're vegetarians so I don't have to worry about using the bottom oven for something like a pot roast. Do you recommend convection ovens? Because the linked oven isn't one, but I'm not sure I've ever used a convection oven so I don't think I'd be missing out.
Yeah, the oven bacon thing has always seemed like too much hassle. More importantly, I most often buy bacon in slab form and cut slices of different thicknesses to please different family members (I like really thick bacon - like, hamsteak thick), and cooking them to the correct doneness wouldn't work in an oven.
I love making pancakes (and French toast and quesadillas) on the griddle because it's so much easier to flip, plus of course it's a larger surface area. A bit of a pain to clean, but not really a big deal.
161: Perhaps! I have not found it to my liking, even with long cooking times. But, tastes vary, yadda yadda. I do do it when I have to cook bacon for a crowd.
Nice try, Parenthetical, but we have to argue to the death.
Designed to kick out serious heat, the Power Burner funnels 18,200 BTUs of flame power to your cooking surface, so steaks sear, eggs scramble and water boils quickly.
So, I don't have an 18,200 BTU burner, but should I take this to mean that I should be using high heat to scramble my eggs? I thought that would not work well. I usually scramble eggs on medium-low heat.
162: My mom has a double oven, but electric. It's nice for cooking big dinners.
Truly, high-end stoves, and the ad copy for them, reveal the dark heart of our civilization.
168. Beauty aids, from clothing to diet and firness gear to especially cosmetic surgery are more revealing still.
I don't know. I find my firness gear in the woods.
Nice try, Parenthetical, but we have to argue to the death.
Shit. At least I have some nice knives to bring to the knife fight.
Bacon, at least streaky bacon, gets plenty crispy under the grill (aka broiler), and you don't need to preheat . Never tried it just on an ordinary oven setting, but my standard method is to use the roasting tray with foil under the wire rack. It turns out just as well as on a frying pan*, and you can do sausages at the same time, with much less active tending.
*Except for bacon sarnies. Then you want to preserve the grease, and you'll be doing the egg in the same pan anyway.
are more revealing still
In some ways, yes, but these stoves are almost exclusively about signaling wealth, and in that big-firepower American way. I'm not saying Von Wafer should tear out his stove, but I am saying that he might as well have photos of incinerated Iraqi children above it.
||
OT Bleg: I need ideas for date stuff to do after a nice dinner that allows for lots of conversation. Finding a bar that's not going to be packed and noisy on a Friday night is difficult. Maybe bowling? I dunno. Bonus points if the place you identify has a bit of semi private space where we can try out some of our newly-learned dance moves (the date starts with a private swing dance lesson, then a fancy Vietnamese restaurant, then awkward fumbling sex whatever you guys suggest).
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172: Yeah, the grill definitely does do the trick, but for some odd reason I never remember to use it. I submit: I was wrong. (I always cook whole sausages on a rack in the oven - very best.)
Maybe bowling?
Save something for after the wedding.
when i do bacon in the oven, i use the toaster oven. it's almost a broiler because the heating elements are so close to the food, and it cooks supa-fast.
and it isn't 3500 watts.
I really wish I could get the oven I wanted without all the silly gimmicks. I do not care about having a center oval-shaped burner or a burner for boiling water quickly. I do, however, want an oven that will look nice with the rest of my appliances and fit in the tiny space. The cheaper ovens were too big for the space or didn't look right. The oven space is right next to a door so anything wider would block access to the basement.
Who the hell scrambles eggs over heat like that? When I have the time, I prefer to use my double boiler, so they're all light and fluffy.
174: go to the least worst mall and dance in front of Spencers.
private-room karaoke?
go see a band that no one likes so there will be room?
roller skating!
There's one of those karaoke things down the street from my office. I don't know who goes, but if it helps keep karaoke out of regular bars, I'm all for it.
Isn't ice skating better than bowling?
ideas for date stuff to do after a nice dinner that allows for lots of conversation
Two laptops, one thread. I'll put up a Togolosh date thread, both of you join in.
182 -- See, I was busy looking up the moon phase for Friday, and so got delayed/pwned. Moon's too late for snowshoeing.
184: Only if ice skating rinks ever start to come with a machine to put upright what gets knocked over.
ideas for date stuff to do after a nice dinner that allows for lots of conversation
Both go to your respective homes and have phone sex.
187 -- Togo can lift the date. The date can lift Togo. Artisanal hand crafted human contact ftw.
185 is winning so far, though I find 188 intriguing.
174: Comment on the Internet about how you were already tired of the "I love bacon SO much" thing during the George W. Bush administration.
180: I have a 1950s-era French cookbook with a scrambled eggs recipe (to be served with champagne on New Year's Eve) that includes a dozen eggs, a half dozen more yolks, and like half a pound of truffles, all to be cooked in your double boiler. Mine is not big enough, I am sure.
I hate bacon poseurs who put bacon on cupcakes or whatever. Full POBAD lifestyle or nothing.
IMO, private swing dance class + dinner already sounds like too much organized activity for a date. You can linger over dessert if you need to keep things going. At the end of that if you're not ready for a nightcap aka sex at someone's house, then it's time to go to bed and get some rest.
192: OMG that sounds so great, and me having truffle oil in the cabinet even. Plus, another great reason to have eggs with Champagne, alongside oeufs en meurette.
Moon's too late for snowshoeing.
That would be convenient for drive-in movies.
I love having a griddle, on which I make pancakes because I laugh in death's face, but it is a separate pan that spans two burners. Easy to wash. I wouldn't want one built into my stove.
Did you know you can replace stovetops? Mine was cracking and had burnt on residue but the stove and oven worked fine. Then we searched the internet, which eventually brought us to an identical new stove top and it looks wonderful.
Usually when I make bacon, I get none of it.
Margie says she still doesn't know how many cherry tomato plants she would have to plant for her to get a single cherry tomato. More than five.
193.last has been percolating in my mind a bit. I mentioned that I hadn't made after dinner plans and she suggested playing it by ear, so I think that's where we default.
174: Too much date! Go home after dinner. (I'm apparently misanthropic when it comes to early dates.) Allow her to miss you.
On preview, 193.2 has it exactly right.
Weather permitting, which I can't remember where you're located (DC?), nothing's better for after-dinner conversation than a nice long walk, and you don't need to plan it ahead of time.
198: Unless one is on a short pier.
It will be 20 degrees out, LB. Nothing says romance like chattering teeth.
Re:ice skating, most rinks around don't have ice time on Friday nights for open skates.
They heat your pans faster, hold more consistently at lower temperatures, don't radiate heat into your home, and they're easy to clean up, because you get the advantages of a smooth surface, with the benefit that the surface doesn't get hot enough to cook-stick stuff to itself.
Also safer, in that the cooktop itself never gets hot enough to burn. You can put your hand down on one set to full blast and unless you're wearing conductive jewelry it won't do jack to you.
Nothing says "Too long in the south" like having your teeth chatter when it's only 20.
203: On dates, ladies aren't expected to dress for the weather. A long walk in 20 degree weather in bare legs and heels is unpleasant.
True, but a gentleman always carries extra pants.
That might be a handkerchief. I forget.
This thread got to 200 comments disturbingly fast.
162: Convection ovens are fine, but I haven't seen anyone consider their absence a deal breaker. If you've never cooked with them before, the first month or two are an adjustment--all of your times and temperatures will be off.
Convection is supposed to make the oven less prone to hot-spots and can be great for baking. The double oven sounds very interesting--if only because you've only got half the volume to heat for most cooking. Hmm...
But perhaps I'm just imposing my knowledge of the shortcomings of electric ranges on induction ones.
This thread is the first time I've learned that there is a difference. I hadn't even looked at them, because electric ranges are terrible. Oops.
204 -- Well, yeah, so you talk about it before hand. Sounds cold enough to skate outdoors: is the Canal frozen?
I'm not in D.C. often enough to be a good guide, but isn't there a large body of water somewhere on or near the Mall. That might have frozen.
I think it was rectangular and not very deep.
211 If there were going to be near the Mall, they could skate at one of the outdoor rinks (they still have the one in front of the Willard, right?)
(What, you don't bring your skates when you go on a date?)
The Mall has that giant phallic symbol, which is probably good for dating.
If you think you can stand up to the comparison.
208: Are hotspots in oven-cooked food an actual thing? I have noticed it in things cooked in a microwave, but never from an oven. I'm wondering if the hotspot concept in oven-cooked food was invented by a copy writer to sell this new-fangled convection oven back when it was first introduced.
I have a Maytag double-oven gas range similar to the Kenmore linked in 162. It's okay but one thing I don't like about it is the heat from the upper oven makes the stove top too hot to touch.
he might as well have photos of incinerated Iraqi children above it
We totally do! Decorating with Dick (Cheney) is my favorite show on HGTV.
162: I have side-by-side double ovens and love them. Both are convection, but one is a fancier one with lots of settings (including the more normal broiler/grill). That one is fantastic for pizza, as it has a bottom-heat setting that crisps dough perfectly. I have pretty good results with convection, but you do have to get used to it - always reduce the heat, always check early. I have heard conflicting reports about their use with baking, but again, mine seems to work well.
Ydnew, have they moved that Rockville outdoor rink, or was it there before? I remember it being closer to the courthouse.
Also - I totally use both ovens at the same time, frequently. It really makes big meals + baking so much easier.
221: The courthouse area is totally new and redone. I'm not sure whether they had the Town Square area when you lived here, but that's pretty new, too. Part of Rockville's bid to have city living at suburban prices.
Am I correctly understanding 220 to say that you have four ovens? (Not counting microwave ovens or toaster ovens.)
me having truffle oil in the cabinet
Noooooo.
You're supposed to refrigerate it?
We have a Maytag Gemini double small/big oven, electric/electric coil, quite plebeian, and it's very useful. We have gas to the kitchen if we want to upgrade, but we'd have to ventilate a lot because of asthma & apparently the whole-house energy loss gets frightful. Maybe we'll add a door to close the kitchen off & put a heat-exchange ventilator in the kitchen...
Finally read the OP. Induction stoves are often good for huge pans and can be pan-shape-agnostic ($$), and maybe the controls aren't always as counterproductive as the ones on my inlaws'.
225: It was a Christmas present! What am I supposed to do with it?
maybe the controls aren't always as counterproductive as the ones on my inlaws'.
That's right, I just remembered that I cooked on my in-laws' induction cooktop last summer. Not enough to say anything about its up- or downsides (it was certainly not noticeably superior in any way), but the controls were horrible.
I really see no reason for any cooktop controls other than a knob with a prominent ridge and at least 270° of rotation.
230: Ew. Medicine cabinet. I use it in place of mouthwash.
232: Truffle Oil Pulling. Fancy.
I guess it could work for 230, too.
I guess it could work for 230, too.
229: Well, here they ask you to put oil in a non-recyclable container and dispose of it with your regular garbage, rather than pouring it down the sink.
Ah, I honestly had no idea it isn't a real thing. Never got involved with the stuff, so no occasion to find out about it.
I will admit to strong feelings on the subject of truffle 2,4-dithiapentane oil.
238: the "Reactions" section of the Wikipedia article on truffle oil is hilarious. It manages to unite Daniel Patterson, Anthony Bourdain, and Martha Stewart!
223 -- It's been 5.5 years, but feels like a lifetime.
I had wings with blue cheese dressing, so that should counteract any bad effects I get from eating grain. Unless beer has grain.
So I went out drinking with a company at my conference and they essentially offered me a job, 20% base raise plus bonus (current place doesn't do bonuses.) This makes my life complicated.
The bar we were at was very considerate, once people stopped drinking the bartenders brought everyone ice water without even being asked.
Oh god I'm gonna gain like 10 pounds at this conference.
Did I mention i went to dinner with one vendor and drank with them thrn went to catch the end of the other vendor's party?
I will admit to strong feelings on the subject of truffle 2,4-dithiapentane oil.
This bottle has extra virgin oil and truffles listed as the first two ingredients ("truffle flavor" being the third; it's not so indelicate as to call it 2,4-dithiapentane). Since when is Italian food labeling not to be trusted? Anyway, it was just fine for dressing up tonight's potato-leek soup, and I'm not so proud I won't put it on scrambled eggs too.
Congratulations on your life complication, SP.
242 sound good. Even if you don't take it, it's nice to be valued.
This thread got to 200 comments disturbingly fast.
It's an induction thread; they heat up quickly.
"it's nice to be valued."
I know, right? I bet most people have to specifically ask for ice water.
SP-- Are you driving, biking or taking the bus to work? Or, you know, just staying home?
No trains *after* a storm is crazy.
I'm walking because I'm at a conference in DC.
Last week I did home one day, T 3, drive one. Friday my bus hit a car that pulled out from behind a snow bank.
My wife has still been biking because she's on the bike path most of the way, which is usually cleared well, and she has a studded tire. For the part where she is on the road, multiple drivers have yelled at her to get off the road, even ones going in the other direction.
If you got a 20% raise, you could hire somebody to ride behind your wife and throw rocks at cars whose drivers tell her to get off the road.
To mention one big downside of electric ranges: my power was out yesterday morning. Without power, there is no coffee. But I still had hot water to take a shower, so apparently my really teensy hot-water heater (so small it lives under the bathroom sink) is gas, not electric as I had assumed.
250- We could start a service where you can hire people to do that for you and call it Unter.
But I still had hot water to take a shower, so apparently my really teensy hot-water heater (so small it lives under the bathroom sink) is gas, not electric as I had assumed.
Are you sure it wasn't just full of hot water created when the power was on?
253: I suppose that's possible. [goes to double check teensy hot-water heater] Huh. It *is* electric. So that means it had held the water hot for several hours after the power shut off? That's impressive, little R2D2 guy.
Insulation, how the fuck does it work?
I had an apartment with a small water heater like that once. I had to learn never to do the dishes and then shower.
I had to learn never to do the dishes and then shower.
Yep. And when I shower, it's quick rinse, water off; lather up, water on. Otherwise, I run out of hot water mid-lather.
I never had it that bad. Maybe your shower head needs to be less holey?
I've experimented with having the water on less-than-full-blast, but it ends up being a sort of ineffective trickle, which seems to take longer to do the job.
217: I've never been bothered by hotspots when baking, though America's Test Kitchen had a recent episode about mapping your ovens hot spots via a loaf of bread. Though, thinking about that more--it was really the broiler that often has the hotspot problem, not baking.
A few weeks ago while walking my dog I saw a car tailgating a bicyclist, laying on his horn. I ran towards the car and narrowly missed kicking the rear quarter panel. It's really a good thing that I don't carry rocks.
Rocks are often found on the ground.
Am I correctly understanding 220 to say that you have four ovens? (Not counting microwave ovens or toaster ovens.)
You're reading what I wrote correctly (I just caught that on the read through), but it is not a correct understanding. I only have two. Bet I could use 4, though.
Also, yay, SP!
I'm seein' double here! Four double ovens!
My induction hob does get hot - the glass under the hot saucepan gets hot, enough to burn you a little if you touch it. It cools very swiftly when the pan is removed
I had to google "hob", so I learned two things from one brief comment.
