Talk to me about modern gas ranges...

[jeepnstein]

I'll jump in. Everyone on here knows I have one of those big stainless monster stoves. We have a 48 inch wide six burner commercial stove, and double electric wall ovens. The stove has a gas oven that will hold a full sheet pan.

I'm hardly rich. I do tend to do lots of entertaining, though, and this stove sees serious use. There are times when we are cooking for hundreds of people and our kitchen can hang with most commercial kitchens in that regard. It's nice and all that but it's used heavily.

One of my friends who is quite rich shakes his head when he comes over because his wife freaks out when she sees our kitchen. They have a caterer bring in a range and set it up in the garage when they entertain. It's a very nice garage. I can't wait to go to their Christmas party this year.

Anyways, I'd say a gas cook top and an electric oven would be my ideal setup if I were going for a 30 inch range. Gas ovens are nice for some things but baking isn't one of them. I've never seen a residential convection oven that I liked all that much. I've used one similar to this one and had nice things to say about it afterwards. If I had to use it daily I probably would. It just doesn't pack the punch my Imperial does.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260 ... ckType=G11

Convection just isn't my bag but some folks swear by it.

[melissakd]

I don't consider anyone on this board rich except Igloochic, and I told her yonks ago that I firmly believe she's not one of the evil ones.

Part of the trouble here probably is the wide range of possible meanings of the term "rich."

I must and do apologize to everyone for my rudeness.
Thank you for caring enough to point out what ought to have been obvious to me.
I tried too hard to think through the reasons for my original offhand remark, and my only conclusion is that no, it's not quite as simple as I was saying.
I am not sure what ties together all the people with more money than me who have been false friends, acted fake, gossiped, had no idea what it's like to be poor, and failed to care about others on more than a superficial level. It can't just be money, and I knew better than that. The true friends had money too.

I very much appreciate wealthy people like Bill Gates and the Buffetts who use their powers for good. I hope that I and everyone who reads this will remember just how much power we really have (I'm a wealthy wastrel compared to a lot of people in this world), and use our powers for good whenever we can.

MelissaKD

P.S. I would fain edit out the silly things I said, but I can't unsay them, and don't want to make the thread confusing.

[CountryGirl]

MellissaKD,
We all have different experiences and have a right to have an opinion. You are a generous and caring person and we certainly need more just like you.

Susan

[Abuela]

Even though I try to remember and appreciate just how much our family has, compared to what so many in this world have, I don't think it's ever been driven home so directly as when I was watching the CNN Heroes awards the other day, and one of the heroes was doing something that was completely life-changing and very literally life-saving for many very poor villages: Supplying them with soap. My fretting about what type of stove to get is unquestionably a first-world middle-class problem. I've had many poor years in my life - as a child and as an adult - but nothing that remotely came close to where our family would consider soap to be a precious and costly thing to have.

I appreciate this community, and its sometimes strong opinions about things that sometimes get expressed on topics that have nothing to do with ripping out centuries-old original double-hung windows and replacing them with vinyl. Kisses, hugs, and grownup beverages of choice to everyone.

Now, venturing back to our originally scheduled programming. Jeep, what is it that you like about having an electric instead of a gas oven?

I'm still on the fence about convection -- or to be more specific, I'm still on the fence about paying extra for convection. The biggest draw it has for me is simply that as someone who is attempting to raise two grandchildren and a spouse to eat something other than highly processed pre-packaged crap food, who at the same time has precious little time to cook from scratch, anything that can speed up the time it takes to cook things is as good as gold to me. If I had to choose between the double oven and the convection, I'd probably choose the double oven - but more so that I didn't have to heat up a larger oven to stick in a pan of chicken parts to roast (since God didn't make chickens with the six legs this family would require) or pre-breaded frozen whiting (or its equivalent du jour), and also so I can still keep my cast-iron cookware in the oven (because in my tiny kitchen I have no other space) and not have to pull it out in order to bake something, than for the two or three days a year that I might cook a meal that would require separate baking temperatures.

The other problem I'm running into is that none of the stores around here have the models I'm seeing online that appeal to me the most, and unlike those of you here who have bought houses sight unseen over the Interwebs, I'm very hesitant to get something without really seeing it first. At this point, I'd be totally satisfied with just a super-cheap, very basic used gas stove like they have plenty of on craigslist, except around here they're all propane and by the time I pay to have them converted back, they're nowhere near as cheap as I'd like. And since I'm probably not going to have found one by the time the contractor comes back to do the rest of the work, I'm probably going to have to just wait until I've recovered from surgery in February to start really driving around to find showrooms that have the models I'd like to consider.

You've all given me some great things to think about, though! (about both class issues AND stoves!)

[PowerMuffin]

Generally, gas ovens do not heat evenly, even the expensive ones. So for most serious bakers, me included, an electric oven is much more desired. But, dang, how I love gas cooktops!

MKD - I too am appalled by the waste I see, the conspicuous consumption, the numbers of American kids who we let languish in foster homes. With voices like yours, we all become more aware of our own contributions.
Diane

[melissakd]

MKD - I too am appalled by the waste I see, the conspicuous consumption, the numbers of American kids who we let languish in foster homes. With voices like yours, we all become more aware of our own contributions.
Diane

The issue of foster children is one I think about a lot as well. A local pro-life organization has a billboard informing the expectant mother that 1.3 million couples are waiting to adopt that baby. Good point, but if those couples really have so much love that they're just dying to bestow on a child, why wait in a long line for that theoretical baby when the world is TEEMING with children who need homes?

Now I'm going to dive into that hot mocha with a foot of whipped cream that Abuela kindly provided me with, and say that I like gas stoves to cook on (you can toast marshmallows!), but I don't bake enough to have a preference in ovens.

MelissaKD

[downtowndahlgren]

PowerMuffin, I'm just curious (truly!). Why don't gas ovens heat evenly as opposed to electric ones? I've used both, and currently have gas, but since I'm not an expert baker I can't tell if it is better or worse than an electric one. Thx.

[PowerMuffin]

I guess it is because of the way the gas delivers the heat in the oven; it tends to be concentrated in one area. Electric ovens have coils that are arranged to provide heat all the way around the oven. I currently have a gas range and I love it for the cook top but the oven is really a problem. I am sure that more expensive gas ovens may be a bit better, but I think the ideal solution is either a duel fuel range or a gas cooktop with double electric wall ovens. When I redo my appliances, I will make the change.
Diane

[lupinfarm]

Hi Abuela..Sorry if I got the spelling wrong..my 50 something brain. I agree with you gas ranges (or at least my propane range) doesnt bake as evenly as my electric oven I had in my 70s subdivision home. i`m not complaining since I was without
a working range for about a year. The POs fried foods so much and didnt think to use the vent hood that the entire gas range was covered inside and out in a thick layer of grease. I opened thenoven door to put in some muffin pans and it blue up. Thankfully I was not looking at the oven and I quickly slammed the door and shut off the stove. So out went the old stove ( only 3 years old) to the dump and in rolled a new oven. Shame I couldnt recycle it, but alas it was a hazard. I do always try to recycle things that still work but that I just dont want anymore. So dont feel bad about buying quality appliances as
it the right choice as they will have many more years of worry free service and you wont have to buy a new range every 10 years or so. Also perhaps people 150 years from now will still be using your range.

[lavender_bush]

What I can offer is this: the "warming drawer" on a lot of new models is just an empty drawer. It gets warm when the rest of the oven heats up. No sh*t-- they're marketing this like it's a feature now.

Well, live and learn - I thought that was for storage just like the pedestals you can buy to put under laundry machines

I've always liked my bottom broiler. And they're nearly impossible to find now.

When we first moved to the US, DH's company rented us an apartment for 3 months and the stove had a bottom broiler - a totally new and strange idea to us. I couldn't get used to the idea of having the food so close to the floor

Personally I can take or leave both electric and gas - in nearly 30 years of marriage I've used both, our stove at home is gas and I do LOVE that stove when the power goes out. The convection is useful once you get used to cooking food for 25% less than the recipe calls for. Although we have to select the convection option and DH regularly forgets.