[Sca-cooks] OOP: Stove info wanted

[Susan Fox-Davis]

sjk3 at cornell.edu wrote:

> As I have moved over the years I have cooked on both gas and electric
> stoves, pretty much whatever was in the house/apartment I was currently
> living in.  I now live in my own house, with a rather old Kenmore
> electric stove/oven that has been working reasonably well, but I want to
> replace it.  Trouble is, I don't really know what's out there. I don't
> even really know what questions to ask as I shop around for a new stove!
> I can't afford to remodel the whole kitchen, so what I buy will have to
> fit into the space the old 4-burner stove vacates.  I'm assuming that's a
> pretty standard size, though of course I'll measure it and any
> replacements I consider before buying.  :-)

Kenmore is OK, they have some very nice stoves and Sears is a reliable source
of after-service.  Do get a long warrantee, for that one time when it breaks
in the middle of banquet preparations.

> So what are the features you can't live without, and which are a waste of
> money? Any brands that are particularly reliable? If I go with gas I think
> I'll have to hire somebody to rehook the gasline in the basement; I
> believe it was capped off after it hooked up to the dryer when a previous
> owner switched to electric.  At least as far as I can tell, I do have the
> piping in the kitchen to hook up to, it just doesn't have any gas in it
> now.  I don't have a vent/hood, and actually have only cooked on a stove
> with one at my parents.  Are they important?  My mother swears by it, but
> she doesn't like her house to smell like cooking. Peronally, I think
> that's silly, but I don't know what else a hood is supposed to be good
> for.

I'm a big believer in gas for cooking, for the ability to change the intensity
of the flames at whim rather than wait for electric coils to s-l-o-w-l-y get
around to heating up.  There is new technology with some kind of halogen
burners, I don't know much about them.

The hood will be worth its weight in gold when you are cooking fish,
deep-frying anything or, lord forbid, burning something.  I went without one
in my last house and did I ever regret it!

Selene, Caid