[Sca-cooks] OOP: Stove info wanted

[Robyn.Hodgkin at affa.gov.au]

My 2 cents worth:

The thing I despise about gas stoves is the inability
to simmer anything. long slow cooking just isn't an option.
Gas ovens have their advantages though; you turn them on
and they are at temperature immediately, rather than needing
the long heating up time of electric ovens.

If you go for an electric stovetop avoid the solid
hotplates if you can - there are no visual indications
that they are on, so you can burn yourself pretty badly
finding out. (I speak from painful experience on this one).
They also maximise the worst quality of electric stoves, because
they are very very slow to heat up and cool down. To
cook rice I used to use two hot plates; one to bring the
water to the boil, and then another one to transfer to for
the long slow simmer; the stove just wouldn't cool down
quickly enough to not burn the rice otherwise.

Mind you, I
haven't been able to cook rice on my current stove at all
as it is gas and only seems to have the options of boil
fast or boil slow.

My friend Pam has a great compromise; a stove that has 3
gas plates and one electric. Miele is an excellent brand,
although expensive.

Is your oven going to be separate from the stove top?
Look at the different door options; doors that open upwards
are pretty good in a wall oven, but a pain in a floor oven.

Doors that open then slide into the body of the oven are great,
as they allow you to get things in and out of the oven without
having to manouever around the door.

Look at the knobs on the stove; how are the numbers written on
them? If they are just painted on, they are likely to wear
off; ideally they should be moulded as part of the knob.

Hope these thoughts are of some help..

Kiriel