Shiny new toy
Oct. 22nd, 2023 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustIt's now three weeks since thw new cooker was installed by the man who came to service the boiler. This might have been an opportunity to switch to cooking with electricity, but it would have involved major building and rewiring to bring an adequate electrical supply to the cooker, so we didn't. So I am still cooking with gas (except for the grill, which is electric: I don't know why. So the transition is from like to like, which ought to make it easier...
It doesn't, of course, but I am beginning to learn its funny little ways. There are four burners on the hob, one large, ine small and two medium. You have some contril over how figh the flame burns, but only maximum and minimum settings are eary to find, so instead of choosing which ring to use and adjusting the heat, I find myseld starting everything on the fast ring and then moving to a slower one: which doesn't feel natural, but I can do it. I would probably use the mefium rings more if they weren't the ones at the back.
I am gradually getting the hang of the oven settings. The dials have numbers (not temperatures) on them, but the numbers are not the same as the old 'gas marks'. Luckily the manual gives temperature equivalents, which are much higher than I am used to (and not - quite - the same for both ovens). It's good to have two ovens again. The old cooker started out with two, but the upper, smaller one stopped working, so I used it mainly as a plate warmer. I like being able to choose the smaller over, even though it does mean condtantly transferring the grill pan from top over (doubles as grill) to bottom oven.
I am not, though, reconciled to the loss of my eye-level grill.
As I anticipated, I can't just glance at the grill in passing to see how my toast is progressing. Even with the door open, it's hard to see. And D., whi is here for the weekend, points out that the manual contains a warning (WARNING) not to use the grill with the door open. So I have to keep stopping to open it up, and use the oven glove to pull the tray out far enough to see the toast. Perhaps eventually I will learn how long it takes. The grill being electric takes a while to heat up, but once hot is very hot, so the toasting process speeds up disconcertingly. This morning I burned the toast. Would it be worth buying a toaster? I would have to learn to slice my load more evenly, but even so, it might be easier.
File this catalogue of complaints not under 'First World problems' but under 'Twentieth Century problems': things that only afflict those whose expectations were shaped in the olden days.
It doesn't, of course, but I am beginning to learn its funny little ways. There are four burners on the hob, one large, ine small and two medium. You have some contril over how figh the flame burns, but only maximum and minimum settings are eary to find, so instead of choosing which ring to use and adjusting the heat, I find myseld starting everything on the fast ring and then moving to a slower one: which doesn't feel natural, but I can do it. I would probably use the mefium rings more if they weren't the ones at the back.
I am gradually getting the hang of the oven settings. The dials have numbers (not temperatures) on them, but the numbers are not the same as the old 'gas marks'. Luckily the manual gives temperature equivalents, which are much higher than I am used to (and not - quite - the same for both ovens). It's good to have two ovens again. The old cooker started out with two, but the upper, smaller one stopped working, so I used it mainly as a plate warmer. I like being able to choose the smaller over, even though it does mean condtantly transferring the grill pan from top over (doubles as grill) to bottom oven.
I am not, though, reconciled to the loss of my eye-level grill.
As I anticipated, I can't just glance at the grill in passing to see how my toast is progressing. Even with the door open, it's hard to see. And D., whi is here for the weekend, points out that the manual contains a warning (WARNING) not to use the grill with the door open. So I have to keep stopping to open it up, and use the oven glove to pull the tray out far enough to see the toast. Perhaps eventually I will learn how long it takes. The grill being electric takes a while to heat up, but once hot is very hot, so the toasting process speeds up disconcertingly. This morning I burned the toast. Would it be worth buying a toaster? I would have to learn to slice my load more evenly, but even so, it might be easier.
File this catalogue of complaints not under 'First World problems' but under 'Twentieth Century problems': things that only afflict those whose expectations were shaped in the olden days.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-22 02:49 pm (UTC)Our cooker has gas burners and two electric ovens, so it sounds quite similar. The top oven isn't really much use as an oven as it's a bit underpowered, and the bottom one is a fan oven so it cooks things better and faster. At least the knobs are labelled in centigrade. I guess you will have to work out the right settings for bread.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-23 02:00 pm (UTC)I guess you will have to work out the right settings for bread.
There's a crib sheet in the manual. But it's always a matter of trial and error with ovens, isn't it?
no subject
Date: 2023-10-23 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-24 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-22 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-23 02:03 pm (UTC)It's not that I've never used a toaster, because holiday lets always have them. Usually, I manage to figure out my preferred settings by the time we go home.