ottawa foodies

I thought I'd create an opportunity to have everyone call me a shameless shill.. but I'll start off phrasing it as a question.

Does anybody out there have a cooktop they love, hate, lust after, make do with, that they'd like to talk about? Gas? Electric? Induction?

My answer is that I recently bought a new gas cooktop... a DCS (that's the brand) CTD-34 ( www.dcsappliances.com ) to replace my aging Hardwick gas cooktop, and so far.. I'm as happy as I could be. The salesguy wasn't kidding when he said it had a 'simmer' that was the best around. My old gas cooktop's simmer setting was more like a full boil than a simmer, and a heat diffuser HAD to be used to prevent burning delicate dishes. The new cooktop's simmer can melt chocolate, and NOT burn it! (the Advert was that you could melt chocolate on a dollar bill over the element without burning the bill, or the chocolate. As a safety feature, it even relights the burner automatically if it gets blown out (either by proud owner, or by the ventilator..)

Thoughts anyone?

That looks really nice! My range is a gas Dacor (ww1.dacor.com) with 4 x 15,000 BTU, which isn't very good for simmering heavy sauces unless you use the diffuser. My other gripe about it is that all the burners are big, meaning the ring of flame has a large enough diameter to rule out the use of some small pans.

My ideal range would have:

Rear: 1 large and 1 small electric coil
Front: 1 very large (20,000 BTU would be cool) and 1 medium (12,000 BTU) gas burner

This way you could use each burner for its strengths. Electric coils are better at heating large pots of water and simmering. Gas is much better for stir frying and maintaining a perfect temperature. If I had to choose just one it would be gas, no question.

The Dacor range has a unique feature that's kind of cool: electric/convection oven with a gas broiler. You can BBQ upside down inside your oven! I don't use it much though because it isn't quite as good as real BBQ and the mess is harder to clean up.

Thanks for sharing your story, Pete. Show and tell is fun. ;-)

I've just got a Sears Kenmore electric range with convection oven. As my highschool friend's mom used to tell him concerning a certain complex he had : "it's not the gun, it's the gunner" :-)

I've got no real complaints about my range. Electric takes some getting used to, but once you know it's quirks you are good to go. Convection is a must-have for baking.

Now, my ideal range would be some type of jenn-air with a cast-iron griddle like the one i use on the grill. That, IMO, is the ultimate "cook top". I'd have a stove that fit 1 or 2 griddles in so you could flip them for flat-side or grill-side. I love cooking on that griddle on the grill. It would be just way too awesome to have something like that on the stove indoors ... and I'd do it like Fresh Foodie too with gas and electric. I'd have the griddles on the right on gas, and 2 electric on the left. But the griddle side would not only flip back-and-forth between griddle and flat, but you could also quickly replace it with regular gas burners like the ones on your stoves. I seem to recall I saw a Jenn-Air like this a few years ago except of course it was all gas and no electric. But it did allow for generous quick-changing of the cast iron (or similar heavy metal) top bits.

I remodeled my kitchen last year. On a tight budget... mind you. Must be the Scot in me.

I found a secondhand Thermador RDFS30 in Montreal. It's a dual fuel, gas on the top and electric oven (for even and steady heat.) The oven is conventional or convection(for more than one sheet of cookies, baked evenly, at the same time).

The beast (must be over 300lbs) has 2 - 15,000 BTU and 2 - 10,000 BTU burners on top. The smaller ones are great for smalller pots/pans. The best part of the burner system is the low and slow cook feature. You can set the ( 2 of the 4) burners to come on and off every minute. It's adjustable (by the same dial), to come on for 2 to 58 seconds (on low flame) every minute. The small 'TICK TICK' sound of the ignitor is the only drawback. But it's not loud and is swamped by the stereo in the background, anyhoo. On the smaller burner I can get Crock Pot results.

Needless to say I'm in love. My first gas stove. I can do larger stir FRIES now and not end up with stir BOILS !! I used to hate that !!

Part of the love is derived from what I paid. The beast listed at $3700US. Best deal in Canada was about $3200. I got my used (but immaculate) one for $1200CDN (plus 300 bucks to extend my gas line by a licenceed gas fitter). Not only that but, I found a brand new $400 Venmar exhaust fan (made in Drummondville QC) on eBay for 50 bucks plus 60 to ship it from Tennesee.

Proud to be a Scot and proud to be a Foodie !!

I'm in heaven !!!

A Cape Breton Scot (thus the moniker)?

You are soooo on to me, Zy.

My peeps got kicked out of Scotland in 1820 (during the highland clearings).

See my next fourm topic.... Haggis.

Hey, I know a Caper when I see one ... Pictou County boy over here :-)

Gas range is point number one for a new home, since I've had electric all my life. I have coveted Thermadors for quite some time now. Must be something about the advertisements being so pretty.

In my old home we renovated the kitchen & bought a fantastic gas stove made by kitchen aid(not sure of the name). The grates for each element were made of cast iron & were raised aobe the stove itself so it gave you the feeling of cooking on a professional unit. Great if you are tall, I am not so it took some getting use to the height. There is one element that has a super high burner as well as a center burner for if you are using a very large pot. Lots of fun.
My new home unfortunately has an induction stove top which I really really do not like. Too hard to keep clean but I do like the temperature control on it, there is a very low & a super high & it heats up pretty fast. Nothing compared to gas though.

I use the FlavorWave oven DELUXE (www.thane.com). It seals in all the flavour and knocks out the fat! It works even better with the included $60 value Le Presse juice maker. Who needs to simmer chocolate when you've got something like this!?

;) LOL

I was going Huh ??? ... till I saw the " ;)LOL ". And I had gone to the Thane site before I saw the "LOL". I nearly fell off my chair.

Cooking with a light bulb, be it halogen or regular incandesent, is not new. Just look at the popularity of the EasyBake Oven !!

www.hasbro.com/easybake/

I'm glad you caught the sarcasm ;)

I use electric, and wish I had a gas range. It takes too long to get a pan to the perfect searing point, and I totally agree re: stir-fry on an electric range... it's just not the same. Alas, the budget and current accomodations have denied me this!!! Humbug! Thanks, indirectly though, for the recommendations and experiences with gas ranges... has anyone baked with a gas oven before? Is it easy to control the temperature?

O.K. Not to make anyone jealous or anything but I have a Frigidaire Deluxe electric stove (made by General Motors) that, I'm guessing here, is c. 1950s. It's 21" wide ~ so visitors often clasp their hands and shout "CUTE!". Oh, but it's a beast. The oven (no window) is very special. It heats up to such a degree that I could fire ceramics in there...but I'm accustomed to it now and work with it. Yes, there's sometimes swearing.
I searched to try and find more info on it but...nothin'...only a few pictures of the very fancy double Deluxe though I did find the Frigidaire Flair. It has the same knobs/graphics as mine but is much more futuristic.
Photo is of the Flair (c1960). *Groovy*

obviousdiversion.com

Hey AMR,

I thought food porn was kewl, now were doin' Range porn !!

Your's is one nice lookn' beast !! Now I know how the Jetsons came to be (and not just from the Flintstones).



Hey Chimichimi,

Although I never had a gas fired oven, when I was shopping around last year for a gas range, many told me to avoid a gas oven. They said it fluctuates too much in temp.. important for souffle's, cookies etc.

I went with a dual fuel range, gas on top and electric down in the oven. The oven has standard and convection (with fan) operation. I'm not sure if you can get a gas oven with convection capability.

The convection not only speeds things up, but more importantly, it's the even heat. I can bake 3 sheets of cookies at once and have them all turn out browned evenly, without touching them while they bake.

AMR that is the coolest (but ugliest)stove I've ever seen. I need to buy a new stove probably next year, but I don't want a gas stove in my house. I have an autistic 11 year old who is currently fascinated with putting things into the stove coils and catching them on fire when I'm not looking....don't even want to think about how intriguing he'd find a gas stove. I'll make do with electric without complaints :) however after seeing the Flavour-Wave and Easybake pictures upthread I'm thinking an "It came from the Infomercial" themed potluck is called for.

C'mon....so who's got the Magic Bullet or the Miracle Blade? And don't forget the Perfect Pancake, someone's gotta have one of those, right?

LOL Mousse, good idea on the potluck. I wish I had a food dehydrator to be able to provide a variety of jerky-ized products or homemade fruit rollups. The magic bullet intrigues me, seriously, it may have more to do with being able to make margaritas though. Unfortunately the most gimmicky device in my kitchen is only a sandwich maker (the kind you make a grilled cheese in). It's like a poor man's panini press, which suits me fine!!!

Thanks Cpn. Caper re: the gas oven feedback. One thing I find with electric is that you can't broil things the same as a gas broiler... it doesn't get hot enough and goes through the broiling "cycle"... not that consistent flamey goodness of gas (you can tell I am NOT a baker). I agree wholeheartedly re: convection, my parents had one... was super efficient and from what I hear, baked beautiful creations.

I've got a K-tel record selector :-)

A friend of my wife's has one of those blenders from the informercial - not sure if it's the magic bullet or not - but she thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread. Absolutely loves it. Bloody expensive it was, though.

There is a 2-year-old Magic Bullet in my mother-in-law's basement - unopened. God, I wish she would open that thing so I can play with it.

And back to the topic at hand, I just got a GE ceramic-top electric stove with 2 adjustable burners and a warming zone for my new house. I have no idea how it cooks because I haven't used it yet!

But I'm a fan of ceramic stoves for their ease of clean-up . . . and because my significant other didn't want to pay my builder and extra $600 for a gas line in the kitchen.

$600 !!!!

Your builder is taking you to the cleaners!

It only cost me about $300 (6 years ago) to get gas in my kitchen (for my washer/dryer - yes, we have a very small house) and that involved crawling around on their backs on a dirt floor in a very awkward crawlspace under my kitchen with only inches of clearance above their bodies. In a new build something like that should be < $100 in materials and about the same in labour.

Yikes!

I know! In a newly built house at that. Gas was already to be installed for the washer/dryer, furnace, etc. I just don't get it, but I also don't know much about gas installation.

Another example: we didn't upgrade our range hood - it's white, ugly and basic and doesn't match my appliances - the reason we did not being that the builder wanted $700 to upgrade to stainless. For a cheap, standard range hood! I'm not going to be too fussy about my range hood, but I can a new stainless one for $200 at Home Depot that is good enough for me!

Yep... Alana, sounds like your builder is more of a bilker, than a builder. HeHeHe


The pic is of my kitchen reno last year. The framming you see is the beginning stage of my Breafast Bar.

A licensesd gas fitter only charged me $300 to extend my gas line from my furnace room to the kitchen. And it included going out my basement wall, along the side of my house, and back in to the kitchen. Two holes through the (brick) house, required one big horken' drill!

The fitter also installed a tap-off, on my deck... so I can add a natural gas BBQ later.

See my earlier post for info on my range hood. BTW, When installing a gas range , the range hood needs to be of the proper size (according to how many BTU's the stove can put out), and it must be correctly located. All must be to Code, which the professional gas fitter knows.


Caveat emptor !!

Mousseline, have you considered an induction cooktop? They are about as kid safe as there is (to the best of my knowledge). There is usually an electronic power 'lockout', and of course the elements don't heat anything (such as hands etc) unless it's magnetic. Also, the cooktop stays relatively cool even after using so you can not get burned from a 'warm' element as well. Just a thought.

Pete

I will looking at all the options when I go shopping. My current stove is the one that came with the house so it's now 13 years old.

I guess it will be a matter of how it is to cook on....has anyone used an induction cooktop? What are the pros and cons?

I've been cooking at home with electric stoves my whole life, and have used both gas and electric cooktops at work (some bakeries opt for electric because you don't have the hassles of ventilation) and I think that the minor advantages of having a gas stove at home would be heavily outweighed by the downside of extra expense plus my lovely boy's current fascination with flames. Plus the kid won't be a kid forever, and the house will be paid off in 3 years, at which point I'll be thinking about renovating and staying vs. selling and moving.

If you go to Universal Appliances on Bank.. they have working samples of induction cooktops so you can see for yourself. It is reputed to cook as good as gas, and for the most part as fast as gas (i.e. will boil water, or heat a pan to sear temp as fast)

PROS: - as fast as gas, but good for simmer like electric
- the element doesn't push heat at a pan, it actually via electric induction causes the pan itself to heat up. Thus, the glass top can stay cool. This is unlike ceramic or other glass covered electrics where something under the glass gets hot.. and thus the glass gets hot too.
- can sense if there is no pan over the element when you turn it on..and so they will usuall beep at you to tell you so.

CONS: - only works with ferro-magnetic pans. So.. won't work on copper, or aluminum pans, and won't work on any stainless steel that is non-magnetic.
- cost. A cooktop will cost you at least $1500

That's all I know about it Mousseline.

Hey Mousselin... Do you wok a lot ?

If you do, better check the compatibilty, with an induction range. I betcha a traditional curved bottom wok will not work, even if you use a wok ring. Maybe a flat bottom one will work ... but then, is it really a wok ?( might as well use a pan then)

I wok a lot (more than I walk) and have had my stir fries turn into 'stir boils' on any electric range I have ever used. A real frustrating experience.

Caveat Emptor

Captain Caper,
the wok moved out with the ex two years ago....don't miss either of them! I do not use a wok really. I roast a lot of things, I actually thought my son hated vegetables for the first 10 years of his life until I discovered he loves all vegetables if you roast them first. I also make bread and pizza a lot (2 of my three kids are lactose intolerant)even in summer when it's 30 degrees outside. If that isn't perverse enough...I only use the back 2 burners of my stove unless I'm making a really big meal, and I don't even own a microwave.

What is on my wish list is a smaller (less wide) model than the one I currently have which is too big for my pathetically small kitchen. I just have to make sure the oven is at least big enough for half-sheet pans since I use them a lot.