darrell

Greetings,

I'm looking into getting a new oven/stove. Looking at the products
available everyone seems to have a lot of similar things. How do I know
what to look for? What makes an oven a good oven. I like to bake and my
wife will do the occasional baking (pastas or finish off a steak in the
oven).

For example, do I want gas or electric? I had always used gas growing up.
Now I use electric. Not sure if I notice the difference but I think
electric works better. Is this why I see a lot of dual source units, i.e.
the stove is gas and the oven is electric?

I've been looking at Amana, Fridgedaire (sp?), Kitchen Aid and LG. Any
other recommendations? I'm partial to a slide in unit as the back of the
counter will be open to the dining room.

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Send e-mail to: darrell dot grainger at utoronto dot ca

On one TV show, they tested serveral different stoves. They decided
that the best stove had an electric convection oven and gas cooking
burners.

My first convection oven was small and had a small opening on the side
and near the front of the oven for the fan to blow in the heat. It
cooked the food on the top before the bottom cooked. I replaced this
with a larger unit that has a larger opening in the center of the back
for the blowing in of the heat. It works much better. I like it.

Gas used to have a reputation of being more consistant than electric.
(maintaining the set temp) and heated faster.

Electric has improved a lot in recent years.

Fan forced convection ovens have their uses in providing an even heat,
so avoiding the 'bake for 10 min then turn pans for the next 10 etc BUT
some convection ovens do a bad job with some baking.

Best option in my opinion is a gas oven with normal / convection modes.

darrell

Thank you for your response. It is nice to hear from someone who has
actually used an electric convection oven.

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Send e-mail to: darrell dot grainger at utoronto dot ca

darrell

Good to know. I grew up with gas and my wife grew up with electric but did ABSOLUTELY zero baking.


So like most things in life, which is better depends on what you are
baking. Thanks, I'll price out normal/convection ovens and compare to just
convection ovens.

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Send e-mail to: darrell dot grainger at utoronto dot ca

mike avery

If you bake breads, I'd suggest not using convection ovens. Again, it
depends on the kind of breads, but I find I get less oven spring and a
less developed crust in a convection oven than in a regular oven or
(better yet) a deck oven.

On the other hand, when I roast birds, what a convection oven does for
the skin of the birds is just amazing!

Mike

darrell

Thanks for the response. I have 2 weeks to tell the builder whether I want
gas or electric hook up for the stove. After that and they will charge me
for changing the plans. It looks like I might want dual-fuel so I've told
them to plan for both gas and electric to the stove. Even if I finally
decided on just one, they'll both be there. 8^)

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Send e-mail to: darrell dot grainger at utoronto dot ca

j

To me... It depends upon how much money you make, and where you live.
Using the stove top, say in the south... (I'm from Houston Texas) where the
summers are Loooong and HOT!, I always had an eletric oven, the simple
fact is an electric oven takes the energy straight from the source to the
pan... whereas a gas stove takes the fire and heats the pan and the air
around the pan and eventually the whole house... Airconditioning cools the
house "at best" 20° flower than the external ambient temperature... so.if
it's 100° outside it will be 80° at best inside. If you cook on gas,
imediately the inside of your house starts to warm up... substantually...
thus turning on that compressor... thus making that little old disk in your
meter go spinning around at an alarming rate.