Monday, August 16, 2010

Blasphemy!

I'm enjoying cooking with electricity. Better than - gasp - gas. My old gas stove did not make me happy. It was a GE sold to me by Mainland - piss poor customer service when I wasn't happy - and it was underpowered, flaky, and the element supposedly made specially for low temperatures often went out without re-lighting. I'd put a pot on to stew and wander off. Later I'd saunter in the kitchen to be greeted by the stench of gas. Could've been quite dangerous.

Cleaning the stove was a bore (admission: buying a white gas stove is stupid) and the electronic controls - located just above the stove opening - overheated twice in the two years we had it. According to a friend who has the same product, those stoves are notorious for that fault. His has never been fixed, although I don't know where he bought it.

I timed the high-powered burner: it took 25 minutes to bring 4 litres of water to a boil. I used to boil the kettle instead, then add it to the pot. Making pasta was a pain in the ass, because without the lid on, the boil would not maintain, but with the lid on I couldn't turn it down low enough to not boil over without going so low as to lose the boil.

I'm enjoying the controlability of electric, and these newer stoves are pretty precise, also very fast. In fact the first few times I cooked with electric, I burnt everything terribly!

Soup is simmering, time to make croutons.