What kitchen range do you love?

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bethzaring

Master Chef
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I am researching what kitchen range to buy. What brand of range have you had that has worked well for you? Do you have different heat sources; gas for cooktop and electric for oven? Do you have a range that has 2 ovens; a little one for pies while the roast is in the lower oven? I thought I wanted a Bosch range but others also look interesting.
 
My dream range is a Viking or Bosch with a gas top and electric oven. Have used both as commercial grade when I worked in food service.
 
My dream range is a Viking or Bosch with a gas top and electric oven.

Likewise ... but sadly only in my dreams. I have a simple Maytag gas range and I love it. Ordinary setup .. gas burners and range.. convection in the range.

Our last house had a double oven and seperate cooktop .. pretty nice set-up if you cook for large groups.
 
There are two "bests." One "best" is the best one can have in a standard residence. The other is absolute best, the commercial option. Let me begin by disposing of one issue with true commercial equipment. That is insulation. Using commercial in a residence requires special wall treatment. The residential "best" is no all that much of a best.

That said, the difference between residential and commercial is sheer power, the amount of heat that can be brought to bear. I am mostly talking about the range burners. Residential gas range burners commonly use a single ring of flame. Commercial uses many more points of fire and can do it because commercial installations are provided with higher volume gas supplies. Commercial electric ranges also need heavier supplies, but it's far more practical to upgrade electric than gas.

What does this all mean. To give an example, for home cooking, a steak to be pan cooked should be at least one inch thick. That is because the limited heat available on a residential range would spoil a thin steak, because it would not be able to brown the surface without over cooking the interior. So we buy a thick steak for home, and the thickness protects the interior. A commercial range can be so hot that it can quickly brown a thin steak and leave the center rare.

So lets talk about what can be done at home. We have to recognize the limited heat capacity of the range top. If we want anything like the cooking style of a commercial range, we need to think about our cookware. Heavy bottom "ply" type cookware is not going to heat quickly and will respond slowly. I would select lined copper for a home gas range. The copper will take up heat most efficiently.

Residential gas ranges have another problem. The makers want to present a "rapid boil" type burner, but they still cannot provide much more gas and heat. And the fire ring on this burner tends to be large diameter, and it will be too wide for all but the larges pans. Home gas ranges boil slowly at best and are probably not the best choice if your cooking style requires a lot of bringing large bots to boil.

Electric home range burners tend to boil more efficiently, mostly, I think, because their heat source is in physical contact with the bottom of the cookware. (Electric and gas burners transfer heat in very different ways.)

I confess to a preference for gas, even in a home range. But I recognize the limitations of the burners, and I keep copper around for when it matters.

One more cookware note. It is sometimes claimed that wrapping copper/aluminum core up the side of a pan is wasted expense. I agree, when they are used on electric. But I find that gas range makers push the fire ring diameters so wide that much heat affects the sides of pans. They get unduly hot. But side core tends to disperse the heat evenly and to the bottom. I conclude that full bottom and side core is appropriate to home gas range, if one cannot go exclusively with copper.

Compare BTU ratings for the various burners on gas ranges you consider buying. These rating appear on a placard somewhere on the range or in the literature. They may not be totally reliable, since they are calculated values and engineers may differ in method. It is highly desirable to time boiling a standard amount of water (always using the same pot) and comparing ranges.

If I consciously push away my prejudice in favor of gas ranges, it's possible that the best residential range has electric top burners and gas oven. And it is always well to end comments like these with the truth that the quality of the results does not depend on the heat source nor the cookware.
 
I'm very happy with my Samsung induction w/convection oven. Induction stoves have very powerful burners that have similar levels of instant on/instant off control as a gas range. You must use very high quality cookware. I can boil a gallon of tap water in less than 4 minutes.

Convection oven has convection roast feature that cycles the broiler periodically while cooking. Oven also has steam cleaning feature.

Warming drawer with separate heat controls.

.40
 
I have a Jenn-Air gas range and I like it a lot. My mom and sister have Jenn-Air, too, and love them. The only thing I would change would be to get it with two ovens rather than an oven and a warming drawer.

It has convect bake, a bread proofing setting, two timers, a temperature probe for monitoring meat temps while roasting, and a warm/melt setting on one of the burners. Another burner has 40,000 btus, which heats up a pot of water pretty fast (I haven't measured it, but it's better than my old stove). Hth.
 
Compare BTU ratings for the various burners on gas ranges you consider buying. These rating appear on a placard somewhere on the range or in the literature. They may not be totally reliable, since they are calculated values and engineers may differ in method. It is highly desirable to time boiling a standard amount of water (always using the same pot) and comparing ranges.

If I consciously push away my prejudice in favor of gas ranges, it's possible that the best residential range has electric top burners and gas oven. And it is always well to end comments like these with the truth that the quality of the results does not depend on the heat source nor the cookware.

LOL

Thank you for your thoughtful reply!

For those who replied with the Maytag, Samsung, and Jenn-Air preferences, can you tell me what model you have used? In the past, I have baked a lot, so am interested in the baking qualities of the range.

I am only interested in 30 inch, residential ranges. I have access to a commercial grade gas range at the community house where I will be building.

Thanks for your comments!
 
I have a gas Wolf stove. I bought it when we remodeled the kitchen in our old house 28 years ago and when we had this house built, it came with us and nestled right into the spot created for it.
 
I am researching what kitchen range to buy. What brand of range have you had that has worked well for you? Do you have different heat sources; gas for cooktop and electric for oven? Do you have a range that has 2 ovens; a little one for pies while the roast is in the lower oven? I thought I wanted a Bosch range but others also look interesting.
I've just bought an all gas British Range cooker - a Stoves Richmond and like it very much. It has 7 burners on thetop, including a wok burner and a removeable griddle plate, 2 main ovens, a combined grill (sorry, broiler) and small oven (you can only use one of the 2 functions at a time) and it also has an electric slow cooker. The only grouse I have about it is that the main ovens and the small oven/grill are fan assisted and don't have the option to turn off the fan and the griddle plate only has a ribbed surface so would not do to make pancakes, etc on it. Compared with my old(VERY old) range cooker the main ovens seem small. It's a good idea when going to look at cookers to take one of your biggest oven trays with you to check for size.

I know you wouldn't be buying a British cooker but I thought my observations might be helpful.
 
Hi Mad Cook, thank you for your comments. Almost 10 years ago I rented a self catering apartment in Sparrowpit in Derbyshire for 2 weeks. The owner of the rental invited my cousin and me to her house for dinner. She had an Aga. I took many photos it it! I had never seen anything like it before.
 
Not sure about the brand, but if I could I would definitely buy dual fuel now. Gas top and convection electric oven.
 
I was just looking at ranges a couple nights ago. I so want a griddle. The stand alone one I wanted jumped up to 600 something just from a couple years ago... Any stove I've seen with a griddle is upwards of 2000 though, but if I didn't have a stove and was in the market for a new stove in a new house... I'd get one with a griddle. They seem so handy for cooking a big breakfast on or tossing some green beans onto to crisp a little... or mushrooms and onions. It seems there's a lot you could use one for and it would take the place of a pot or pan.
 
I was just looking at ranges a couple nights ago. I so want a griddle. The stand alone one I wanted jumped up to 600 something just from a couple years ago... Any stove I've seen with a griddle is upwards of 2000 though, but if I didn't have a stove and was in the market for a new stove in a new house... I'd get one with a griddle. They seem so handy for cooking a big breakfast on or tossing some green beans onto to crisp a little... or mushrooms and onions. It seems there's a lot you could use one for and it would take the place of a pot or pan.

Most definitely! If I had a griddle, I would almost never use a pan or pot. Not good for soup or stew...but great for everything else.
 
Most definitely! If I had a griddle, I would almost never use a pan or pot. Not good for soup or stew...but great for everything else.

I was wondering, if you had to, could you set a pot on the griddle and use it like a burner? I'm not sure if the flat bottom on the pot would be detrimental to the 3/4" thick stainless.
 
I was wondering, if you had to, could you set a pot on the griddle and use it like a burner? I'm not sure if the flat bottom on the pot would be detrimental to the 3/4" thick stainless.

Absolutely! We used to put the 20 qt stock pot on a back corner of the grill first thing in the morning for potatoes to be made into mashed for the dinner rush. Great for a simmer. It was usually for something that would be in the way on the burners, but needed to be kept warm for a long time.
 
If I could go back in time, I would take my mom's Chambers stove and oven. It was gas fueled and cooked like a dream. If I had the $$$ I could get a restored Chambers for maybe $10,000. If you watch Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals her gas stove is just like my mom's.
 
Thanks PF.
That would mean if I could find one with two regular burners and a griddle I'd be set.

So yeah, Beth, that's what I'd get if I were you.
 
If I could go back in time, I would take my mom's Chambers stove and oven. It was gas fueled and cooked like a dream. If I had the $$$ I could get a restored Chambers for maybe $10,000. If you watch Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals her gas stove is just like my mom's.

That is the stove I had when we lived in a rental in Hamilton, MT. That stove did everything but go out and kill the chicken for you.
 
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