I was a late bloomer in learning to really cook but in grad school I finally began transitioning my lab skills into cooking skills. Being newly married certainly sparked my interest in becoming a better cook. And like most first timers I had some rough starts. As a child of microwave technology I burnt the tar out of the first batch of bacon I tried to cook on a stove top. Was always so easy in the microwave but I turned that lovely pork product into charcoal on the stove top. That one event earned me the title "Bristow’s Burnt Bacon" for a very long time. Then there was the time I gave Brad food poisoning from a hasselback potatoes dish. I thought it tasted bad and refused to eat it but he liked it...up until he was regurgitating it at 3 AM.
After ten years of marriage in an apartment with decent kitchen equipment I was fairly confident in my basic cooking skills. Then we bought our first (and current house). The house had awesome potential and over the last nine years I have worked hard to update and make it mine. I have expensive tastes but a cautious (frugal) husband. That means that no appliance was replaced unless it was absolutely necessary or the deal was too good to pass up and things like HVAC, siding, and water heater took precedence. But when that time arrived for something to be replaced I got whatever I deemed to be top of the line. Sadly, the kitchen stove to me was the most problematic but in the end the very last appliance replaced.
Overall the burners work well although the primary high heat one is best described as wonky. Meaning the actual burner pops out of alignment with the drip pan slots usually when you have a lighter weight pan cranked up to a higher temperature. The resulting unlevel pan has been dangerously awkward at times but most annoying when cooking an egg over easy or crepe.
The burners I could deal with; it was the actual oven that created the most anxiety. I used to bake and had several previously reliable cake recipes that failed horribly in this oven. So I stopped baking. My group at work celebrates birthdays with homemade treats. I have resorted to providing an ice cream sundae bar as my treat because the last cake I baked looked like a torte and had a pudding-like texture. Not good.
And forget doing a dense baked dish like potatoes dauphinoise. What should take 45 minutes would take 2 hours to actually cook with the rest of the meal getting cold. It is of comfort to me personally to see contestants on shows like Top Chef serve raw potato dishes from limited cooking time. I can commiserate their failure having experienced it more than once myself. Between my efforts and seeing this repeatedly on TV Brad has ranked “scalloped potatoes” or similar items as one of the top dishes resulting in elimination.
What I finally learned about that darn oven is that the temperature was severely off in the sweet range 350 to 450 F. I researched the issue and not willing to put money into it I messed around with the element, which did help some, and I learned to preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes at a temperature 10 to 20 degrees higher than the desired set point depending on the actual temperature needed. I also learned that when baking anything like dense potato dishes we make sure it is 95% done before starting the rest of the meal. Of course it is still taking 1.5 times the normal cooking time. And I still don't dare bake cakes.
So after nine years I am finally replacing my dysfunctional, ugly, almond colored, electric stove with a nice new, massive, stainless, gas stove with five burners, three levels of split cooking racks, true convection, and a warming drawer. I know I will burn things at first and I may miss the comfort of knowing the quirks of the old appliance but I so look forward to learning the quirks of the new one and finally...baking again.
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| My Nemesis 1989 Stove |
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