Sight unseen...Pending walk-thru

[Scent of Cedar *]

First things first: The cat in your new avatar. Is this Squeaky? I love the expressions cats get when they ~ well, pretty much whatever they do, I guess.

Re: Burner cleaning on an electric stove that is not a ceramic cooktop electric stove.

It will be a good thing to wrap the drip pans beneath the electric coil in aluminum foil. Anything that spills or drips while we are cooking is burnt into the drip pan while we are still cooking and unable to lift the hot electric coil to clean beneath it.

It is possible to replace the drip pans. They are not expensive.

For those of us with ceramic cook tops: If yours is the kind that does not vent steam from the oven appropriately, and you have a drip between the pieces of glass on the oven door that you cannot access, try this.

Remove the bottom drawer ~ the one beneath the oven.

At the bottom of the oven door, there are openings. Using a bent hanger, or any narrow, relatively flexible yet strong thing, you can wrap the top portion in a sock, or in a portion of an undershirt, that you have dipped in rubbing alcohol. Be very sure that whatever you use is not going to scratch the glass as you are cleaning it. Going up through the openings at the bottom of the oven door, clean the drip from between the two pieces of tempered glass that comprise the window to the oven.

That is it.

I saw it online somewhere. It worked, for me.

We have a different brand of ceramic cooktop stove up North. That one vents above the oven. There are no drips on that oven window.

So if you are thinking of buying a ceramic cooktop electric stove, ask about where it vents steam from the oven.

The model here, the one that is vented appropriately, is a Kenmore brand, from Sears.

Cedar

 

[GoingNorth]

First things first: The cat in your new avatar. Is this Squeaky? I love the expressions cats get when they ~ well, pretty much whatever they do, I guess.

Re: Burner cleaning on an electric stove that is not a ceramic cooktop electric stove.

It will be a good thing to wrap the drip pans beneath the electric coil in aluminum foil. Anything that spills or drips while we are cooking is burnt into the drip pan while we are still cooking and unable to lift the hot electric coil to clean beneath it.

It is possible to replace the drip pans. They are not expensive.

For those of us with ceramic cook tops: If yours is the kind that does not vent steam from the oven appropriately, and you have a drip between the pieces of glass on the oven door that you cannot access, try this.

Remove the bottom drawer ~ the one beneath the oven.

At the bottom of the oven door, there are openings. Using a bent hanger, or any narrow, relatively flexible yet strong thing, you can wrap the top portion in a sock, or in a portion of an undershirt, that you have dipped in rubbing alcohol. Be very sure that whatever you use is not going to scratch the glass as you are cleaning it. Going up through the openings at the bottom of the oven door, clean the drip from between the two pieces of tempered glass that comprise the window to the oven.

That is it.

I saw it online somewhere. It worked, for me.

We have a different brand of ceramic cooktop stove up North. That one vents above the oven. There are no drips on that oven window.

So if you are thinking of buying a ceramic cooktop electric stove, ask about where it vents steam from the oven.

The model here, the one that is vented appropriately, is a Kenmore brand, from Sears.

Cedar

 

[GoingNorth]

Yes, Cedar, that miniscule mite of cat is Squeaky, glaring at the camera because I disturbed her beauty sleep in order to take her picture.

That's good advice about the electric stove. With my gas stoves, I just yanked the spiders off with a tongs if they were still hot and wiped up (carefully!) any messes.

I seem to remember seeing drip pans at dollar stores, so that' s another route to go, though foil is certainly cheaper, if not as nice looking.

From everything I have heard, ceramic cooktops are a PITA to clean no matter how they are configured.

 

[Lil]

It is possible to replace the drip pans. They are not expensive.

I seem to remember seeing drip pans at dollar stores, so that' s another route to go, though foil is certainly cheaper, if not as nice looking.

Unless you clean them every day, they will end up with food baked on them. So, as soon as you are sure of the sizes, go to the store, buy new ones, put theirs away somewhere (top of a cabinet, etc.) replace with yours (unless theirs already has something baked on). When you decide to move, throw yours away and replace with theirs. They'll wonder how on earth you kept them looking so good!

 

[InsaneCdn]

From everything I have heard, ceramic cooktops are a PITA to clean no matter how they are configured.

It's worse than that: ceramic cooktops are a PITA no matter what you are doing - cooking, cleaning, boiling water... I've been told that the people who love them are mostly occasional cooks who want a kitchen that looks nice. "Real" cooks have gas, and "wanna-bes" have electric coil.

 

[GoingNorth]

Well, I'm definitely a real cook, and I'm going into a situation where I'll have to deal with an electric range for the first time, which is why I'm asking all these questions.

This coming from a woman who was married to a chef who installed a Viking range in the kitchen of the house we purchased after he got out of the Army.

 

[Lil]

I've been told that the people who love them are mostly occasional cooks who want a kitchen that looks nice. "Real" cooks have gas, and "wanna-bes" have electric coil.

Hey! Some people have electric coil who just can't afford to replace the stove that came with the house! (Or rent!)

Oh, I'd LOVE a Viking! But I doubt that will ever be.

Talk about awful stoves...Jabber and I moved into a house with a big kitchen with lots of cabinets...and a 27" drop-in space-saver range. The oven is so small that when I can bake two pies or a layer cake, but that's the only thing that two of will fit. I can't put in two 9x13 pans. I do Thanksgiving mainly in crockpots. It has THREE small burners and ONE big one. ONE. So, one big pot at a time. Forget making sauce and boiling pasta at the same time.

When we moved in we planned on replacing it. We went so far as to hire a company to reface the cabinets and the salesman said they'd be able to cut down the cabinet the drop-in is in so we could slide in a 30" range. Then the workers got there and refused. The cabinets are still not redone.

The oven is off now. It's probably easily a 25 year old stove. Maybe even original to the house (45 years) but I don't actually know the age. Replacing with a similar size is $1,200+! Yes, you read that right. To replace this awful stove with another awful stove is about 3-4x the cost of a 30" stand alone. But upgrading means cutting the cabinets and that means hiring a finish carpenter or cabinet maker. So we've lived with it.

For 13+ years.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Lil...

I'm not a cook so much... but I am a baker. I'd absolutely go insane with that oven!! We have an electric coil-top stove, standard size... with double ovens. And I use that feature ALL the time. One oven at moderate, one either slow or fast... depending on what's for desert Or baking totally different things at different temps.

 

[Lil]

with double ovens.

OH! I would be in HEAVEN!

I cooked at an friend's house once that had double convection ovens. It was sweet!

My oven is so small I have to remove the top rack and bake bread on the bottom rack, because if I put the loaf on the middle rack it's been known to actually rise onto the upper element and burn!

Jabber and I have both burned ourselves on that oven SO many times! It's just so small that we'll accidently touch the top edge or the element when removing stuff from the oven if we don't pull the rack out!

 

[GoingNorth]

Lil, the Viking was wonderful, but it cost 6K dollars, plus having a pipefitter out to re-plumb the gas line to the kitchen and install a regulator to increase gas pressure to meet the stove's requirements.

Not a cheap piece of equipment and not something I'd have considered for myself, though I'm a good cook.

 

[Lil]

Okay...I was sure I'd posted a photo of an amazing Viking range...my fantasy stove.
Did it get deleted? Did I do something wrong?

Doesn't matter. I want this one now.
Oh I give up.
Stupid censor keeps changing the B P in the link to bipolar!