G vs E

[stoutfellow]

Gas vs. Electricity, that is.

I understand that, for a stovetop, electricity has advantages over gas. There are the obvious safety issues (though, of course, electricity isn't completely safe either); also, at least at present, gas is considerably more expensive than electricity.

Still, I occasionally wish for a gas range. The big advantage of gas over electricity, here, is fineness of control. With an electric burner, you do not control the temperature directly; you control the rate of energy flow into the burner, which (over time) affects its temperature, which (over time) affects the temperature of the thing being cooked. With a gas burner, your control over the temperature is more direct, and more immediately visible. I miss that kind of control.

But there's another issue. If you have a gas stove, and you decide to make scrambled eggs and cheese for lunch, and you put the skillet on the front burner, and you put a lump of butter into the skillet, and you turn on the back burner...

you will not spend five minutes waiting for the butter to melt before realizing your mistake.

Ratznfratzl stove.

Yes, I know it was my fault.
Yes, I know I'm grumbling a lot lately.
I'll get over it eventually.

Comments

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

Having a child around makes the gas nice, too. No heating elements that need to cool down (over time) before being safe to touch. Keeps one from having to leave the vigilance factor upwards of "fanatical." The open flame is easier to spot as "dangerous," as well.

[sunlizzard.livejournal.com]

Having cats around, too. Curious cats, who jump. Impatient cats, angling for "people food" hand-outs, whose theme song would appear to be "Nearer, My Cook, to Thee."

And the always-possible Dumbsh*t Factor, of turning on the wrong burner--you know which one I mean: the one that still has the &%$*#!& cover on it. Man, that enamel paint stinks up the place....

~ K., whose January is January-ing all over her at present

[nlbarber]

Oh yes. The current set of burner covers only has 3 left. But that's OK, only 2 burners still work.

The plans for the kitchen renovation, now in the bidding process, call for a gas cooktop...

[sunlizzard.livejournal.com]

Heh. The covers come in sets of four. My cooktop has only two burners. So I can make the mistake more than once, without ruining an entire set. *grins*

In fact, I did it just last week. I'd gotten the big saute pan out from the lower cabinet and plopped it up onto a burner while I fished out its lid. Then I straightened up and turned on the burner without thinking or noticing that the pan was on top of the cover, completely concealing it. Oops! But I was standing close enough that I whiffed the tell-tale Eau de Toasted Burner Cover just in time to rescue everything. Barely singed on the underside; didn't even darken the paint on the top. But sheesh....

I'm avidly following your remodeling posts. It's going to be flat gorgeous. I envy you the gas cooktop, too. Heck, I envy anyone who's got more than two dinky burners of any type! Who ever thought these doofy JennAire "indoor grills" were wunder-kitchen equipment was nuts.

~ K., who simply cannot face one more newsletter column-inch tonight... yawnnnn....

[nlbarber]

I had the advantage of watching my mother lust after, acquire, then dislike a JennAire. After she and my father cleaned the grill/exhaust/etc. after one use, they somehow rarely used it again. I think they had the swappable modules, though, so the stove still has 4 burners.

[sunlizzard.livejournal.com]

Whoa! Swappable model? Not knowing that was even possible, I've never bothered to poke around under the thing to see if it's modular. How kewl that would be! I will check.

Not that they're likely to still be made, come to think of it. Rats. For a moment there... *beams dreamily*

One of these days, I'll just get a new 4-burner unit. It doesn't appear to be set up for both gas and electric, as one sometimes sees, but even if it's only electric, I could live with it. Live better, in fact, then doing the current "burner shuffle."

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Another gas plus is that while the rest of the electric stove population have rumbling stomachs during a power outage, the gas stove people are happily concocting their normal meals.

Mine is electric, too...

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

Electric, here. And I feel your pain re: skillet on one burner, power to a different one. All too frequent in my kitchen. :-(

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Been there. Done that. :<} . Still there in fact :<{.

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

I had been under the impression gas was cheaper. Hmm. Must pay more attention to utility breakdowns. Then again, I have a friend who has a gas stove and gas water heating, etc and the service to his apartment complex is out. It may get fixed within two weeks or so.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe. I haven't checked the actual prices. It's just that I got an enormous gas bill for last month - up about 20% from the same time last year - and I'm feeling cranky about it. Among other things.

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

Although I too, prefer gas to electric, what I really yearn for is one of those entirely flat cooking surfaces, which can, for all I care, be heated by squirrels waving tiny-little candelabra about. But then, I've a Thing about cleaning :-)

On the plus side of electric, if you accidently turn the gas on without engaging the little clicky-lighter-thinggummy (because it is an old stove) and then some time later turn on the burner next to it, you don't remove your eyebrows and most of your hair in the subsequent fireball.

Just sayin', that's all.

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

The highrise is electric, the cottage gas. After cooking all summer with gas, it was slower to start cooking with electric. But! When I turn on the electric burner to a specific number, I get that number. I burn bacon & overcook eggs more with gas. You have to listen to the food heat up.