1960's Magic chef automatic oven

[oliger]

I have a 1960's Magic chef gas range that is loaded with features. One of them is called "Automagic cook and keep warm" According to an advertisement, You select a temperature and how many hours you want it to cook. When the cooking time is up, it will automatically set the oven at 170 degrees Fahrenheit to keep it warm until serving.
Ive had the stove for a few years and just figured out how to use the automatic feature for the oven this week. Do other brands of this era have something like this? What kinds of recipes would be good for this?

 

[tomturbomatic]

Cook and Hold gas ovens were made possible by the introduction of cycling burners in gas ovens. Modulating burners, used previously, could not hold a temperature lower than 200F which was too high for holding cooked food without cooking it further. This was supposedly a step beyond regular timed baking that electric ovens had offered for many years previously.

Now as to what to use it for; that is a bit murkier. People who use timed baking often can figure out when they will return and time the operation for that. Owners of electric ovens usually did not have to worry about holding the cooked meal because of the electric oven's superior insulation. A gas oven, because of its design which had to factor in the need for enough draft through the oven to support combustion, cools off faster than an electric oven after the cooking operation is finished so maybe it made more sense to hold the food between 140-170F after cooking rather than let it cool down to a less than appetizing temperature if the meal were delayed. I remember setting my oven to turn off while John and I went up to our storage barn in Laurel Maryland one Saturday evening in January. Have you ever heard the term "January thaw?" Well, we got stuck in mud that had previously been frozen ground. This was before all of us had cell phones. We had to find a phone and call a tow truck. We were hours late getting back to my house and we were cold and tired when we did, but our dinner was just fine and ready to be served.

 

[davey7]

OKM had it too

My O'Keefe & Merritt has it - have never used it though (more interested in figuring out how to get a meat probe to work and the "oven ready" light to go on as well).