Its a Good Thing I Cleaned The Oven

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Hi Eddie

Just notice this post.
I guess you ain’t ever going to lay on a oven door again. 😂
Last Xmas time we were invited guests at someone’s house..kind of a pot luck deal. New experience for us cuz we usually do all the hosting.
We brought something (can’t remember what) that needed to be heated before serving…well we forgot that the world has pasted us by! These folks had a stove similar to your new one.
We both stood in front of it and couldn’t figure out how to turn it on!
Suddenly the hostess, who’s been in our kitchen many times realized what our confusion was about, and yelled out from across the room
“you don’t have to light a f——g match” she came in and turned the dern thing on for us!
Glad to know your happy with your new one.
 
Hi Stan,

I love your story about your friends stove!

I just watched “The Apartment” on TCM last weekend and there’s a scene where Jack Lemmon is frantically trying to get into his apartment after smelling gas in the hallway and thinking that Shirley Maclaine is trying to commit suicide. When he gets in she tells him she was trying to heat up some water for tea I think.

Relieved that she wasn’t trying to kill herself he tells her that you have to light the gas burner first. Even in 1960 there were people that had been modernized to the point they had forgotten that some gas stoves still needed to be lit.

Eddie
 
Eddie

This is what we’ve been using the last 38 years
Our hostess and the rest of group knew this as we’ve hosted all the gathering at our house.
This old stove has cranked out many party dinners. (For them)
I later found out that they were all in on the joke and wanted to see if we’d know what to do.
Later after they were all drunk and shit (I was the designated driver) I thought I should try to help clean up some of their kitchen. I was handicapped there too. I was afraid of their garbage disposal..I didn’t want run it in case there was somethin in it that shouldn’t be, but was afraid if I stick my hand in to check it might have some new fangled sensor that would turn it on automatically! So I scraped plates onto some old newspaper to wrap up (like I do at home) Found their outside garbage to put it in. Their inside garbage can had a lid on it that you had to push a button ever time you wanted to open the lid (annoying)
I knew I wouldn’t know how to use their dishwasher or load it properly.. I managed to find dishwashing liquid and a kitchen sponge..I sanitized it with some bleach I found, also found a clean dish towel. I got all the wine and cocktail glasses washed by hand. (The ones they weren’t still drinkin out of)
By the time it was over I felt like I’d been in the Twilight zone!
This year the party is back at my house and my old girl will crank out another Thanksgiving dinner.
Let’s see if one of them assholes can figure out how to clean up in mine..or turn my stove on!
Ten bucks says they dump food down the sink. They ain’t no garbage disposal over here!
😂😂

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Stan,

I love your kitchen and I’d have no trouble navigating in there at all. I prefer electric stoves myself, and we don’t have gas service in our home. But I’ve cooked on an old Wedgewood stove like yours before and it was easy to use and cooked just fine.

As for the rest of your friends set up in their kitchen, we have a DW, but I haven’t used it since April 2018. We wash all the dishes by hand and I find it something I throughly enjoy. And I took the garbage disposal out over 10 years ago and don’t miss it at all. We compost the food scrapes. Works just fine for me.

The last straw with the garbage disposal was when the sink plugged up on Easter while I was preparing dinner for a houseful of guests and had to bring out the plunger while I was trying to mash the potatoes. And no, I hadn’t put the potato peels down the disposal, I knew better than to do that.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 10/24/2022-13:04]
 
What should go down a household disposer

Definitely potato peels coffee grounds including the coffee filter if it’s paper.

There’s very little that actually should not go down and disposer and it’s far more ecological to put the stuff down the drain where it will be turned into fertilizer instead of just sitting and making methane in a landfill somewhere.

The only thing I don’t put down disposers are clam and oyster shells, artichoke leaves and excessive amounts of corn husk even the corn cobs can go down if you like.

Disposer is also a very good way to dispose of things like butter wrappers and things that are contaminated with food waste, I put a lot of paper labels from cans that are going to be recycled down the disposer as well.

John L
 
This is a July 17, 2022 article from EcoMyths

Composting Vs Garbage Disposal – Is it Better for the Environment to Compost or Use the Garbage Disposal?
June 17, 2022 by Steve
Spoiler alert: Clearly, composting is way better for the environment than using the garbage disposal, and it costs less as well.

Composting keeps the garbage from ending up in a landfill, where it generates much more methane, a greenhouse gas. Composting saves using up space in the landfill. And, composting actually creates a valuable resource – fertilizer for home use and for commercial farming.

What’s so bad about using the garbage disposal?

Well, as we just mentioned, food that goes into the garbage disposal ends up in waste water, which must be pumped through the system, then subjected through a multi-step process of filtration and disinfecting. The final products are water that’s released into local waterways, where it’s used again for any number of purposes, such as supplying drinking water, irrigating crops, and sustaining aquatic life, and “biosolid” residue.

Truth is, “biosolids” is a marketing term, a euphemism for sewage sludge. Sometimes, that biosolid is sold as compost, which has been controversial, since it may contain industrial chemicals, medical waste, oil products, pesticides, home cleaners, etc. Other times, that residue is headed for – you guessed it – the landfill.

Of course, you’re running water while running the garbage disposal, so you’re using more water than necessary – wasting water, and adding more water to the sewage system, which then needs to be processed and filtered out.

Food waste can also cause plumbing problems, as most everyone has experienced. Food waste that contains unsaturated fats solidify at room temperature and can build up inside your pipes, causing clogs – very inconvenient, and possibly very costly.

So, putting your food scraps in the garbage disposal uses extra water, could possible clog your pipes from time to time, requires a lot more energy for processing, and often ends up in the landfill anyway.

So, should we consider putting those food scraps in the regular trash?

Uh, no. The more important reason to keep food scraps out of the landfill is that, as they break down, they generate much more methane gas than if they’re composted. Composting does generate carbon dioxide (another greenhouse gas), but methane causes 30 times more heat buildup in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, so causes a lot more environmental damage. (That’s why you hear so much about methane-producing cattle being such an environmental problem.)

Yes, there have been improvements in capturing methane from landfills, but it’s a difficult process, with many problems, and is not very widely used yet. Preventing methane generation in the first place is much more effective.

Is using the garbage disposal ever a good idea?

Definitely, yes. If you live in an area where curbside compost pickup is not available, and you’re not interested in backyard composting, grinding up those food scraps in your garbage disposal is still much better for the environment than tossing them in the regular trash bin, for the reasons we mentioned above – specifically due to the considerable methane gas that the food scraps in the landfill generate. We always want to keep food scraps out of the landfill.

Can’t the solids from wastewater be sold, to offset the processing costs?

Solids from wastewater are either dumped in landfills, incinerated, or sold cheaply or given away for fertilizer. According to an article in the Guardian, “In 2019, about 60% of sewage sludge produced by treatment facilities will be spread on farmland and gardens, as well as schoolyards and lawns.” Sounds like a viable solution, right?

They also noted that, “the waste management industry lightly treats it and sells it cheaply to farmers who view it as a cost-saving product.” But, they also note, the sludge contains “any number of 80,000 manmade chemicals that are discharged from industry’s pipes or otherwise pumped into the sewer system”. In order to really process that sludge sufficiently, it would much more expensive processing. Therefore, selling the biosolid is not really cost-effective.
But, doesn’t collection and hauling that composting material cost money, and generate pollution?

Yes, it does. So, if you’re a backyard composter, that’s an even better way to handle food scraps. However, non-gardeners don’t really have a need for the compost, so municipal composting is a far more environmentally safe solution than the alternatives – the garbage disposal or regular trash bin.

Doesn’t composting generate methane too?

Yes, composting does generate some methane. According to Moonshot Composting, “Any time organic materials (like food scraps) decompose, they can be expected to produce methane and carbon dioxide. The more air included in the composting process, the more carbon dioxide that compost emits instead of methane.”

Since methane is 30 times more negatively impactful to our environment than carbon dioxide, any process that minimizes methane generation is better. Aerobic composting – introducing oxygen into the composting process as is done in both backyard composting and commercial composting – results in far less methane generation than anaerobic breakdown – like in a landfill.

Is backyard composting better than curbside compost collection?

Definitely yes. Backyard residential composting is the best solution overall to dealing with food scraps. All composting does generate some methane, but properly aerated composting

Benefits include:

You know it’s organic, so safe for your vegetable garden
There are no transportation costs, and the associated air pollution generated
There’s no methane production.
So, the choice is clear – compost your food scraps, however possible. If you can’t do that, drop them in the garbage disposal. As we’ve seen, mixing them in with your regular household trash is the worst option.

There are several other articles on this subject, all with the same info. Google what is better for ecology, composting or garbage disposals.

Our compost is picked up by the garbage company weekly from the composting/yard waste receptacle that they provide for this purpose.

We don’t have water to waste in California by suing garbage disposals. The compost provides fertilizer for agricultural needs.

Eddie

https://ecomyths.org/compost-vs-garbage-disposal/
 
Funny story, Stan. Your reactions to new appliances are similar to mine for driving new cars. My newest vehicle is 23 years old and the oldest is 63. I got into a friends new car about 5 years ago and was clueless how to operate it. It was a super "old man" moment, lol.
 
Potato Peels and Garbage Disposals

When we moved into the first home we ever bought of course it had a garbage disposal. This was the first time I’d ever lived in a home with one. We moved in there in Oct. of ‘87. By the end of Nov ‘87 the kitchen sink became plugged. I’d lived on my own for 17 years by that time and not once had I ever had a plugged kitchen sink. I tried to plunge the drain with no success so I was forced to call a plumber. The first thing he asked me was if I had put potato peels down the disposer? I said yes. He told me that I should NEVER put potato peels down ANY garbage disposal. He told me that the starch from the potato peels can cause the pipes in the drain to become clogged. And the source of many of his service calls.

He snaked out the sewer clean out and the kitchen sink drain. It cost us $75.00 which we could ill afford just before Christmas and after buying our first home. Since then I never again put any potato peels down a garbage disposal.

After I took our garbage disposal out of our kitchen sink over 10 years ago and replaced it with a conventional sink drain I’ve never had to plunge the kitchen sink again.

If you do an online search of “will potato peels clog a garbage disposal” there at least two pages of articles that say putting potato peels down a garbage disposal will clog it, and its because of the starch forming a think paste that clogs the plumbing.

So perhaps John you’ve just been lucky.

https://www.dumpdisposal.com/can-you-put-potato-peels-down-the-garbage-disposal/

Eddie
 
Potato peels going down and clogging the drain

I’m not lucky I do things right, it’s a very common problem for potato peels to clog drains when you have a worn out cheap disposer.

 

The plumber should know this too he should sell you a decent disposer with stainless steel plates they will never clog drain with potato peels, but many plumbers are too stupid to realize this or they just want to keep charging you for SCs.

 

No operators manual for any disposer I’ve ever seen advise against putting potato peels down it.

 

But if you have a cheap badger or other offbrand disposer with just steel blades, in probably 4 to 8 years it’s going to start putting really large things down the drain. You could often get away with this if you have really good new plastic drain lines in your home the potato peels will go down pretty much whole but I don’t recommend that.

 

ISE only recommends they’re cheap badger disposers for homes with new plumbing they really shouldn’t be used with older houses. HUD even requires ISE to make cheap badger models with stainless steel blades because they know of this problem in public housing they maintain.

 

John

[this post was last edited: 10/24/2022-18:34]
 
As Eddie said, potato peels are notorious for clogging drains. I remember ours becoming clogged on Thanksgiving when I was a little kid, after my mom made mashed potatoes, and ground up the peels. We were lucky, and the plumber could come on Friday. One time we went to visit friends of the family for Sunday lunch, and Marguerite served mashed potatoes. She put the peels down the disposer, and when we were finished eating, ran the disposer again. The drain was clogged, and dirty water went into the dishwasher. She opened it up to add a dish, and a tidal wave came out and ran across the floor. She sent her son Jack to the basement for a plunger and mop, but the plunger didn't do any good. Her husband Bill had to go to the basement, and open up the grease trap, and clean it out. This happened in March, 1962, and I remember it like it happened yesterday. I remember because one of their daughters had just got the record "Johnny Angel" by Shelley Fabares, and played it at least 10 times while we were there.
 
"The only thing I don’t put down disposers are clam and oyster shells, artichoke leaves."

I made the mistake of putting artichoke leaves in the disposer as a teen. What a mess. The clean out trap was easy to get to and right next to the garden hose so it wasn't a big ordeal to unclog it but the 'ol Hobart Kitchenaid disposer had to come out for a deep cleaning as well as some of the pipes under the sink. Good times, lol.
 
Good to know Eddie

After reading your post I checked our local garbage/ recycling website and it looks like I’ve been doing this right but putting it in the wrong can! I should be putting this in with the yard waste container! Some of our scraps go to the chicken but I’m picky about what they get.

@ Dan reply#36 I just had the car thing happen last month!
Again I was selected to be the designated driver!
A group of us were out for dinner and everyone had too much to drink except me!
The logistics worked out with me having to drive a 2021 Honda Accord, with one drunk ass next to me, and two two drunks in the back seat.
The burning question at the time was..should the guy that didn’t know how to drive a new car haul the drunks or should one of the drunks that knew how to drive the car do the driving?
Since it wasn’t illegal for the dude that was sober (me) that didn’t know how to drive the car… I was chosen!
I absolutely hated that car. It was night time and nothing made any sense. First..they was no ignition switch.
I didn’t like the fab thing laying in my lap. Too may lighted things all over that I had to ignore cuz they were distracting, I didn’t trust the back up camera, steering was way to stiff and sensitive, I didn’t like the feel of anything. First had to figure out how to move the seat up to reach the petals cuz dude that drive it there is a tall SOB. I thought the seat was stiff hard and uncomfortable. And of course the drunk asses are all telling how to drive it..so I had to pull over and threaten to beat shit out of them if they didn't shut the f—k up.
I was so glad to get out of the thing…that had me automatically locked in, and get into my old comfy car that only makes old car sounds!
 
Well Walter

Glad you enjoyed
I feel Eddie’s post has gotten highjacked.
I just know Eddie’s a good cook..so Eddie, let’s see the good eatin your cooking up with your new stove!
 
So John, what disposers should we buy?

Do you recommend going all the way to the ISE Evolution series as a replacement disposal? Or can we go with the higher priced Badger? I guess stay away from the low priced ones that are galvanized? Or should we get that "other kind" that is like GE or Waste King?
 
Re: Reply t#44

Stan,
I loved your stories too! No worries about highjacking the thread. I’ve only taken one photo of something I’ve cooked or baked since getting the new stove. Its of two loaves of Whole Wheat bread I baked in September. This new oven bakes very evenly and it doesn’t over brown when baking bread so I don’t need to tent the loaves with foil during the last 15-20 mins of baking.

Heres a photo of those loaves. I used a new recipe that I’d been tweaking for several weeks to get it just the way I wanted, and these loaves are the end result. I found that using my Kitchenaid 5 speed hand mixer with the dough hooks makes wonderful bread dough. And since I don’t keep my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer out on the counter using the hand mixer is a real time saver. I ran across an old post by the late Kelly (Mixfinder) singing the praises of using the Kitchenaid 5 speed hand mixer for making bread dough and gave it a try. Kelly was right, it makes the task of mixing and kneading bread dough a breeze.

I’ve also included the recipe. The bread comes out nice and high, moist and tastes delicious. It may seem like a lot of brown sugar, but the finished bread doesn’t taste sweet and the dark brown sugar helps to keep it fresh and moist.

Oh, and BTW I use the King Arthur Flour method of forming my loaves the last rise and baking. Its the best method I’ve come across yet. Here is the link.

This is now my go to bread recipe. I bake 2 loaves every 10 days for our daily use.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/videos/baking-skills/how-to-shape-a-sandwich-loaf

Eddie[this post was last edited: 10/26/2022-12:49]

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I can second Eddie's aversion to garbage disposals.

 

When I bought this place back in 1997, it was the first time I lived in a home with a garbage disposal. The one here was old and eventually failed, so I got a new one from Costco. That one worked OK, but the real problem turned out to be that the drain plumbing to the kitchen sink takes a circuitous route to the main drain line. I had to crawl under the house and take apart the drain system. Perhaps the biggest part of the drain issue is that the drain pipe from the sink goes about 12 feet over to the drain pipe from the laundry closet, and from there to the main house bath (shower stall, tub, sink) before it hits the main drain line. Well, the issue with that is that the kitchen drain takes a weird sort of upward curly-cue path at the laundry closet drain, and that's where the clogs begin. Apparently.

 

My long term solution is to use the garbage disposer only sparingly. I have the luxury of a big back yard and a three bin compost area, so chucking compostable refuse in there is my general approach. Beats crawling under the house and wrenching on the drain pipes to clear clogs.

 

The good news is that once I ceased most garbage disposer action, the drains run clear and clean.
 
The first home that I had with a garbage disposal was brand new and so was the disposal and the plumbing, we were the first occupants. So when the kitchen drain plugged due to putting potato peels down the disposal approx. 6 weeks after moving in had nothing to do with old pipes/plumbing or a old worn out disposal. I never put potato peels down it or any other disposal after the plumbers recommendation to not do so.

Our current home was built in 1980 and has modern PVC pipes for the drains. At the time I removed the disposal due to repeated clogging of the kitchen sink the home was 30 years old and so were the pipes. The disposal wasn’t some cheap POS and was only 10 years old.

I’ve never missed that damn thing one bit! More trouble than it was ever worth. And not one kitchen sink clog since I took it out.

For those that like their garbage disposals more power to you. Its your kitchen and your house. I follow directions and take care of our home with pride so I don’t believe the problems I had with the drain clogging was due to user error or misuse. Maybe the disposal was just no good from the start? I don’t know and I don’t care, its gone for good and so are my problems with a clogged kitchen sink drain.

Eddie
 
"And of course the drunk asses are all telling how to drive it..so I had to pull over and threaten to beat shit out of them if they didn't shut the f—k up."

You got some wild friends that are still stuck in their early 20's, lol.

I can smell the bread right through my computer screen Eddie, it looks fantastic.
 
Growing up we had one, an Inskerator something or other and I don't recall any problems. When my partner and I bought our first house I bought an inexpensive ISE Badger model and installed it myself. It was nothing but grief with numerous clogs however I do believe that it wasn't the machine itself but that the lengthy drain pipe from under the kitchen to the back of the house didn't have enough incline to allow for proper flow. I removed it. Didn't bother with installing one in our next house on a septic field for fear of problems and then the move here to this house not happening though most of our neighbors do have them with no reported problems.
 
 
The '64 family house had a Westinghouse disposer, I believe was it.  It ran and was used until it rusted-through and leaked, was removed and not replaced.  The next house to which we moved also had one (there's a wall switch by the sink) but it apparently failed years ago after I moved out as there's currently no disposer.

My current house (built in 2004) has wiring for a disposer but none was installed.  I haven't had a hankering for one.  I don't recall that my previous house had one.
 
My 1984-built house camewith a basic InSinkErator that was abysmal. It failed in January/February 1994 and reeplaced it with a 1 HP GE in time to handle the full family onslaught for their 50th wedding anniversary. Minimal problems to thiks day. Just be sensible as to how much I pu8t down at a time. And not issues.
 
Best Disposers to prevent clogged drains

Reply number 45, hi Bob Any disposer will work well for a while but I do recommend only buying disposers that have all stainless steel grind components because they never get worn enough to cause clogged drains.

 

The basic ISEs and other cheap brands with galvanized steel blades will last anywhere from three or more years before they start having too much clearance and sending potato peels down the drain whole.

 

Reply number 47, hi Rich you should’ve replaced the drain lines under that house years ago, why live in a house with inadequate plumbing, by not maintaining the home it’s just going to become a teardown when you’re gone.

 

I have four disposers in this house and two in the weekend house, I can’t imagine not having the convenience of instant sanitary garbage disposal. I have never had a clogged drain in my lifetime from a disposer and believe me I put a lot of stuff down them.

 

The few times I’ve stayed in a place that does not have a disposer I have found you can get along by just flushing stuff down the toilet it’s just not quite as convenient slapping it from the kitchen to the bathroom.

 

John
 
One thing I learned after replacing the Hobart Kitchenaid disposer with an ISE after it died was that the ISE didn't grind items nearly as fine as the KA did. Had to crack open the clean out pipe a few times before I figured that out. It was a high end ISE, too. Does anything out there today grind items really fine like vintage Maytags, KA's, and Waste Kings?
 
Fine grinding disposers

Well I hope Volsboy is reading and will comment but I remember in the past he said the Viking version of Hobart Kitchenaid was excellent, now discontinued, as well as the ISE Evolution Excel model also being a good unit. I bought the Viking based on his advice maybe 10 or so years ago, still works well.
 
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