Julia Child - Later kitchen (B&W)

[iej]

I’m not old enough to remember the Julia Child’s reign as TV chef, but I have seen plenty of her shows on TV in modern times. Hands on, no nonsense approach to cooking is how it should be done and she had a great TV presence, without any need for over polished production.

It’s an interesting piece of TV, as there really isn’t very much of that era that’s presented without that notion of ‘showbiz’ glamour. It was very real and has a warmth that a lot of tv if that time lacked - at least the bits that made it to film or tape and that we see now.

She’s a hard act to follow! I don’t think many ever have or will.

..

The timer being for a percolator makes sense. Just as long as you didn’t accidentally plug the waffle iron into the wrong socket!

 

[bradfordwhite]

Well..... someone tried to follow her

Another reigning queen in particular: Meryl Streep.

Frankly, I think it was more fun seeing Meryl with her head on backwards and fighting it out with Goldie Hawn in Death Becomes Her

 

[helicaldrive]

Thank you!

For years I have wondered what those panels on the wall were. It never occurred to me to ask.

And I’ve never seen one of those!

Seems to me that would be a complex installation. Surely it’d need to be hooked to 4 dedicated lines with separate circuit breakers or in those days fuses. Four kitchen appliances on the same circuit would surely blow fuses, overheat the wiring and possibly even start a fire.

 

[helicaldrive]

220 volt line

Looked at the installation instructions and it must be connected to a 220 volt line.

So probably, in the day, people installed those in older houses with old wiring to avoid blowing fuses with kitchen appliances.

Very interesting!

 

[helicaldrive]

Oooooooh….

And in the link, there’s the drawing of Sunbeam’s fantasy for the 1950s housewife to covet: the ability to make breakfast — bacon, soft boiled eggs, toast and perked coffee — effortlessly with four Sunbeam appliances, all plugged in at the same time.

One would have had to be a very wealthy person to be able to afford all those Sunbeam appliances in that day.

 

[helicaldrive]

Speaking of Julia

She was definitely a master at regulating the heat on an electric stove. Clearly she preheated her burners way ahead of time so everything cooked fast and she knew just how to gradually reduce the heat as she went so she got the exact result she needed every time without the burner ever getting out of hand.

But to me the strange thing about it all is that she was so verbose about every precise detail, yet she was totally silent about that one, most essential thing — how to set that damm electric stove!

Not to start another gas versus electric stove argument here. It’s just that I simply cannot cook on an electric stove. I never could get the knack of regulating the heat. The even heat of electric burners and the easier cleaning would be very nice — but I could never master the skill of starting it on high to get it going, and then gradually turn it down before it got out of hand. All I could ever do with any electric stove I had was to figure out what setting where things wouldn’t burn, and just stick with that, but that meant very slow cooking performance.

Anyway it was a shame she didn’t show people how to use an electric stove while she was at it. It could have been very helpful to me when I had apartments with electric stoves.

 

[ea56]

Regulating an Electric Stove

Practice makes perfect! It’s really very easy. Many of the owners manuals for vintage electric stoves used to tell the user how to make the most out of their electric stoves.

I only start out on high if I’m boiling something or bringing something to a boil, then reduce the heat to finish the cooking process. If I’m going to brown and cook meat I start out on med or med high, heat the pan first and check the temp by holding my hand over the heating pan, once I can feel the heat steadily rising from the pan I put the meat in, brown on each side for 4-5 mins, then reduce the heat to low to finish the cooking. The secret to controlling electric stoves is to not use too high of a heat setting and learn to use residual heat to finish cooking.

Tonight I made Omelettes for dinner, I started the heat out on 7 (or med-hi) and waited until the heat felt right to my hand held above the pan, poured in the beaten eggs then reduced the heat to 6. and finished cooking the omelette on 6. For the second omelette I just left the heat on 6. After a while it just becomes instinctive. Trust yourself and your judgement.

I can control the heat on an electric stove much more accurately and better on an electric stove than any gas stove. And holding constant low heat on an electric stove is much more accurate than on a gas stove in my experience.

When cooking on an electric stove less is more. Most people run into problems controlling the heat of an electric stove because they just start out the cooking on too high of a heat setting.

Eddie

 

[combo52]

Electric range surface cooking

It takes a little more experience and definitely some mechanical skill to use an electric range top. However it’s much easier to cook on an electric surface but a gas range any day because you have such a greater variety of heat available to you.

A few simple rules for cooking on electric surface elements are you never put a skillet or an item with very little mass on high heat, as Eddie mentioned in the post before you start on medium or medium high heat with a skillet.

Much like driving a car you don’t Floor the gas pedal if you’re only trying to get to 25 miles an hour in a residential neighborhood.

Electric Surface elements have a range of heat from 5% to 100% a much greater range than you can get on any gas burner, generally higher on high and much lower on low and completely consistent.

If you watch professional chefs cook on gas ranges they don’t adjust the heat very much they move the pans around as did Julia Child you don’t have to leave something on an element that’s too hot many cooking operations involve using two elements cooking rice to start on high on one element switch it to Another element set on low heat you’ll never fail at cooking rice on an electric stove.

John L

 

[ea56]

Yes John, you’ll never fail at cooking rice on an electric stove. Its almost impossible to get a gas flame low enough and have it stay lit in order to allow rice to properly steam. I always had the flame blow out when it was set low enough to finish cooking rice and come back to find uncooked rice. This NEVER happens with an electric stove. If I leave the flame high enough so it doesn’t blow out then its too hot and the rice scorches, I’ve never been able to find a happy medium on a gas stove for cooking rice.

I would also like to add that since I got my new ceramic top electric stove in January I’ve found that its even better at the lowest setting than my coil top was. I can leave finished gravy on the lowest setting it stays just like it was when I finished making it. Perfect temperature and consistency, no scorching, no skin on top (provided I leave the pan covered) just perfect gravy. This is a great help when preparing a big holiday meal and I still have other things to finish after I’ve made the gravy.

Eddie

 

[combo52]

I have always noticed in many of the thousands of kitchens I have been in that most people that have electric rice cookers always only have gas burners in their kitchens.

 

[tomturbomatic]

For people like Helical Drive, Induction is a blessing because you still have the instant response that people who cook with gas seem to need, while getting the power and control that come with electric. For those with any mathematical ability, old electric range manuals gave the percentages of heat with each setting: High was of course, 100%, medium high was around 50%, plus or minus depending on whether you were using 5 or 7 heat switches, Medium was around 24%, Low was 14-10% and Simmer was around 7%. It was easy to see how the heat dropped as the voltages were switched between two coils and put in parallel and series and how little energy was being used at the lower settings.

The one giant mistake that food writers from the New York Times made when trying out induction cookers was that they used way too high heat settings because, not being used to cooking with electricity, especially with 5 or 7 heat switches, they did not think about ratios of power. As you can see from the table above, there is a huge difference in power between High and Medium High that is just way more than you need for most cooking operations, but people who are accustomed to watching a flame and who are not used to the efficiency of electric cooking don't know that.

Do any of you remember how Julia took to the Cuisinart when it was introduced? Watching her do all of those hand operations to the potatoes in this episode made me want to let her know that in a few years all of that could be done so much easier.

 

[ea56]

Gas stoves and Rice Cookers

well John that would make perfect sense wouldn’t it. The best way to get well cooked rice with a gas stove.LOL.

Eddie

 

[kenwashesmonday]

On many gas burners you can adjust the low setting with a screwdriver in the hollow control shaft.  I have one burner set to cook rice perfectly when its all ther way down.

 

[jamiel]

Exactly this. My dear husband (grew up cooking w/gas) ruined two saucepans making rice (on electric). Nothing easier than high until fully boils, quick stir, cover, lowest heat for 17 minutes--done. We got a cheap rice cooker/marital aid (prevention of divorce).

Out in Palm Springs we found a cool old Hitachi chime-o-matic from roughly 1980 at the resale shop never used. There is an interesting and charming website on the wonders of the Chime-o-Matic from Louisiana. The gentleman from Hitachi was sent to the US to sell exported rice cookers from Japan, and found a ready audience in Louisiana...

https://www.lafayettetravel.com/blog/post/the-20th-century-dinner-bell/

 

[vacbear58]

All is revealed

So, it appears to be a multiple electrical outlet somewhat similar to that posted in reply #25.

You need to go to about 24 minutes into the video where Julia is working at the oven and the panel is much more clearly visible behind her. As this is an electrical appliances display kitchen rather than a studio kitchen set it is possible that there are a variety of these devices in there for demonstration purposes.



Is the washer and dryer set still Frigidaire? Actually I am surprised that, since the cooking appliances are GE and credited as such in some episodes there is not a filter flow set in there

 

[stainfighter]

Episodes: Vegetables, Lobster...

I learned some cooking tips for vegetables.
The Lobster episode was informative and entertaining ...LOL when she lights the cognac! I'm binge watching the rest of the series!

 

[sudsmaster]

Another early Julia Child show, but this one is in color:

 

[perc-o-prince]

We had a Westinghouse built in control center in the downstairs kitchen until about 2 years ago. Each end had a retractable cord for plugging in a coffee percolator, egg poacher, etc, and there were 2 outlets in the middle, one timed. Each of the 4 power "legs" had its own push button reset. Rich used it quite often with a C-30 or similar, and a sunbeam egg poacher. I used to plug my stick blender into it and sometimes the floor vac.

When we got all of those Miele appliances from the showroom closing we decided to go more modern so out it came. Just sitting waiting for me to pop it up on eBay some day!

Chuck

 

[bradfordwhite]

How far do the retractable cords come out?

 

[perc-o-prince]

I don't remember exactly- like 2 feet or so.

 

[bradfordwhite]

So it's like a vacuum cleaner cord in reverse?

 

And you ripped out all your appliances and put in new stuff?

That would seem almost against the AW.org rules of conduct.  Did you post pics?