Modern British Cooker Questions

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maytagbear

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Hello, British Friends!

I was wondering...are the ovens in new cookers sold there in the UK ever calibrated in Gas Mark (Regulo) numbers, or are they now just in Celsius? Some of my cookbooks have oven temperature charts in Farenheit, Celsius, and Gas Mark.

What about high-heat self-cleaning (pyrolytic) ovens?
Are they known there?

Lastly, does Belling make full-size cookers, in addition to the famous Baby Belling?

Thanks in advance,

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
As far as I know, gas cookers have always used 'gas mark...'.

Pyrolytic self-cleaning ovens are available as top-end features. This is where the temperature goes higher than normal, and the dirt then turns to ash.

Most standard cookers have ordinary catalytic self-cleaning liners.

Belling has made full-size cookers for years. Their main competitors always seemed to be Tricity, and Creda.

Belling is now part of the Glen-Dimplex group; Tricity, part of Electrolux; Creda, disappearing fast under Indesit (spits at Indesit! Lol).

I recently saw a Hotpoint (Indesit owned) cooker that had a badge saying "Creda Collection". Bloody cheek! For years Creda was a company in its own right. Now its relegated to a stamp.

My mum had Creda "Carefree" cooker that was bought in 1975, it lasted until 2004 when she bought a new Creda. The old one was solid in comparison.
 
Also we had once been shown a Brit cooker with a gas flame in the oven that rose from the rear similar to, say, a fountain.
Our flames (that heat the oven) are hidden beneath a metal sheet, the (removable) oven bottom with air-holes on the side.

Is the visible flame in an oven the most common/only method there for a gas cooker?
 
Mainly the flame is at the back of the oven, as you said...

However some ovens over here, are also like you said have the flames under a metal sheet in the base of the oven. Mainly the likes of the more modern stainless steel "range style" cookers.

I personally have never gotten on with gas ovens hehe.

Give me a gas hob and electric fan oven and I'm happy!
 
The exposed flame at the back of the oven is the standard in Britain. This gives heat zones within the oven. When my parents were married at first, their first Christmas turkey was cooking in a gas oven. When they checked on it, they accidentally jolted fat into the flame. It shot out of the oven like a flame-thrower!

The hidden flame is of the continental/foreign design, and tends to be used in machines imported into Britain.

It should also be noted that standard British electric cookers have the elements in both side walls of the main oven. If the grill compartment doubles as the top oven, then the elements are under the floor of this compartment. As far as I know, the continental main ovens have their elements under the main oven floor.

Then there are the "Fan assisted" ovens, whereby the elements are still in the side walls, but a fan is used to recirculate the heat.

There are also "Fan ovens" where the elements actually surround the fan. Fan ovens of any type tend to dry out food much quicker.

Different positioning of the elements gives certain foods a superior finish; eg, underfloor elements are more beneficial to pizzas, etc.
 
Same over here:

High end ovens have Pyroclean, particularly the likes of Miele, de Dietrich, Siemens. AEG etc.
The vast majority of other ovens have catalytic liners which work pretty effectively. I have never had a problem with them.

The "cooker" i.e. oven+hob in one unit is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. There are not very many new kitchens installed with a "cooker" it's almost exclusively seperate oven and hob nowadays.

As for gas ovens and hobs, I'm really not too sure.
All I know is that Ireland has stricter standards about failsafes and stuff than the UK does which tends to make the range of gas ovens on sale here a little different to the UK.
 
Thank you, so far :)

The replies have been interesting.

I guess I didn't write the original question clearly enough....

So, I will try again. Do electric ovens ever come with temperature settings in Gas Mark, or are they only in Celsius?

Separate cooktops and ovens are called "built-ins" here.

Thanks again,

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Replacement Knobs

Lawrence,
I remember my first visit to Manchester, my hostess had a little chart pinned to the wall next her gas cooker. She'd grown up with the German °C system, now was trying to bake using °F recipies from an American cooking book, using an oven with "Gas Marks".
The Chart was cut from an instruction booklet (the layout, design and color screamed 70's) and was for folks using a modern electric cooker for the first time, but who had grown up with gas marks and °F.
This doesn't answer your question, either (I have been in lots of English appliance stores through the years and never seen such dual markings, for what it is worth) but thought I'd say hi, anyway.
Never seen in over here in Germany, either and our gas ovens used the gas marks for a very long time, too.
Funny, how we have so many different systems...°R, °C, °F and gas mark...and in the end take the least precise (because of the big jump between units) to be the "universal" one.
My impression of English cookers was they had much more practical broiling set-ups than the German and American gas ranges, but their ovens had a much steeper learning curve to get things right. Once you figured out what went where, you could leverage the different zones to have everything come out just right...but baked over a variety of temperatures.
Of course, the newer stuff from China is just like what we have in the rest of Europe. Every visit to England, it seems like things are becoming more and more Ikea-ised.
 
Electric ovens...

My mother's old Creda "Carefree" from 1975 was marked in Farenheit. They never used "Regulo" or gas-mark, which were exclusively for gas cookers.

Modern cookers are now marked in Celsius.
 
Vas ist das?

~Then there are the "Fan assisted" ovens.

Hi CK! *WAVES* (Forced) "convection" ovens were big in the 70's during our energy crisis. Looks like the value (read: lower price-points) offered by Frigidaire [Electrolux, Sweden] may be forcing American mannies to re-introduce convection ovens amd other features at very reasonble prices, ostensibly to compete with Frigidaire. Personally I'd love to see rotisseries again in full-sized ovens/cookers.

~The "cooker" i.e. oven+hob in one unit is increasingly becoming a thing of the past.

Any ideas as to why? Here either a hob or an oven is usually more money than a one-piece free-standing standard-sized 30 inch cooker. Other sizes of free-standing ranges/cookers (20, 24, 27, 36, 40 inches) tend to be priced higher as "specialty sizes" In terms of built-ins (fitted) wall-ovens; usually in 24 inches wide (60cm) for gas, 27 inches (67.5cm)wide for electric, and now one can get a 30 inch wide (75cm)oven as well. You see our standard free-standing one-piece range (hobs over oven)is 30 inches wide. The smaller wall-ovens are a PITA. This may have to do with evolution as 36 inches wide overall with a 24 inch oven was, at one time, the standard. Then through the wonderful world of marketing.... LOOK!!!! a larger "banquet-sized" oven in a smaller 30 inch wide cabinet OOOH AHHH! *LOL* anyhoo the larger ovens used here nay have to do with our Thankgiving holiday where cooking a large turkey, potatoes and pie may hve made this size the preferred one. (And a fascinating holiday it is; always on a Thursday, pre-determined fixed menu and a holiday cuts across all religions and backgrounds, but I digress...)

~Funny, how we have so many different systems...°R, °C, °F and gas mark...and in the end take the least precise (because of the big jump between units) to be the "universal" one.

Hi keven. *WAVES* What is °R? and which system are you thinking of as more universal?

http://www.sizes.com/units/gas_mark.htm
 
Hi Steve! I was wrong!

Rømer and Réaumur and Rankine are three other scales which are or have been used a lot over the years. Each is frequently abbreviated with "R"
I was mistaken, by the way - the integral Réamur units (the "R" I meant) are wider, not narrower than Celsius. This Frenchman's scale set 0°R at the freezing point of water and the "temperature" of 80°R at the boiling point.
The system was widely used in Germany and France...you still see ornamental thermometers for the garden or such with this scale next to °C. I have seen early German stoves using R° in museums.
The Rømer system is an early 18th century Danish system which began with an observational error; I was taught in school that it ultimately evolved into the Fahrenheit system...of course, that was breaking news in my childhood so one can't be too sure.
Rankine is an absolute scale, except for the United States, everybody else uses Kelvin.
Oh, gosh...and that leads us off into even more abbreviations.
Steve, I'm glad you asked, but at this point am just happy to have mastered F and C...
Sigh. Oh, I just *knew* you'd make something of that, I just **knew** it.
 
Kitchen design in the United States is moving more towards that room being "part" of the home where entertianment and such take place, rather than just cooking. It is much easier to design the cooktops in one place and have the oven or ovens elsewhere in terms of making things "flow". It also means one person can cook while another person is baking or broiling without the first having to move out of the way of the later.

Many people also prefer to have ovens at eye level so to save bending down to lift heavy and hot pans.

Don't think ranges will ever totally go the way of the Dodo on either side of the pond.

L.
 
My kitchen goes the way of the seperate cooktop and oven-I do think this is easier.My oven isn't at eye level for me-its below.Must of been designed for a woman user?I added a GE "Advantium" microwave-speedcook oven with vent blowers and lights-this is VERY helpful.I use all of its functions frequently-the wall oven is sort of lonely since I got the Advantium.
 
~Many people also prefer to have ovens at eye level so to save bending down to lift heavy and hot pans.

I agree with Launderess. Split hob and oven are wonderfully convenient. Also, many McMansions, some of which are for show and status and to impress, "aboslutely" would not consider a range.

Another great option, as stated above, is a micro-convection range-hood over a stadard free-standing range or even a hob cooktop. Eye-level oven, electric (cooler) cookng and a stainless steel nearly indestuctible oven interior.

BTW shorter "chefs" amd those in a wheelchairs need a below-the-counter (workbench)oven.

oh Keven, I'm just trying to expand my realm. Not trying to be a wisen-heimer!

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/prod...cat=Microhood+Combinations&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
 
I don't doubt that for a second,

Steve...I just realized at the last second what you could do with that and decided to live with it.
Your knowledge and thirst impress me tremendously.
One thing which I have always wondered about on UK cookers...why do so many use the same controls right above the hobs like in the US? That has always struck me as being dangerous and inconvenient.
 
Gas hobs have their controls in fornt to prevent sleeves from falling into flames. Most are requred to be push-to-turn to prevent the kiddies from operting them.

Electic hobs have hteir knobs on the back-spalcsh alos for safety. To see at-a-glance that the hobs are "on" To determine the heat-level setting visually and to keep out of reach of the kinder.

The most-seen arrangement of control knobs here, on electic cooktops / hobs is F-R-R-F (front, rear.....) Please see the link. WP stoves have the "rear" controls nounted slightly higher, to make it all a bit more intutive.

http://www.whirlpool.com/catalog/product.jsp?src=RANGES&cat=76&prod=635
 
like I can spell...

When I showed up for my first day of student teaching I was in for two shocks. First, the "random" drawing at my university had sent me to my old junior high.
Second, when I got to the teacher's lounge (yes, smoke filled to the ceiling), my old nemesis of an English teacher was standing at the windows looking out. I closed the door behind me and coughed. She turned around, looked at me and (it nearly cracked her face) smiled. "Ah, she said. "Do you remember our little discussion a few years back when I told you spelling was important and you said "nah, word processors will take care of that?"
"Well, my dear, let's see just how much that helps you now."
Yup, my first semester student teaching was...teaching spelling and vocabulary.
Sigh.
I'm probably the reason an entire generation of Colorado school kids bought shares in SpellWright(C).
Back to stoves. I follow your logic with the gas stoves, but after a nasty fryer fire on an electric stove, I much prefer the continental system of putting the controls down in front.
 

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