Preference of Gas or Electric ranges?

[dustin92]

As is being discussed in the "Few Gas ranges in Canada?" thread, what is your preference for cooking fuel? I learned to cook on a gas range, but we now have a coil top electric range, and as far as cooking goes, I have to say I prefer electric. As far as baking goes, the electric is far more even, and it heats up extremely fast. I have to say I love the self cleaning oven as well. The top burners are great, at least after I got used to them, and again, it heats up far faster than gas. I have never seen a pot of water come up to a boil this fast, but woe to anyone who tries to cook in a warped or bent pan- two words "Ain't Happening!" I guess gas is better in that respect, but it heats the air more than the actual pan, thus heating the kitchen faster. I guess I can add another point to gas- the ability to function without power. We do have a gas range downstairs, but it serves more purpose as a dust collector than a cooking appliance, occasionally I will use the oven (mostly on holidays), but I can count on one hand the number of times the cooktop has been used in 1 1/2 years. If we ever lose power it could come in handy, but then again, so would the wood stove. What is YOUR preference and why?

 

[norgeway]

I have used both...

My old electric Norge is fine, but for absolute best baking I will take gas anyday, the only down side of a gas range is the top burners usually will not turn low enough for a true simmer, especially the newer ranges, the old ones with center simmer burners are fine.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

I'd take gas if I had to pick one. Several times in my life I've gone a week+ without electricity and I've learnt that I can handle lack of heat, reading by candle light, etc. PROVIDED I have my hot shower and coffee in the morning. A stove that functions without electricity is a must, as is a gas hot water heater. 90% of my cooking experience has been with gas. Coil-type electric burners do not impress me. However, I've heard many enticing things about induction burners...

So, along with my great-grandmother's wood/gas stove, my dream kitchen would include a 2 burner induction unit in the counter and an Advantium oven to experiment with.

My laundry room would have one gas dryer and one electric as I've lost my gas before while the electricity stayed on.

 

[zipdang]

The arrangement I'm most used to is a gas hob and an electric wall oven, although we've had an all-gas 36" wide range for almost four years and it's been my favorite thus far. The moist heat of the oven bakes beautifully. I could live with an electric oven again if I had to, but the hob/cooktop definitely has to be gas. Things just don't cook up as well for me on electric surfaces.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Electric

I grew up with the choice of electric or wood, depending on the season and which relative I was staying with at the time, so I suppose I am biased.

The times I have lived somewhere with gas, I always hated it. The cabinets walls and ceilings in the kitchen got dirty faster, the bottoms of the pans got dirty, and there was always a light scent when the gas was burning, I hated that smell, it threw me off on smelling food to see how it was coming along, especially baked goods. Not to mention having no storage drawer for cookware, because that's where the broiler was, and a mighty inconvenient spot for it too I will say. And to a boy who grew up and learned to cook depending on residual heat to finish cooking after the burner was off, and counting on the slow build to heat when the burner was turned on, the instant on or off of gas was a nuisance.

I will say, credit where credit is due, a gas stove is a handy thing when the power is out, but it's not so handy sitting there all summer with the pilot lights cranking out heat. A propane camp stove in the back of my pantry fulfills the same emergency use a gas stove would, and allows me to cook on cool clean electric year round. ( and yes I stole the phrase "cool clean electric" from the old reddy kilowatt campaigns. Anyone remember him? Lol)

My best guess is, nearly everyone is going to prefer whichever cooking fuel they grew up using. Nothing else seems "right". Since normal is a relative thing, our expectations for a cooking fuel are dependant on our experiences as to what we view as "normal".

 

[jeffg]

We went through this recently for our last stove purchase.

The bottom line is, for most general purposes I can't handle anything other than flame on a stovetop. Electric excels at a few things like low-temp simmering but not much else. In fact in our family anything other than fire for cooking was considered more heating of food than cooking.

Also imo it's telling that in the thousands of homes we've seen on real estate searches over the years, exactly one with an asking price over $1M had an electric stovetop instead of gas. So apparently fire is the only game in town for serious cooking, although some electric flavors (induction, radiant etc) have their uses.. Our last house had a radiant stovetop, it was one of the biggest fire traps I've ever seen (the top was perfectly smooth, not good for bumped pans but it had excellent low-temp simmering, as good or better than coils.

As for ovens imo nobody can credibly deny the physics of even baking: electric coils are larger and more spread out than gas burners, and operate at lower temps. Therefore the heat supplied will be more even. The only way gas can compete is with convection. But for a broiler, which at least in this house is used as much or more than the oven, again imo nothing compares to gas.

 

[tolivac]

I can use either-fine for me.Have used both.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

I prefer gas. Hubby electric. BUT, since I do  the cooking...

 

[norgeway]

Re Gas oven...

I have never understood why a gas oven gets poor reviews, my experience has been overall more even baking, now I really dont have a opinion on the broiler, I dont broil anything because I dont want to clean up the mess!LOL..I bet the broiler in my Norge has never been turned on.

 

[jeffg]

Broilers

I think most broilers go either completely or almost completely unused today. Not sure why, I mean compared to baking it's often less than half the time (no preheating) and results are much tastier, at least with fish or chicken filets, veggies etc. As for cleanup tin foil is about as easy as it gets.

 

[intuitive]

Gas Vs Electric

I have the best of both worlds... Fisher & Paykel Gas cook top with seprate F & P under bench electric oven that has in oven grill (broiler). The cooktop/ oven configuration is now really popular in Aust now. Natural gas is the norm for most modern apartments in city areas for cooktops & water heating. Electric storage water heaters are being phased out of use.

I would use the grill about one or two times a year but is good for quick top browning/ crisping up.

Gas is the best for pots and pans cooking and electric is the best for baking, roasting etc.

 

[danemodsandy]

Electric!

I - like both James Beard and Julia Child - prefer electric when it comes to home equipment. Professional gas ranges are a whole 'nother beast, and I'm not talking about those - Julia had a Garland 182 installed in her home kitchen decades before it was fashionable, but happily used electric on TV and in demos. Beard was such a fan of electric he had Corning smooth-top units in his teaching kitchen.

Anyway, electric is, I feel, best for home cooks. Higher heat output, more even baking and easier cleaning are three big reasons. Gas ranges have improved dramatically in the last twenty years, particularly on the cleanability front, but most electrics can still out-bake and out-boil most gas ranges.

I also hate the fumes from gas ranges. Your local gas company will tell you there are no fumes. That is a big steaming pile of something usually found under the south end of a north-bound bull.

So, electric for me.

 

[petek]

I guess it's electric for me since I have little experience with a gas stove

 

[washman]

Gas

hate my Caloirc solid burner unit but I rent so................gotta deal with it.

 

[firedome]

why choose...?

both have their differing merits. Hoping to have an electric 40" double oven range AND a gas 2 burner cooktop in the small retirement home we're planning. Do prefer electric oven for baking due to the more precise temp control. Right now we're all electric here in NY, and elec wall oven Chambers and gas Chambers cooktop in VT.

 

[cycluxe]

I prefer gas for the simple reason that there's no stored heat left in the burners, waiting to ruin the pot of mashed potatoes I foolishly left on the stove.

I've had many ranges of both kinds, and am currently in love with my apartment-size Brown gas range.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I LOVE GAS!

Hard to believe that if I grew up in a mostly-electric-range-world!

Unfortunately I hardly get to use the broiler in my range; the in-laws & even my own wife are starting to want us to GO VEGAN!!!!

(Now what do you use a broiler for if you can't broil MEAT, and wanna use it for more than just grilled cheese!)

It's otherwise my late-mom's ceramic-top electric--wish I could just move out the fridge & put a gas range next to it; can't see my dad lighting burners! (But, then, how would we store our cold & frozen stuff?)

-- Dave

 

[abcomatic]

I have both

I can use either one, but the electric is faster.
1935 gas Detroit Jewel
1990 electric Whirlpool

 

[toploader55]

Well then...

I have no trouble with either one. Of course Gas in the Restaurant and at home I have electric.

I think electric is just a matter of getting used to it. When I was a child we had a Tappan Gas Range. Then my Mom bought a Westinghouse exactly like the one Kevin313 has.

I had a Electric Kenmore range which was fine until I found my Fridgidaire. My Grandmother had a Fridgidaire and taught me how to cook on the radiant tubes. Once you get used to the heat and controlling them, I really like them. Although I've never had a problem with Corox or Calrod either.

 

[NYCWriter]

If I had a choice ...

... I'd go with electric. I grew up with electric and always thought it took so long for the coils to heat up.

But now after years of living in very old buildings with limited electric service to the kitchens (which is why most prewar apartment buildings tend to have gas ranges in all the apartments, despite the greater risk of gas leaks and explosions), I realize now there is a cost for that "instant hot" flame: lack of precision.

I really miss the ability to TRULY keep things at a warm simmer on the stove (I've burned so many things during dinners, assuming "low" on the gas range was the same as "simmer" on the electric range).

And I've noticed BAKING is a challenge in the gas stove versus the electric. Electric is much more even and precise in the oven, too.

 

[jerrod6]

I grew up with gas then electric. I've had Electric and gas ranges in condos and homes and now I have a gas cook top with electric oven that has a convection mode with a fan blowing heat out of the back.

I think I would go Electric induction cooktop with my current oven setup

What I don't like about gas is the amount of heat that gets generated while cooking. You've got this flame jumping around and a pot on top of it. The problem is that while the heat is going into the pot some of it as soon as you turn it on, is also escaping into the surrounding area. To me this makes for a very hot kitchen.

Then unless you are using an exhaust hood directly over the stove, there are the left over by-products of combustion that, with a gas furnace, would go up the chimney but with a kitchen stove they just go waffling through the air inside the house.

 

[norgeway]

Maybe im not

The normal cook, but I sure have been able to turn out better baked goods on a gas range, the browning is more delicate and even and cakes as a rule rise at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch more.

 

[retromania]

Gas

Gas, gas....GAS!!!

 

[norgeway]

By the way...

How is the OKeefe doing????

 

[revvinkevin]

Growing up in Southern California everything - stove, water heater, furnace, dryer etc, is gas because it was and still is, less costly to operate here.

I've had the opportunity to cook on electric a couple times. There is of course a learning curve when it comes to cooking on electric. I would imagine it's just a matter of getting used to it, but I MUCH prefer gas.

Except when it comes to an oven, then I'd rather have electric. Mostly because (new) gas ovens are getting harder and harder to find AND they are only 24" wide when you do find them. Too small for me. I prefer a 27" or 30" oven, ideally convection.

Kevin

 

[whirlcool]

This question has been asked before and usually the preference here is electric. Lots of members have stated that gas is dirty, it sucks the oxygen out of the air and makes it hard to breathe, it poisons your house, etc.

I grew up with gas, but had electric for the past 20 years or so. In 2008 we bought a Maytag gas stove. We love it for many of the reasons people above this post have stated. When you turn off the heat, it's really off. Instantly.

The gas oven is ok for baking and broiling, which we use every so often. The GE P7 TOL double wall oven we had in our last house was so much better than the Maytag gas oven.

 

[zipdang]

Broiling

On the subject of broiling, my gas oven has an infrared broiler in the top of the oven cavity, as opposed to the the type of oven with a broiler in a drawer beneath the oven cavity. My oven does not have a drawer under it and I have no personal experience with that design. Mine is a "commerical style" residential unit. That said, I've only ever used the broiler once, and it seemed to work just fine. But out of curiosity, what do most of you use the broiler for? I'm just not accustomed to broiling anything. Am I missing out? Should I be taking advantage of the broiler more frequently?

 

[danemodsandy]

Devil's Advocate Here:

A couple of people have noted the "instant off" aspect of gas burners here in this thread. While I feel that's true as far as it goes, there's another side to it, I think:

When you turn a gas burner off, the flame disappears, but the grate stays hot. As in good and hot, but it doesn't radiate the heat; just the grate itself is hot. You also don't have the little bit of a visual you have with a hot electric burner, which continues to glow red for just a minute. Even after an electric burner darkens, it continues to radiate some stored heat which also alerts you to the fact it's still hot.

It is, therefore, possible to forget a gas burner's grate can still be quite hot, and accidentally touch it, because a hot grate looks exactly like a cool one, and doesn't give off much heat as a warning, either.

Ask Mr. Clean-As-You-Go here if you doubt me.

 

[retromania]

The O'Keefe is doing great!!!

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">First I want to want to say these comments are not directed to Allen (Whirlcool) only to those who may say something like this below.   So</span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span>

 let's look at this for a minute.



 

 

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span>

Lots of members have stated that gas is dirty, it sucks the oxygen out of the air and makes it hard to breathe, it poisons your house, etc. 




1.  gas is dirty

Natural gas anyway, is very clean when it burns, unless there is something wrong with the gas / air mixing chamber, causing it to burn way to rich.

 

<span style="color: #000000;">2. it sucks the oxygen out of the air and makes it hard to breathe</span>
Yes anything that burns uses/requires oxygen to burn, and YOU use oxygen when you BREATH... are YOU living in a hermetically sealed house?   Come on, it's all in your mind!

 

<span style="color: #000000;">3.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">it poisons your house.</span></span>[COLOR=#222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-weight: normal]
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Oh?   And how does it do that?   Is your house a living breathing creature like yourself?   I suggest you get a canary or two and keep them in your house.... if they are STILL alive, singing and tweeting, the air is fine and so are you.[/COLOR]</span>

 

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Kevin</span></span>

</span>