For baking and cooking, are gas stoves and ovens better than electric? (cabinet, wall)

[JBrown]

If you look at higher end stuff you'll find that dual fuel units can be had

ie..... gas cook top with an electric oven. I have a DCS SS unit for example.

Gas ovens don't get hot enough to actually self clean (hence the "continuous clean marketing hype). Electric cook tops don't respnd to adjustments instantly like a gas flame does.

If you want high end and/or serious about cooking...such as high ouput BTU burners etc
.dual fuel...or separate units.

[al_roethlisberger]

To be honest, I find that "self cleaning" is a bit of marketing optimism

Oh it "works" but I've often found two issues:

1) Although self cleaning ovens will turn a good bit of the nasty stuff to "ash", one still has to wipe it all out, and it still often leaves the really tough stuff stuck.

2) It's wasteful, from an electricity standpoint. When energy was cheap, and especially the promise of "cheap all electric houses" were the rage, just incinerating everything in the oven made sense .... I guess. I'm not so sure it makes as much sense anymore.

If one really wants to clean out the oven without caustic spray on mess cleaners, or spinning the electric meter doing a debatable good job incinerating the oven goo, try the following:

Put the ammonia in a glass bowl, and place it inside the cold oven and close the door. Lets the bowl stay in the oven over night. The next day, wipe away the stains, perhaps using a green scrub pad for stubborn stains. If one does this somewhat regularly, the number of "tough stains" should be reduced over time and cleanup should be minimal. Plus ammonia can be reused.

No muss, no fuss, and no electricity

Al

[M3 Mitch]

From what I have heard, most professional chefs like gas better, it does respond more quickly to your control inputs and most people who know what they are doing like that.

I prefer gas, and plan to replace the existing electric range with a gas one when/if it ever gives any trouble, bought it for $75 from the previous owner of the house, since it was already there - why should he move it out and me then have to buy/move in another one, the house is not set up for gas at the stove (although this would not be hard to do, have a propane furnace..)

Something that I think is always a nice touch when building a house is to have both electric and gas set up for the range, this way if your eventual buyer strongly prefers one or the other, either way it's covered. This does not cost much in original construction.

[DKVA]

I have duel fuel- gas cook top and electric oven and love it.

Previously always had electric and I always had to move a pot to a different burner if I needed a lower temp.

[hdwell]

If I could design my dream kitchen, I would have a gas cooktop, a gas oven, and an electric oven. These would all be built in. Why?

Gas ovens do a superb job of roasting meat with the moist heat they create.

Electric ovens dry heat is best for pastries.

Now this is what the experts used to say. Frankly I've had both and can't tell a great deal of difference between any function of the two.

But it makes sense to me. And it is nice to use the electric oven in the heat of summer as the moist heat of gas makes humidity in the kitchen and one gets wringing wet even with A/C.

We can always dream, can't we?

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by potatosoup

I do a lot of amateur baking, and am wondering if electric is not as good or is it better since it doesn't blow air around, and hence could be better?

What about range tops? Why is gas considered better, or is it? Are there very high end electrics which can be as good?

We've always loved having a gas stove - so much so that we replaced an almost new electric range in the house we bought, with a gas range.

Honestly, we just like gas better. Heats faster. And while there may be lots of good arguments for electric, our preference is gas.

[BigJon3475]

The only thing I have against gas stoves is sometimes the orifices get clogged after long term usage, it's an easy fix if you have a needle. Gas I always recommend getting a thermostat just to see what the range in temperature is on either gas or electric. You might be surprised to see 350° can sometimes be between 325°-375°. Not always though of course, as with anything, quality makes a difference.

[ukiyo-e]

I'm choosing appliances for a new home I'm having built and cannot stand electric cooktops, so I'm leaning toward a dual fuel range with a gas cooktop and electric convection oven. This duplicates the function of the separate gas cooktop and electric wall oven in my current house. I prefer the drier heat of the electric oven since I don't roast meats but do more baking.

However, the neck of the woods I'm moving to only has propane, no natural gas. I've noticed in a few homes I've been in there, that there is a slight propane odor in the kitchen, when I find really nauseating, much more so than the mercaptan in natural gas. It bothers me enough that I would almost suffer with an all-electric range if I felt there was a high chance I'd have this problem. Is this normal or are these ranges defective or need some kind of repair?

Also, I've read that propane burns hotter than natural gas, so I'm wondering how difficult it is to gently cook things like rice over a low flame, if the temperature is hotter than a gas range.

Thanks in advance for any info anyone can give me.

[NY Annie]

I've had natural gas, propane gas, and electric in my 50 years of cooking (I started at age 11 being responsible for dinner). I love gas and it doesn't matter whether propane or natural. The home we just bought for our retirement is all electric and I made sure my husband understood that we will be installing propane and a new stove before I move in. I will not cook on electric again. I might consider a built-in electric oven inside since we are also going to be installing an outdoor kitchen on the new deck and it will have a gas grill/oven.

We rented one house many years ago and I used an electric cooktop for about 3 years. I hated every day of it. I'm a good cook and I did get used to turning off the burner before the food finished but I was never truly comfortable with it.

[DKVA]

In all my 28 years of being married, this is the first time having gas. I have a dual fuel range-electric oven with a gas cook top. I love it! No more moving a pot off a burner to cool down just turn the dial and automatically down to simmer.