Oven temps

[Clive George]

That's what it said on the pasta packet I looked at. Obviously not egg or green pasta, just the normal stuff.

[harryagain]

When you burn gas, you get water. So electric ovens are bound to dry things out quicker.

[harryagain]

Gas hobs put lots of condensation out as well as nasty pollutants. Bad it you have asthma.

[Tim+]

Yeah but, they take much longer to *cook*, which isn't the same as just drying out.

Tim

[polygonum]

If I understand food labelling in this area at all, I think that if they add water to flour, make a paste, squeeze it through a machine to form the right shape and dry it, and the final weight is exactly the same as the weight of flour used, any water used in the process does not have to be listed. But I could be entirely wrong!

[polygonum]

It certainly isn't the same. But our not-very-old cooker's fan oven seems to recirculate its air in an almost closed loop. Depending on what is being cooked, it sometimes seems to be a positively wet environment inside.

One vegetable dish I cook regularly used to be hovering between being cooked and being desiccated in the old oven. Now it hovers between being cooked and still being too wet and soggy. I used to ensure that the vegetables were wet when put in. Now I make sure they are dry.

The new oven most assuredly uses much less electricity! And the kitchen seems to gain little heat until we finish cooking and leave the oven door open! :-)

[John Williamson]

Even modern gas ovens let less heat escape than older ones.

[dennis]

Electric ovens don't have a free flow of air through them so cook in a virtually sealed atmosphere so don't dry food out as fast.

[dennis]

Dry air is bad for asthma.

What pollutants do you think burning natural gas gives out?

[dennis]

A couple of inches of mineral wool wrapped around the oven does that sort of thing. IMO gas hobs and electric ovens are best for most things. Harry will prefer electric as it means he doesn't have to export anything from his panels.

[Adrian]

Ah, that makes some sense.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes, that's what pasta is more or less. Dried flour and water paste.

Sometimes has egg and salt added.

[Adrian]

There's no water in it when I make it...

[Another John]

Yeh, but I wasn't clear enough: I said "a struggle to keep it boiling"

-- meaning "to bring it back to the boil [and then keep it boiling]". In "the old days" on our cooker it was no problem at all to get a pan of spuds back to the boil [on the medium ring], and then turn down the ring to keep them simmering.

BTW: useful thread this, thanks Dave.

John

[Sam Plusnet]

Does roasting peanuts need a special oven temperature?

[stuart noble]

Maybe the thermostat is caked up? Might be easy to clean or replace

[Vir Campestris]

CO, trace hydrocarbons, a few sulphur compounds (from the stenchant, if nothing else), the odd bit of NOx and carbon particles...

Of course, these should only be in trace amounts. You'd probably notice CO from the headaches - if your detector didn't, and you didn't die.

Andy

[dennis]

You wont get any significant CO, hydrocarbons or NOx from burning natural gas in an oven or hob unless its faulty and/or in a not well ventilated room.

Where are you getting the sulphur from?

[Vir Campestris]

Read my last post again please. More carefully this time.

Andy

[dennis]

So you think a few parts per billion is significant? There is probably more sulphur from the farts in the room.