I love my stove (sure wish it was level.)

I have an awesome "apply heat to raw ingredients" tool in my bright yellow kitchen. Its an O'Keefe & Merrit from the early 50's, never been "restored."

Now to put this stove in perspective, I've been cooking perfectly happily on a 27" wide electric range for, oh, fifteen years or so. It was a perfectly good heat source. (I don't let my cooking students complain about not cooking because they don't have a gas stove. Bullcastings.)

However, when I married, and moved into my DH's house, the kitchen came equipped with this 38" wide behemoth that has personality and features that put those overpriced commercial style ranges to shame.

Let's start with the burners. Well, even before the burners. This stove has pilot lights. Now I know pilot lights aren't very PC, but I sure do like them. They keep the top of the stove nicely warm for all kinds of tasks. If I remember to put the serving dishes on the griddle that separates the banks of burners, by dinner time they're pleasantly warm for cosseting my freshly made dishes. (As opposed to blazing hot when serving dishes are preheated in the oven, unless I have impeccable timing.) And for proofing doughs, the griddle top, warmed by the pilot lights, provides the perfect, easy to check on, spot. For drying metal molds or tart tins, well just plop it upside down over the hot spot, and wahllah, nice and dry, no rust, and not forgotten about as what happens when I used to dry this sort of thing in the oven. Haven't tried to hold a hollandaise yet, but I'll bet it would work like a charm.

Onto the burners. I don't know how they make the valves do this, but when you turn down the flame, there is more resistance the closer you get to low. Who needs egregious markings on the knobs that wear off when the valve itself tells you the flame is now at low? Wait, it gets better. Further twisting of the knob/valve, and the big ring of flame goes out, and the little ring of flame in the middle stays on by itself. Yup, big ring and little ring of flame, talk about your even heating! The big ring has lots of holes for very even flame coverage of even the largest pan, and the little ring, which in and of itself is also adjustable by aforesaid valve, is perfect for heating maple syrup or teriyaki sauce in my smallest saucepan ("butter warmer" sounds just too precious.)

The stove repair guy from Apple Appliances (no, they don't have a website) told me that my burners were good for 12,000 BTU, a pretty respectable number, really. (Previously mentioned commercial style ranges are currently having a flame war, a real flame war, with burners maxing out at about 17,000 BTU. Who really needs all that heat?! Friend of mine got herself one of these flamethrowers, and had to replace all her pots and pans. Cookware stores encourage this phenomenon, of course, but I'm not convinced that she's necessarily a better cook for it.) I find that the true utility of a burner is in its low, not its high. Who cares if the pot of rice, or stockpot takes 60 seconds longer to come to a full boil? After that, said pots have to sit on a good, reliable low flame for quite awhile to develop true and tasty flavors. This is why the quality of the low flame is what separates the men from the boys, burnerwise, IMHO.

"Ah ha," I can hear you asking, "what was the appliance repair guy doing at your house if this stove is so great?" Glad you asked! Since time out of memory, the broiler had not been hooked up and working, so one day, I decided it would be a good idea to have it hooked back up and get more skilled with broiling as a cooking technique. $350 later, I have a broiler that will hold its own with any restaurant broiler I've had the pleasure to use. This broiler gives a whole new meaning to broiling; it cranks. The level of food in relation to flame is adjustable from just under the flame to about a 12" away from the flame. The food in question broils evenly over its entire surface, i.e. the chicken wings in the corners cook just as evenly as the chicken wings in the middle. (That's what the teriyaki sauce was for.)

Even the oven, which I had initially thought was too small, accomodates half-size sheet pans just fine. I just had to get used to sliding the baking sheet into the oven lengthwise, instead of widthwise. A pizza stone on the oven floor lets me not worry too much about opening the oven door.The appliance guy informed me that these old ovens are far better insulated than the newer ones, although I do think he could be biased. I find that four loaves of bread bake nice and evenly, even though they're pretty crowded while baking. If I set the oven dial at 350 degrees, upon measuring, it is spot on 350 degrees. I've gotten bored and quit checking because the oven, without fail, holds a preheated temperature exactly where selected.

My only complaint? My stove isn't level. I keep saying that I'd give half my kingdom for a level stove, but so far, nobody's listening. I suppose I could insist that DH shim it up for me just so, but its not that far out of level. Except that it is irritating when sauteing-the oil pools over to the right side of the pan. Why is this so? The doggone floor isn't level. The Bright Yellow Kitchen was remodeled many years ago to include the laundry room at the back of the house. That floor was supposed to slope. Now, the stove straddles the transition between the original level kitchen and the sloping old laundry room floor. Someday, I'll have a tale to tell about a kitchen remodel, but not just yet.