Gas cooker .... not cooking

[Plebism]

Hey group - just found this site, which looks very established

I have a couple of questions regarding the working of and fitting if a gas cooker.

Query 1)
I currently have a Cannon gas cooker/over which doesn't seem to cook. What I mean is, I set it to the gas mark, say 7, give it time to heat up then put the food in. After the required time has elapsed the food is often no where near cooked. I end up turning it up to gas mark 9 for the remainder of the time.

I thought temps wrong at first, so I bought an oven thermometer to check the temp. According to that, the temps are reaching their mark ... but the dam oven just doesn't seem to cook the food

Query 2)
I decided that the cooker was screwed, so I have been looking at a new one. All was going well until the man in Currys told me I need to have 150mm of clearance around the sides of the cooker or the CORGI fitter won't fit the oven This was a new ruling he said.

Now my current cooker has ...... about 2mm of clearance down each side, i.e. it slots right in. This was how it was when we bought the house last July.

According to the Currys man then, no cooker that I can find will be fitted by a corgi fitter as I cannot achieve that 150mm gap.

Can anyone clarify this? as the CORGI/HSE site doesn't seem to carry this info

Any help on either of my queries would be great

Thanks (sorry a long first post)

 

[JohnD]

Query 1:
If you have used electric fan ovens before, you may find the gas oven is different. This is because they are very stratified - much hotter at the top than at the bottom. As you get used to it you will adjust your recipies to suit yourself and your oven. This is quiite usual.

Gas cooker manufacturers used to issue recipe books to show this an an advantage, cooking (say) roast potatoes (very hot) on the top shelf; roast beef (less hot) on the middle shelf; rice pudding (ccoler) on the bottom shelf.

If you are thinking of buying a new cooker, many expert cooks recomend a gas hob (very fast to react and control, cheaper to run) with an electric fan oven (clean, fast, consistent heat). However they do not give such a good brown skin on rice puddings.

These Dual-Fuel cookers are made by all the major manufacturers. They do not need such a big electricity supply as all-electric cookers.

Query 2
Haven't heard that. Check manufacturer's instructions.

Warning:
If you get a new wife whose mum cooked on gas, she will hate electric cookers. And vice versa. They get conditioned when young.

 

[denso13]

Query 2.

No requirement for that space down sides of oven. There is IIRC a 150mm space required at the sides of a grill at eye level, which is the older style tall cooker with grill above.

 

[Plebism]

There is IIRC a 150mm space required at the sides of a grill at eye level, which is the older style tall cooker with grill above.

That makes sense

 

[sandwell]

You were not given the correct information in Currys

You can look up details of any Cannon Cookers on their web-site, here
http://www.cannoncooking.co.uk/macro/products.d2w/report


To check whether your present cooker oven is functioning correctly, the best way is to buy a packet of Victoria Sponge Mixture, follow the instructions on the packet, cook for the time recommended on the packet, and if the cooker is working ok, the sponge should look perfect.