Surface Cooking on the Electric Range
1. Q. Do the “Definite” Surface Heats Provided by Most Electric Ranges, Have Any Advantages Over the “Infinite” Number of Surface Heats Provided by Ranges Using Other Fuels?
A. Yes. This is important because it eliminates “guesswork” in cooking and enables you to use even unfamiliar recipes with confidence and ease. The heat obtained at each switch setting will be repeated exactly each time you use it.
2. Q. How Many Surface Heats Should be Provided for Best Results?
A. Most ranges have five surface heats described here, and these have been found adequate for every cooking need.
3. Q. What Is the Use for Surface “High” Heat?
A. “High” heat is always used to bring foods quickly to steaming point. (As soon as cooking temperatures are reached one of the lower heats is used to continue and complete that cooking.) It is used to preheat fat for frying and used continuously for deep fat frying of potatoes. “High” heat is always used for speed in heating water.
High
4. Q. What Is the Use for the Surface “Medium-High” Heat?
A. “Medium-high” provides the right temperature for frying chicken or browning meats and for maintaining cooking of large quantities of food in extra large utensils. “Medium-high” on small units can be used for baking griddle cakes when a small utensil is used.
Medium High
5. Q. When Do You Use the Surface “Medium-Low” Heat?
A. “Medium-low” is just right for percolating coffee or for heating small quantities of food quickly.
Medium Low
6. Q. How Is “Low” Heat Used?
A. “Low” heat is used for keeping foods cooking after they have been started on “high” heat. This low heat is sufficient for keeping quite a large quantity of vegetables and other foods actively cooking.
Low
7. Q. How Is “Simmer” Heat Used?
A. “Simmer” heat is used for low temperature cooking, for instance, small quantities of vegetables, cooking custards, sauces and dried fruits. The uses for “low” and “simmer” heats are much the same excepting “low” is used for larger quantities of foods.
Simmer
8. Q. Why Is Low Water Cooking Recommended for Vegetables?
A. Because more food value is retained, also flavor and appearance is better. Very little water need be added to vegetables to create the necessary steam for proper cooking.
9. Q. Which of the Five Surface Heats Is Most Practical to Use in Making Coffee?
A. “Medium-low” on either the large or small unit, depending upon the size percolator and amount of coffee to be made.
10. Q. Is the Deep Well Cooker More Practical Than a Fourth Surface Unit?
A. Yes, because the deep well cooker will perform virtually any cooking operation possible on a surface unit, plus baking, and do many of them better and more economically.
11. Q. What Types of Food Are Best Prepared in the Deep Well Cooker?
A. Pot roasts, soups, stews and any foods requiring long cooking times.
12. Q. What Are Some Uses for the Deep Well Cooker?
A. Steaming puddings, baking, simmering dried fruits and cooking tougher cuts of meats. As a utensil it can be used for sterilizing.
13. Q. Do Flavors Mingle When Several Foods Are Cooked at One Time in the Deep Well Cooker?
A. No—If you will remember to do one thing—always remove the foods from the cooker as soon as the current is turned off. While foods are cooking they are “exhaling” their odors. When they begin to cool they begin to “inhale” and absorb the odors of other foods.
14. Q. Can the Deep Well Cooker Be Used for Steaming Brown Bread, Puddings, etc.?
A. Yes, by pouring water in the bottom of the cooker and using a “trivet” or rack.
15. Q. Can the Deep Well Cooker Be Used for Baking?
A. Yes. It is economical for baking several potatoes, cup custards or baked apples. When the cooker well is used for baking the cooker utensil is removed and a rack placed in the well. The well is heated to proper baking temperature with the switch on “high” and baking is continued on “low” heat.
16. Q. How Can the Deep Well Cooker Be Used as a Warming Oven?
A. Remove the utensil. Place the rack in the well and cover with the lid of the cooker. “Low” heat provides sufficient heat for warming.
17. Q. Can the Deep Well Cooker Utensil Be Used on the Surface Unit?
A. Yes.
18. Q. Does Food Cook as Fast in a Deep Well Cooker?
A. Yes. It is ideal for soups, stews, pot roasts, etc., which require uniform low temperatures over longer periods for best cooking results.
19. Q. Why Are Deep Well Cookers Usually Insulated?
A. Many foods prepared in the deep well cooker are those requiring long cooking periods. Because of adequate insulation less current is used. For example, the insulation on deep well cookers makes it possible to prepare an entire meal at a total current cost of less than two cents. (Based on an electric cooking rate of two-and-a-half cents per kilowatt.)