All About Cookers

By Author: Elizabeth Cook
Total Articles: 5
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As a homeowner one of the most essential appliances you need is a cooker; a home isn't really complete if you can't cook a meal within the confines of your walls. Cookers are definitely not restricted to the home though - they are a core component of various businesses that deal with food preparation including hotels, restaurants, fast food outlets, and outside catering services.

There is a rich history behind the rise of cookers as we now know them and this evolution through time is what has made for the versatile cooking equipment of the modern day. These sentiments can more so be appreciated in the context of range cookers which simply put are appliances that use a single heat source to boil, heat and bake. Their modern designs capture the elements of efficiency, economy, and style and/or technique in different unique ways and choosing one for your home from the many available brand names can be quite a task.

There are several types of cookers that you can consider buying and it is worth knowing what each of them is basically all about.

Electric cookers use electricity to power all their elements ...
... including oven, hob and grill. These cookers have two options of oven i.e. conventional or fan-assisted types with the latter being more advantageous by virtue of enabling thorough cooking and browning.

Gas cookers make use of a gas supply to power all their elements and the fuel can be sourced either from a household supply or from a gas cylinder. As compared to electric cookers, gas cookers have proven to be considerably better because their heat can be instantly produced and easily controlled; this is greatly convenient when cooking on the hob. Further, their ovens produce heat that is moister than in electric cookers and this means that food is less likely to dry out in them although cooking can be slightly uneven.

Dual fuel cookers feature gas-fuelled hobs and electric ovens and compared to the two aforementioned varieties you enjoy the best of the advantages i.e. instant heat production and control, and even cooking, for the hob and oven respectively.

Aga cookers are very much different from standard cookers. These cookers are fabricated using cast iron and coated using vitreous enamel, and are designed to be powered using solid fuel, electricity, gas or oil. Their oven cavities and walls are efficiently insulated and operation control is done via thermostats. They operate through the generation of a steady heat supply that is produced and filtered within them, as opposed to standard cookers whose heat supply can be switched on and off as required. The steady heat supply in Aga cookers is the reason why they don't have the conventional controls as for standard cookers' hotplates and ovens. Aga cookers are therefore always ready for use and most varieties are capable of providing hot water for domestic use. They feature two standard hob plates with one meant for boiling and the other for simmering. Available are models that have two or four oven compartments with each serving a designated purpose i.e. baking, roasting, warming etc.

Range cookers, which are a class above standard cookers, are freestanding appliances that combine two cooking equipment in a single unit i.e. burners that sit atop the unit and oven compartment(s) arranged below, plus a grill in some instances. They mainly use electricity or gas for fuel though we do have others that use solid fuel sources including smokeless coal, bituminous coal, logs or peat. The most popular variety amongst these is the one which combines an electric oven and a gas hob though we also have all-electric or all-gas types. These cookers vary in size i.e. from 600mm to 1200mm and they may have a minimum of five burners, two ovens or more, wok burners and integrated burners. Normally they have separate ovens that make for both fan-assisted and conventional cooking.

Let Range Cookers UK help you bring some dazzle and flair into your kitchen courtesy of the amazing latest variety of top quality and fairly priced cookers we have in stock. With brands like Baumatic, Electrolux and Rangemaster you certainly can be spoilt for choice of cooker.