"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
. net...
Does anyone have any opinions? It seems that buying a dual-fuel
slot-in can be cheaper than the two separate bits - for example this
one:

Personally I would go for all-gas. Electric fan ovens are overrated IMO.

I disagree - after sixty odd years of using gas ovens. We bought a dual fuel
cooker three years ago and I love it. Mine has a fan which ensures even
heating/cooking throughout. No hot spots, no cool parts.

Gas
has the advantage of:

(a) much more rapid warmup, which is good for just bunging frozen stuff in
the oven without all that 15 minutes warm up you get with 2.2kW electric
fan
ovens.

It doesn't take 15 minutes - but I don't bung food anywhere and wouldn't
dream of putting frozen food in any oven. It's quite easy to thaw it first.


(b) temperature variation from top to bottom. This is useful when cooking
items that require different heat in the same oven. Set to the highest
temperature required and put item on top shelf. Lower shelves then are
useful for items requiring lower heat.

That's the classic sales pitch for gas ovens. But it's not at all useful if
you don't want different temperatures - which is most of the time for many
of us. Having to load the oven with three shelves of bread tins and having
to keep shifting them around in the gas oven was a real pain. Being able to
load once and take them all out at the same time - using the efficient timer
if necessary - is a joy. I wish I'd succumbed to an electric oven before ...
what a waste of my culinary life :-(

Tonight I cooked pork steaks, sweet potatoes, red cabbage, coriander
parsnips all in the same oven - my wonderful electric one. Everything was
cooked to perfection.

(c) Gas grills are actually useful for something other than making your
house look like you've been burning tyres, which is the affect of cooking
any meat on an electric grill.

Oh what a nonsense! Perhaps you should learn to cook. There are different
levels of height and heat in my electric grill.

Any fat gets treated as free fuel, rather
than a source of smoke and mess.

You need more experience.

I can't decide whether to go with a separate hob and oven or a
free-standing 'slot-in' cooker.

That's a pure personal preference.

I agree.

BTW, the link you posted is exactly the same as my mother's cooker (except
for the colour, which is white). She's had no problems with it to my
knowledge. It's a dream compared to her old horrible Halogen/Ceramic
monstrosity.

I wouldn't choose an electric hob under any conditions. If I didn't have
mains gas I'd use butane or charcoal.

But it's a personal choice.

Mary

Christian.