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Not gardening - electric cooker virgin

B3B3 Posts: 27,505
in The potting shed
Trying to get used to the unnatural means of cooking without fire.
There is an induction beast and a fan oven beast. induction beast and I are at stalemate but I have hopes for victory.
My  basic question is:
Oven goes down to 80C. Is that slow cooker_setting or  just.plate warmer?  Google seems confused . So am I.

In London. Keen but lazy.
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Posts

  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    Looks like it might be slow cooker @B3
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-temperature_cooking
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    80 is pretty low. If I do roast veg for soup, for example, I do them at about 140, for about an hour or so, depending on what size. I'm not sure I'd use 80 for anything, although it would certainly be a plate warming sort of heat.  I've just looked at mine and 100 is the lowest setting. I doubt I've ever used that.
    We have a grill above the oven, so plates would go in there if the oven's on. 

    For the hob- I find it best to heat the ring to maximum to heat it up thoroughly [takes hardly any time] then turn down to the heat you require  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Great! Thank you all. My trusty gas cooker had a slow cooker setting that I used all the time . Never needed to Consider actual temperatures before. 
    It's a bit like Only Connect for cooking and all the recipes have the vowels missing at the moment


    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    Just remember if you use the fan setting to adjust the temperature down by about 20C.
    80 is very low, my oven starts at 0 and I use up to about 50C for drying things. Well I did before I got my shiny new dehydrator.
  • NormandyLizNormandyLiz Posts: 788
    And a ps: persevere with the induction beast. More often than not, I hate mine with a passion - it likes to throw hissy fits over the slightest drop of water and for some really incomprehensible reason the small ring is at the back behind a big one, try stirring a sauce while leaning over a pan of boiling pasta - but they are cheaper to use. In this day and age that counts for something.


  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    That's certainly a nuisance @NormandyLiz re the small ring. I have one of each front and back. 
    Anything dropped on the rings is best wiped off asap, and if anything sticks on, or it just needs a good clean, I put a couple of drops of washing up liquid on the plate while it's still hot, and some water, which cools it enough that I can give it a good scrub without burning my fingers .  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • NormandyLizNormandyLiz Posts: 788
    It's not so much the spilling things, @Fairygirl, it's more that a single drop of water in the wrong place will send it into error mode and block it until you switch the whole thing off - not good in the middle of cooking. It also like to switch itself off for no apparent reason apart from to annoy. I'd love to replace it but would rather spend the money on the garden!
  • ErgatesErgates Posts: 2,953
    I occasionally get some water splashing out of the pan if I’ve put it on the highest setting, and forgot to turn it down when it’s come to a boil. I just wipe the wet off with some kitchen roll, and not had the hob play up at all. I’ve found it incredibly easy to keep clean. My hob has a timer, once the pasta is boiling gently, I can set it for 10 minutes or so, and it will switch itself off. I love mine!
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    I think the problem with induction hobs is they are so powerful that it is easy to cause a spillover when using full power to get a pot up to boiling point. A couple of seconds inattention is all it takes for a full pot to spill out over the hob causing the electronic controls to have carniptions. Mine has an auto power function which is supposed to avoid that problem but it is a bit more involved to set it up so I don't bother.
    It may be a tedious business but it is worth the effort to RTFM as it is a complex machine.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I don’t have one, but am certainly to choose an induction hob if or when my gas hob pegs out. 

    My understanding of how they work, from friends who do have them, is that you set the heat to the level you want the pan to cook at and it then gets the temperature up to that heat quickly and then adjusts itself to keep it at a steady heat … so that you don’t have to have it on at 
    max then remember to turn it down. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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