Great Home Cooking by Maintaining the Home Range

 

Well a little weather has been coming in on top of us lately here in
Grand Junction, Colorado. So I had to get to the maintenance routines.
It had been a year since I calibrated the oven range and leveled it.
Many many home cooks get poor results because they fail to do some basic
maintenance required every year. Easy to perform, fairly quick and it
will improve the results you get from your cooking appliance.



First a picture of a larger project I did this weekend. I converted our
wood fireplace to gas. We still have the woodstove to pound a couple
cord per month through for heat. But I got tired of the mess and time it
takes to deal with the wood fireplace. Here it is converted.







Now I am going to take you through the range maintenance routines that
will help you get better results from your home cooking appliance.



Some basic tools are required to perform the functions required. This
should be completed once per year. You will need a decent pliers or vise
grips, a calibrated electronic thermometer, a set of screw drivers,

and a decent torpedo level. All of these tools can be acquired for under
$20 (USD) at a hardware store.







The torpedo level is used to check the level of the range. Place it on
your cook top and swing it in both directions, front to back and left to
right. Monitor the level to see how the level is on your range top.








As you can see the top is off level by a little. But here is where many
many make the mistake that causes the lopsided cakes, the uneven temps
in the oven. You MUST and I repeat MUST check the level of your oven
racks,








And you must check them in both directions. The cook top and the oven
are seperate problems. The oven is leveled with the appliance leveling
feet. Then we shim the cooktop to match the ovens level. The appliance
feet are what the whole range should sit on. Many many installers are
just kids hired by the appliance store. They have little to no clue
about how a cooking appliance should be installed. So the roll it in on
the back rollers, crank the front feet down and let it go at that. This
will insure you always have substandard results from you cooking
appliance. You must make the back feet take on the weight of the
appliance as well as the front feet. All the feet are adjustable.








There are four of these on most cooking appliances. Use them and take
the weight off those back delivery rollers. They were not designed for
the weight if you have four feet. (if you only have two front feet then
the rollers were designed to bore the weight) Adjust until level front
to back and left to right are achieved. While adjusting your range take
the level down under the unit with you. Rest it on the frame rail and
start to crank the feet with the vise grips or pliers to move the feet
up and down til you achieve level.













Sorry it is a little blurry, as you should be able to make out this unit
is now level with the bubble centered in the torpedo level. It is level
from front to back and left to right.



Now I stressed earlier that you must and I meant MUST level the oven
first with the level inside on the racks. In this next photo you see
why. This is the level of the cooktop after the oven was leveled.








As you can see the cooktop is now further off level. Many many
installers just through a level on the top and call it good. You can not
tell if your oven is level by placing a level on the cooktop. You must
measure the level on the oven racks. Now that the oven is level we will
fix the cooktop.



There are usually two to three screws on the cooktop at the front of the
appliance. We will place shims under the cooktop (washers) until we hit
level and then tighten the screws back down.







This cooktop took 4 washers on each of the screws to bring it to level.
But the end result is well worth the effort. As you will bake better
nicer and more even with a level oven, and your saute pans won't have
dry spots if you take the time to level the cooktop.








So the oven is level, the cooktop is leveled and we are ready? Wrong, we
must check temperature. The thermocouple in home ranges is, well, cheap.
So it changes with time. If you have purchased a digital meat
thermometer you have a calibrated electronic thermocouple. This will
allow you to set your oven up correctly for a more superior result on
the final product.



So set you oven to 350 F and place you thermometer probe on the rack in
the most common baking level you use.








Then start to monitor your remote temperature guage.







As you can see in less than one year the oven has changed what 350 F is
really. It would top out at 420 F for a 350 setting. This is
unacceptable. So we are going to adjust the gauge.








On the back of most home ranges temperature set knob are a couple of
screws that allow you to adjust to make the oven hotter or cooler if
required. We need to cool this oven down a little. So I adjust the back
down about 60 degrees. Most home units have a plus 20 F and minus 25 F
thermocouple installed. This means the temp will over shoot about 20 F
and drop down 25 under the set point before turning heat back to the
oven. Here we are after the adjustment and the oven is now performing a
lot closer to real temperatures. I know why my banana breads had been
blowing up the last few times I cooked them. They were subjected to a
very high heat compared to where they should have been cooked.



I hope you find this helpful, just spending a little time once per year
will allow you to get much better results from you home cooking
appliance.











Til we talk again, mull some wine and hang out by your fireplace! It is
time well spent!



Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction, Colorado, USA