Cookaholics Bulletin Board

In DC I had a six burner Wolf Gourmet (prior to them becoming part of Sub-Zero) with a convection oven that could fit six 13 x 9 pans in it.

I was sad to see it go but one day we'll be reunited.

Coming here, I have a p.o.s. Brandt thing that you can fit only on 13 x 9 into it, but here's the kicker.

The little bastard has no temperature control on it. You turn it on and it's like any gas burner: it can be low or anything inbetween high. Essentially, temperature regulation is impossible because even if you put it on a thought to be medium setting, it will get up to around 400 but keep climbing slowly since the burner is always on.

Anyone run into an oven like this and if so, how do you maintain a constant temperature? It's a continuous balancing act to do so and makes baking nearly impossible.

...lou

Lou,

Nope, that's a new one on me. Even the old British gas mark stoves have a thermostat. I imagine that your oven is meant only for reheating, not for baking.

If you had room, you could try the old-fashioned way: put a bunch of bricks in the bottom, heat them up nice and hot, and then turn the gas off and use the heat from the bricks to bake. But I don't imagine there's enough space for that.

Where are you, btw?

(oh, and thank you for making me feel good about my cheap-ass Avanti, which the landlord insisted on getting instead of the one I offered to pay for.)

I'm confused about the lack of control over the oven, there is a dial?

I have what was once a POS Italian-made gas oven (range) that behaved exactly as you describe except it would, regardless of the control setting, either gain or lose heat at its own whim. An oven probe thermometer let me watch the frustrating thing do its worst. I was ready find my most ancient and dishonorable enemy (not sure if I actually have one though) and give it to him as a present.

Then, after a fit of bread making that went bad ... very bad, I determined to introduce a baking stone to the oven before throwing off a cliff. A few months of hunting taught me the Philippines has no baking stones what so ever. So I had to cobble my own up. I found half height bricks, had an aluminum frame made and - BINGO - my POS oven turned into a kitten! Set it, let it heat up, and it was stable. It has a dial with marks that previously meant nothing. Now they actually reflect the temperature I can expect in my oven, though I continue to rely on an independent oven thermometer.

So, given you have something besides a simple on/off switch to control it, go for half-height bricks or as thick a baking/pizza stone as you can find that will fit and work in your oven. Basically you simply need a heat sink to stabilize the oven's interior temperature. Other folks have used, or so I've read, sections of material used in pottery kiln ovens for shelving with great success too. They are made to stand temperatures much higher than anything most domestic oven ever get near.

Fuzzy has it pretty well nailed with the bricks.

Tatoosh

Fasinating!

It's true, and I'm not alone here in this country of 60 million. Apparently this is not an uncommon "feature" of ovens here. Whether it's a "benefit"...I've yet to discover.

Yes, there is a dial but it's like any burner you'd find on a stove with the exception that there are no markings (no low, med-low, med....). Just an overall intensity level.

I have an oven thermometer in it and they way I've been gauging things is actually by the rate of heating. Rather than think I need it to be X degrees, I have to think along the lines of "how fast to get to X degrees" and then I have to a) shut it off, b) turn it way down, or c) open the door to let some heat out.

This can't be right. I'm missing something here.

...lou

Well, almost regardless of the lack of dial markings, I still think some sort of heat sink is the most likely solution to your dilemma. Just be sure to leave room for air to move around the baking stone/bricks/whatever. You don't want to create a heat barrier between your heating source and food.

If not thing else, just find some old brinks, wrap in foil - if they are used or of uncertain origin, stick them in the oven, give them a chance to come up to temperature: maybe 45 minutes or an hour, and see if your oven thermometer reports any sort of improvement in stability. You'd at least know the direction to go. I did have to play around for awhile once I introduced my baking stone/brick assembly into my oven, just to figure out the temperatures of each mark on my dial. If the bricks improve your oven's thermal stability, then some modeler's paint might help create some reference points on your dial.

Good luck! I know all too well the frustrations of a disobedient and petulant oven.

Tatoosh