The first 12 years of our marriage, we cooked on a gas range.  And, Kathy had her share of mishaps mainly from putting plastic bowls over the pilot lights.  The past 22 years, we cooked on an electric range.

While the electric range did not have pilot lights, it had its own share of frustrations.  My biggest complaint was that the burners did not put out enough heat.  This made it very hard to do any sort of stir fry.  Plus, they did not adjust quickly to temperature increases and decreases.

We have now gone back to gas.  We purchased a Frigidaire semi pro range with a stainless steel front and a black enamel top.  It has a 16,000 BTU burner ideal for a wok or boiling large pots of water.  The best that we could do on the electric range was 5,000 BTUs.

This stove is at the high end for Frigidaire in a single fuel class.  They do, of course, have more expensive models in the dual fuel classes but we weren’t interested in dual fuels.

Initially, we were looking at Vikings but didn’t like the way there burners were designed.  Then, we looked at Dacor.  It was a nice stove but just a little too expensive.  And while Dacor included a free weekend cooking school, I wasn’t impressed.  I already know how to cook and I suspect that the cost of the school is included in the price of the stove.  And so, we found the Frigidaire at the right price and the right design.

The other day, I made hollandaise.  I put my pan on the smallest burner at the lowest temperature and it came out perfect.

My stir fry chicken and snow peas wasn’t so successful but that was my fault.  I wanted to see just how much guts were in that 16,000 BTU burner so I put all of my chicken in at the same time.  The oil cooled off and was slow to come back up to temperature.  Ordinarily, I would have cooked the chicken in 6 batches and hope for the best.  Next time, I will try cooking the chicken in two batches.

It will take a little time to readjust to gas but I sure that I will not be disappointed with this stove.