I hate it.  Pure and simple.  I’ve heard that it just depends on what you grew up with.  I suppose, but most people I know who are into cooking are gas people and detest electric stoves.  My adjective for electric stoves is not fit for print in this genteel blog.

I haven’t written in awhile, I know, but was prompted to sit down and rant because I’m home today and thought I’d get a bunch of oatmeal and brown rice cooked up for the week.  The oatmeal went fine, one burner, 15 minutes, it was done.

It’s the brown rice I’m wondering about.  I put it on the “speed heat” burner to get it going, and then switched it to a back burner to let it simmer and do its thing.  45 minutes past and it was still pretty soupy.  So I changed the setting just a bit (there is no simmer setting – and this is a brand new stove in this rental) so you have to guess what simmer is.  Set the timer for another 15 minutes.  When I went back it was still not much cooked.

Why could this possibly be, you ask?  Maybe because I have hay for brains, but it’s really because there was another pot on the front burner, where I had put it after washing it.  Thank God it was Ag Sondag’s nice cast iron pot because it is now well seasoned.  I had turned the front burner on.  How would I know? You can’t see any flames popping out!  From front burner OR back burner.  And the stove is still hot all over from cooking the oatmeal and getting the rice started.  It’s a miracle I didn’t burn the house down.

What I don’t understand is that I don’t have this issue with an electric pan.  An electric pan, you turn it down, it turns down, your dish immediately stops bubbling like a geyser ready to blow.  Not an electric stove.  Guess which burner is on? Oh…there is comes…I thought I turned it off but no…why is that little light still on…oh, the cooktop is still hot, well thank you very much for letting me know because you’re right, an electric stove looks like you could sit on it seconds after you’ve turned it off what with its smooth surface and all.  At least a gas stove has those grill things that warn you and you might only burn a fingertip if you touch it, instead of the whole palm of your hand.

At our house in Lafayette, I demanded a new gas stove when the ancient electric one did not even allow me to make my specialty, which my grown sons still ask for when they get home.  I burned grilled cheeses over and over again, because they either a) didn’t cook or b) burned to a black crisp.

We’re looking for a home to buy now.  Electric stoves in “updated” kitchens are something I will never understand.  It’s a deal breaker for me.  If it’s an old one and it needs to be replaced anyway well, ok.  But update a kitchen and put in an electric stove? I guess they just weren’t raised right.

Gotta run.  The rice is done.