Up here in our little lake house in the North Woods of Wisconsin, we have a small one-person kitchen. In it resides the “Stove from Hell.” Don’t get me wrong, it is a great little stove; it’s just that it gets SO HOT!. The burners warm up really fast and even though they can go up to “7” we dare not use that for most cooking. 3 or 4 is about as high as you should go for things like fried eggs or bacon. If you want to boil water for pasta, put it on “7” and it only takes about 5 minutes for a big pot to come to a boil.
The thing we really have to watch though is the oven. We have put a thermometer in there and it is pretty accurately calibrated. But because the oven is small, the heat element at the bottom is really close to the food being cooked. So food will burn on the bottom before it is completely done. We have resorted to various remedies to this problem. First, if we can, we put the food on the top rack, far away from the incendiary bottom element. Second, I am now putting an additional pan or pans in between the food and the element to kind of act like a heat shield. This seems to be working well.
Finally, I am just afraid of the thing. When I go to take food out or test for doneness, because everything is smaller, it is hard to get my big hands, with potholders. to grasp whatever is in there, there just is not much room to work. Haven’t burned myself yet and will continue to be very careful.
