Is It A Cooker? Is It A Stove? Is It A Range? Is It An Oven?

Some people call it a stove, some people call it an oven, some people call it a range, and some people call it a cooker. Whatever you call it, it's the appliance you use to do your cooking on, unless you exclusively use a microwave which some people do because they have no interest in cooking per se, but just want to throw something in the microwave to produce food to eat, regardless of whether it is good for them or not.

Leaving the microwave aside for the moment, a 6 burner oven is not just an oven. An oven is just the enclosed lower part of the cooker or stove that heats your food all round, while the burner part is the top on which you cook food in saucepans, frying pans, and so on. What people refer to as a 6 burner oven is in fact a cooker with an oven and six burners on the top as opposed to the more common four burners. Even the word "burner" is something of a grey area, because that tends to indicate a gas burner, which is fine, but an electric cooker has hotplates or rings or ceramic hobs or induction hobs, depending partly on how old it is, and the design and build of the appliance.

 

And you thought buying a new cooker was going to be easy?

In the majority of cases, a 4 burner oven is what you will find in most homes with four hobs and an oven. Some may actually have two ovens which can operate at different temperatures. Many family homes simply don't have the room to accommodate a 6 burner oven in the kitchen, although it has to be said that they have their uses, particularly if you frequently have guests round for dinner parties. Those two extra hobs give you the chance to do some extra vegetables or cook a sauce which could be very difficult with four hobs.

Of course, cookers can be powered with natural gas, propane, or electricity. Some cookers are what are known as dual fuel cookers which have an electric oven which provides a consistent even heat, while the gas burners on top allow extremely high temperature control. Gas doesn't retain heat in the same way that an electric powered hob does, and so can be turned up or down and provide an instant reaction.

As you can see, buying a cooker is not as straightforward as you might think, so you need to do proper research.