COOKER

In cooking, a 'cooker' is an appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food. Traditionally, such appliances have been used in the kitchen and used the application of direct heat from a stove, resulting in the term 'kitchen stove' being used to refer to cookers. Modern cookers may use alternative methods for heating food.
There are many types of cookers. Modern kitchen stoves have both burners on the top (also known as the 'cooktop' or 'range' or, in British English, the 'hob') and, often, an oven. A 'cooktop' just has burners on the top and is usually installed into a countertop. A 'drop-in range' has both burners on the top and an oven and hangs from a cutout in the countertop (that is, it cannot be installed free-standing on its own).
Gas and electric stoves are the most common today in western countries. Both are equally mature and safe, and the choice between the two is largely a matter of personal preference and preexisting utility outlets: if a house has no gas supply, adding one just to be able to run a gas stove is an expensive endeavour. In particular, professional chefs often prefer gas cooktops, for they allow them to control the heat more finely and more quickly. On the other hand, chefs often prefer electric ovens because they tend to heat food more evenly. Today's major brands offer both gas and electric stoves, and many also offer dual-fuel stoves combining gas cooktops and electric ovens.

Contents

Early cookers

Gas stoves

Electric stoves

Always-on stoves

Modern designs

See also

Early cookers

The stove is the most basic design of cooker. In the developing world, the cook stove is still the most common cooking appliance.
Chinese and Japanese civilizations had discovered the principle of the closed stove much earlier than the West. Already from the Chinese Qin Dynasty (221 BC–206/207 BC), clay stoves that enclosed the fire completely are known, and a similar design known as ''kamado'' (かまど) appeared in the Kofun period (3rd–6th century) in Japan. These stoves were fired by wood or charcoal through a hole in the front. In both designs, pots were placed over or hung into holes at the top of the knee-high construction. Raised ''kamados'' were developed in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867).
In Europe, prior to the 18th century people cooked over open fires fuelled by wood, which first were on the floor or on low masonry constructions. In the Middle Ages, waist-high brick-and-mortar hearths and the first chimneys appeared, so that cooks no longer had to kneel or sit to tend to foods on the fire. The fire was built on top of the construction; the cooking done mainly in cauldrons hung above the fire or placed on trivets. The heat was regulated by placing the cauldron higher or lower above the fire.
Open fire has three major disadvantages that prompted inventors even in the 16th century to devise improvements: it is dangerous, it produces much smoke, and the heat efficiency is poor. Attempts were made to enclose the fire to make better use of the heat that it generated and thus reduce the wood consumption. A first step was the ''fire chamber'': the fire was enclosed on three sides by brick-and-mortar walls and covered by an iron plate. This technique also caused a change in the kitchenware used for cooking, for it required flat-bottomed pots instead of cauldrons. Only in 1735 did the first design that completely enclosed the fire appear: the ''Castrol stove'' of the French architect François Cuvilliés was a masonry construction with several fireholes covered by perforated iron plates. It is also known as a ''stew stove''. Near the end of the 18th century, the design was refined by hanging the pots in holes through the top iron plate, thus improving heat efficiency even more.

Gas stoves

The first gas stoves were developed already in the 1820s, but these remained isolated experiments. At the World Fair in London in 1851, a gas stove was shown, but only in the 1880s did this technology start to become a commercial success. The main factor for this delay was the slow growth of the gas pipe network.

Electric stoves

Thomas Ahearn invented the electric stove in 1892 and installed one in the Windsor Hotel in Ottawa. The electric stove was showcased at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, where an electrified model kitchen was shown. But like the gas stove, the electrical stove had a slow start, partly due to the unstable technology, and partly because first cities and towns needed to be electrified. By the 1930s, the technology had matured and the electrical stove started to slowly replace the gas stove, especially in domestic kitchens.

Always-on stoves

The AGA cooker was invented in 1922 by Swedish Nobel prize winner Gustaf Dalén. The AGA, and similar products such as the Rayburn Range are examples of ''always-on'' stoves which continue to burn fuel even when cooking is not being performed. Stoves (or ''ranges'' as they are also known) such as these are often used instead of boilers or furnaces to supply hot water and central heating to the rest of the house as well as for cooking.

Modern designs

Rather than applying direct heat to a cooking vessel, an induction cooker causes metal vessels to heat by electromagnetic induction. This leaves the cooking top cold and increases efficiency.
Microwave ovens use microwave radiation to directly heat the water held inside food.

See also

★ Beverage-can stove

★ Portable stove

★ Pressure cooker

★ Rocket stove