Cooking is arguably the most important thing that goes on in any kitchen. And that is why you need to make sure you get exactly the right combination of cooking equipment for your needs.
That’s why we’ve created this guide for you, so you can easily choose just what you need to make cooking a real joy. Once you’ve read through it you should be able to make the right choice for you.
Ovens and Hobs from our Featured Retailers
Freestanding or built in?
A cooker is an all in one unit that stands on its own in between your kitchen cabinets. As such it will consist of an oven and hob together, usually with a grill at the top part of the oven.
When it comes to built in appliances, you can get both built in ovens and hobs – but they are available separately. This does give you more versatility because your oven can be situated somewhere different to your hob. The most popular choice would be to have your hob in the middle of a worktop with your oven in a tall unit. This enables you to have a double oven if you wish, as you have more room.
What type of oven would you prefer?
You can get gas, electric and fan ovens. Most people prefer electric ones and indeed they are much easier to get hold of and more common. Fan ovens circulate the hot air created by the oven, so all parts are of an equal heat. This is good if you want to cook two items on two separate shelves that will finish at the same time.
Watch out for pyrolytic ovens as well. This has nothing to do with the cooking process: it is a cleaning cycle which elevates the temperature inside the oven to a much higher level. Any food that was spilt is burned off and left in the bottom of the oven. Once it has cooled you just need to sweep it out!
What type of hob would you prefer?
Once again, you have gas and electric fuelled hobs. But you can also get induction and halogen varieties. Many people prefer gas because it is very quick. As soon as you turn it on and the flame is lit, you can start heating your food.
The advantage of electric hobs and other similar models is that they are exceptionally easy to keep clean. There is just the one flat surface to worry about. They do tend to take longer to heat up though.
What should you think about when buying a cooker hood?
There are two main types of cooker hoods available nowadays. One of these is designed to be fitted underneath a wall cabinet that is shorter than the standard height. As such it tends to be quite minimalist and it doesn’t show very much.
The other option you have is a chimney hood. This has a long chimney part that goes up from the main hood. This hides the tubing that is then vented to the outside. You will find though that in many cases the cooker hood can be set to re-circulate the air. This means you don’t have to worry about venting it out – you can just set it to suck in the stale air and cooking smells and it will filter them out and send clean air back into the kitchen.
Chimney hoods are available in lots of different designs. Some are quite basic while others are more expensive and very modern looking. You can even get some that are partially made from glass.
What about microwave ovens?
Most people have a microwave and they can be enormously beneficial to have in the kitchen. They are ideal for heating up food but they can cook it as well and usually in much less time. And if you haven’t had time to defrost something properly you will find most microwaves have a setting to help you do that too.
You can buy a freestanding microwave if you wish, but there are also built in microwaves available. These will be more expensive though, as is the case with most built in kitchen appliances. In this case they can fit either into the bottom of a wall cabinet or into a tall housing, normally above the oven.
In conclusion
There are plenty of choices available to give you the ideal combination for your own cooking needs. If you make the right choices, cooking could be so much more enjoyable than it is at the moment!