Sixty years ago, women probably spent more time with their ranges than they did with any other appliance in the home. They wrested a meal from these appliances three times a day. Got right down inside the oven in order to scrub it clean and scoured the drip pans 'til they shone. They struggled to master burners and ovens that must have seemed fairweather friends so much of the time. Even women with the most modern of homes would have remembered their mothers and grandmothers gauging the heat of their ovens "by hand." Heating water for laundry on the range. Perhaps even heating a portion of the home itself with the range. We might not err in calling the range a housewife's Gal Friday when it came to keeping house - the one appliance she could not - traditionally - have done without.
This "relationship" was beginning to ebb by World War II as electricity began to power the work of so many other appliances. Toasters and crockpots and electric coffeemakers broke things up, taking on some of the work once done solely by the range and stealing the housewife's affections. The barbeque grill of the '50s took on even more of that work. Then toaster ovens came along. And - in the '80s - the microwave. Our ranges now sit wistfully by while we plug in our steamers and our George Foreman grills, waiting for that one chance they can prove their devotion - alas, only to be asked to heat some frozen French fries! (We're not even sure what to call them these days. Are they ovens? Are they stoves???) They must long for the days when every burner, every chamber was busy three times a day - when they were a vital partner in the housewife's fight to make a home...
While the authors of the manual provide instructions for two different kinds of refrigerators (automatic and ice), they deal with an even wider variety of ranges. Care of the gas range is described first - which leads me to believe it was the type most often found in American homes circa 1945. Next comes the electric range, the kerosene range, and - lastly - wood and coal ranges. My own range is an electric appliance, so here are some instructions I'll need to keep in mind when cleaning my kitchen:
ELECTRIC RANGES
Daily:
Wipe up any spilled food before it dries.
Wipe the surface and drip tray with a damp cloth.
If the oven is used let it cool off and then clean off any spatterings with mild scouring powder and fine steel wool. Charred material can be removed with a brush or spatula.
In some models the oven heating element can be removed while the oven is being cleaned.
Caution:
Never wash enamelled surfaces when they are hot, or the finish may craze and crack.
Occasional:
If food boils over or spills on the top stove unit it can be burned off. If these units are the open type, with exposed coils, turn the heat high until the food is burned off. Let the unit cool, then blow out the charred particles. (The flat tool attachment of your vacuum cleaner makes a quick job of this.) Never brush or poke this type of unit.
Keep the metal ring which surrounds the element clean and shining. A cloth wrung out of soapsuds will usually do the job. Rinse with a cloth wrung out of clear water. If food is stuck or burned on use a little mild scouring powder or fine steel wool to remove it.
11 comments:
i love my range... gas stovetop and electric oven... just as God intended...lol...
You are right, there are a lot of products out there that try to take the place of the range. I have a slow cooker but never use it. I used to have a george foreman but decided it took up too much space and got rid of it. Most of those small electric appliances ended up cluttering my kitchen. I will admit to keeping the microwave and toaster though.
I love my oven. I spent $120 on that Cuisinart Griddler and never took it out of the box (sigh). I use my crockpot a lot - my nine hour shifts at work are perfect for making bbq or soups. My microwave is temperamental.
The more appliances you have, the less you use any of them. There's a lot to be said for being inventive with a single range.
(And that's just one thing to clean...)
Weenie_Elise, I do love an electric oven... No real excitement on one side or the other about a gas stovetop vs. electric, but I do like not having to worry about igniting the gas. Would the housewives of the '40s still have been using matches to light a gas stove, or were there any ignition systems (for lack of a better word) in place on newer models?
Bonjour Madame, my toaster and microwave aren't going anywhere just yet! Counterspace is at a serious premium in my little apartment kitchen, though.
prairieknitter01, I'm glad to hear you've gotten such use out of your crockpot! I've never had one, but my mom used to do wonders with it. I'd like to have one myself. They don't seem to have been out there in the '40s. Pressure cookers were the crockpot of that era, I guess. Women were fascinated by them!
Alison, your maxim sounds like another law of gravity - but so true! Yes, I can definitely appreciate having one less thing to clean --- and to clean around.
i'm not sure... my gas top has a 'pizo' (a lighter thingy) it may have been a new thing then or else matches would have been good enough... and there would have been plenty around considering you would lay them out with the ashtray for guests
My MIL has a 1920 beautiful gas range/cooker. The type with the queen anne leggs and it sits high up off the floor. She has to light it with a match. There is a lever on the side that you turn and then strike the match. She has an antique match holder hung on the wall for just such a purpose. However, I believe her kitchen is more for the look, and it looks amazing, antique everything, as is her whole house, most of it from her family, but honestly that poor darling only really gets used at holidays. They don't live in the hosue in the winter and in the summer, half of their time is spent on a sailboat in the vineyard, so that poor darling old stove that saw plenty of life in its day, mostly sits idle, with the rest of the antiques in the house, waiting for summer to shine a little ray of light in the strike of a match now and again. A pot of lobsters, broil some fish, and then, back into quiet solitude for another season. It is sad. I just purchased, before this project, a similiar stove on ebay and now want to not have it installed as I really want a 1950s version of a stove now with double ovens an such as I DO use my cooker three times a day all the time! It is becoming more a daily friend than ever and right now I have an electric stove I HATE. I think the right stove will come along and I want it to be vintage. I just want to know that I am returning the old gal to her former glory, if you're out there stove, come home to mama!
Ahhh... double ovens! What bliss that must have been. I get a kick out of the crockpot-type chambers that are set into the top of some of the ranges of this era. I'm pretty good friends with my electric range. It probably dates to about 1989 when the apartment complex was built. The oven tends to run a bit hot, though.
I think you will enjoy this I do...
1937 Foods and Homemaking says... Because of the heat from the stove , the refrigerator and stove should not be placed together.It may be an advantage to have the refrigerator in a storage room outside of the kitchen. Then if the refrigerator is cooled with ice , the footprints of the ice man will not soil the kitchen floor.
( but how many step must the housekeeper make daily?) as for the stove I have had both and I pick gas range.
Great tips! Thanks so much for sharing them... I can totally empathize with the housewife trying to avoid the dirt tracked in by the ice man. My refrigerator and range and not next to each other and not quite directly opposite each other, so I guess I'm not making the fridge work too much harder than it has to.
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