Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Cannot add to the joys of cooking with gas....you will never go back.
Regarding boxes, try you closest liquor boxes...the ones here stack their boxes for folks who need them....and they are really sturdy.

Yup, I completely agree that cooking with a gas stove is a much better than electric albeit there is a learning curve. I learned to cook on electric too. Gas gives you much more leeway, depending of course on the types of burners you have. I have a 15 yr old stove and would love some of the updates others have talked about.
Nance

Re: boxes, I'll agree that U-Haul can be a good place to get boxes, but do NOT rent a moving truck from them. You can also try packaging/shipping stores, and try grocery/liquor/clothing stores you shop at regularly.

Re: gas stove: no preheating the burners, yaaay!. Also you can do woks and other weird cookware which doesn't make contact with the burner.

Gas ovens, on the other hand, are more of a tradeoff. A gas oven heats faster and is "dry", which is excellent for some things (pastry, pizza, broiling) but electric ovens which are slower to heat and "wet" are better for a lot of baking (cakes, bread).

Uline is great, but check the shipping. It can vary wildly. It almost doubled when I moved across the state. They are a very nice company to work with, however.

Really??

I thought wet/dry was the other way around...

Yah, you would think with water being a by-product of combustion that a gas oven would be wet, and an electric oven would be dry due the 'dry' heat, but that reasoning ignores that gas ovens are vented and electric ones are not, and the venting loses more moisture then is added by the combustion, so it turns out that electric ovens actually have a more moist cooking environment (assuming what you are cooking has moisture, which is almost always the case).

I'm with Pete, I thought gas=wet and electric=dry. My electric oven is vented. My mom's old gas oven (1940s) is not vented (at least I don't think so). It bakes quite evenly, which I attribute to it being made out of generous quantities of iron and ceramic. (The downside is that it's very small.) My newer electric oven does OK, but the back is hotter than the front so everything needs to be turned. Perhaps one fine day I can score a beauty like Amy's.

Lo the many variables in baking...

Becca, I'm sure you will adapt quickly to the gas stove. I predict you will like it once that happens.

I have a Gas Oven and when I open the door after preheating to put in whatever I am baking, it's almost like getting a steam bath.

Yah, talanhart, me too. I think it is because there is a *lot* of moisture generated during the preheat (continuous burn). However, once into the regular cooking cycle, my gas oven definitely seems drying them my electric oven was.

I am wondering if I even need to pack everything in boxes. We only have to go about 8 miles and we will not be using a moving truck. I don't know...

I am very excited about the instant heating/cooling of the stovetop. That will be cool. I just hope it doesn't throw off my baking too much.

I am very curious how much gas bills run, but I assume those vary around the country?