adventures in vintage cooking

[aslant]

we hit the first snag in the new house on saturday night. we moved everything we owned into the new house, borrowed or bought enough kitchen supplies to tide us over until our belongings are delivered, and tried to use the vintage sensi-temp stove to cook a simple, one-pot meal.


[more house pics here]

this sensi-temp is a lot more confusing than i thought. i think the idea is that it senses when you put the pot down -- there is a weight-sensitive button in the center of the burner. then you push a button indicating the size of your pan, and THEN you turn the fancy knob to indicate what temperature to heat the coil to.

all this wouldn't really be a problem if it actually worked. which it doesn't.

we eventually moved the pot to a back burner (not controlled by the fancy sensi-temp) and cooked our meal just fine, even if it was a little hard to control the heat. the range of temperatures on the three non-sensitemp burners are HI - 2 - 3 - LO - WARM. The fact that 2 indicates a higher temperature than 3 makes my head hurt.

i went googling sensi-temp stoves and couldn't find any manuals, or even much reference to it other than that it was considered a nightmare of an invention, when it worked, and then it shorted out on most stoves and was discontinued shortly thereafter.

i really can't stomach a non-working stove. i would be hideously sad to lose our adorable vintage stove in favor of a boring modern one, but seriously. i cook a lot! this will not do.

Comments

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

don't you wish you thought up sensi-temp?

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i think it's awesome! when it's not broken, that is.

[manganese.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an Insensitemp to me! Ar har har!

[aslant.livejournal.com]

haha!!

[relativid.livejournal.com]

Wow, your new place reminds me so much of an apartment I had. It was the upstairs of a giant bungalow. I had more rooms than I knew what to do with, lots of fun built-ins, interesting windows, nice woodwork, white walls, hardwood floors. It got really hot in the summer (no air conditioning) but otherwise was great. I had to move out when the landlady died. I miss that place!

[aslant.livejournal.com]

that sounds pretty! i know we will eventually get tired of the oil-burning forced heat and the narrow stairs to get to the tiny second floor or the tinier basement, but for now it is my dream house :)