June 12, 2010

Cooking With a Reproduction Cookstove

Most of the time a person is shopping for a cookstove that works and more or less compliments the rest of the kitchen. In a few cases, some people want a stove that sets a stage. Once in a while, though, a person wants a cookstove that remakes a kitchen into the actual heart of the home. While they are a bit higher priced, reproduction cookstoves are styled like the cookstove your mother or grandmother could have cooked with quite a few Sunday dinners ago. What follows are reviews of three different cookstoves which hearken back to three distinct eras of home cooking. Another great model to consider is Zojirushi BB-HAC10 Breadmaker.

The Heartland Company manufactures a few very quaint but quite hefty Victorian-looking wood burning cookstoves. This manufacturer duplicates the Oval Woodstoves which have been heating teakettles and helping to prepare meals for in excess of 100 years. The advantage with Heartland Oval Woodstoves, fortunately, is that they incorporate some very 21st century conveniences.

The Heartland products are real woodstoves which can still effectively heat a house – up to 1800 square feet – yet when you add their fresh air kit, water jacket and heat shield, this wood burning stove will be perfectly suited to a 21st century home. If you want to use coal for your cooking fuel, a coal grate attachment is available. This appliance has an enameled finish available in five colors and a nickel trim, and could be purchased for around $5000. Another nice option is the Zojirushi BB-HAC10 Breadmaker.

If you prefer cooking with electric or gas cookstoves and prefer to jump a little further nearer in time, Aga markets European-designed stoves that resemble 1930s and 40s styles. These big, boxy appliances are as substantial as Grandma’s hotdish, but Grandma didn’t use a cookstove as simple to work with as this new Aga. Aga’s Legacy 44” cookstoves can be ordered with both solid and cathedral-window doors, and they are available as electric as well as dual fuel models. The dual-fuel option allows you to cook with natural or LP gas. This appliance is able to preheat in about 5 minutes and offers seven programmable settings like defrost and fan assist bake. Any Aga Legacy is a lot of cookstove with a lot of personality, which nearly justifies the $7300 price tag.

If your favorite decade for cookstoves is complimented with hula hoops and Elvis Presley, then you may want to think about the cookstoves from the Northstar Line from Elmira Stove Works. Northstar cookstoves provide retro 50s styling with sealed gas burners, convection oven options and an LED display clock. For about $4000, you might cook with one of these nifty cookstoves in one of nine colors and your selection of quietly tasteful or gratuitous chrome accents. Another good item to look into is the Zojirushi BB-CEC20 Breadmaker.

Most often a cookstove is merely a tool. Now and again, a cookstove can be a home décor element. In some rare situations, fortunately, cookstoves could evoke an era of Father Knows Best, home baked bread and an existence that made sense. If you need a reproduction cookstove, then it’s likely that one of the aforementioned brands could permit you to equip your dream kitchen.

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