It's sort of valid but shouldn't be the end of it. And I doubt there's really that much objective, scientific, difference. I'd much prefer to cook anything, roasts included, in my mother's electric Gaggenau than my own awful gas oven (which I'm in the midst of getting rid of). That's the quality of the oven, not the fuel.

Electric ovens don't dry out the roasts per se -- they just are a bit different and might take a bit of relearning. But so would a convection gas oven (yes, they do exist) and so would any that incorporate new technologies. Every oven cooks a bit differently, so when you first start using whatever you buy, keep an eye on things to make sure they're not cooking too fast (too hot) or too slow. If you need more moisture you might put a ramekin of water in the oven, or baste with wine, etc., but the only thing I would do that for as a matter of course is a lean turkey breast. And cooking wine is good for the flavor of that :)

BTW, if you want cooktop plus gas oven, there are a few options. Bluestar makes a gas wall oven, and I think American does too.

Still, I think the reason your dishes come out so much better at home is that you know your oven. And if you plan in some learning time, you'll know your new oven too.

As a pro cook, I learned that the 'rule of thumb' was that gas convection was best for roasting and cooking things with a crust (like bread), while electric was better for things without a crust (like cakes and pastries).

That being said, both obviously work.

You can increase the humidity of an electric oven by simply putting a pan of hot water in the oven-just be very careful when removing it-best to let it cool first.

Both of your responses are sort of what I was hoping for, still will be glad to hear any other opinions if they are out there.

I will check the gas ovens too, good idea.

At first I thought my needs were so simple, a gas range plus a matching smaller electric oven that look nice together in the mid-price level category. But the more time I spend looking at appliances the more complicated it gets. There are many options in the high-end price range but, once I excluded KitchenAid for the bad reputation, the mid-rage looks pretty limited. So going to a separate cooktop with an oven would definitely expand the selection and allow to use a 36" cooktop and I do like that look. But then there is this issue of roasting plus the extra cost involved since it needs a cutout in the granite and a cabinet.

So still looking but happy that the gas vs electric issue may not be an issue. I may also post this question to the cooking forum just to see what they think there.

annab6

In the mid-range you could look at the GE Cafe or the Bosch ranges.

I wouldn't worry about the wall oven "matching" the range. Many of us have appliances that don't match but still look good together. I don't have an electric wall oven but from what I've read on this board, I'd stay away from Dacor and KA. Miele gets the best reviews but it's expensive. There's also Fisher & Paykel. You could do a search - there's lots of info on wall ovens on this forum.

I just checked in Alton Brown's book I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking, (he of Good Eats, the food science show on Food Network). He assumes dry heat for roasting, and says that "roasting depends on radiant heat and convection". But then he starts with Brillat-Savarin, the great sage of cookery, who way predates gas ovens. An open hearth would have had the same moisture from combustion that gas ovens do (though it would escape up the chimney), but an oven would have been radiant only, because the heat was produced in a different chamber.

Brown gives instructions for varying the temperature to have crusty roasts that are less done inside. He also talks about using firebricks to make a roasting chamber in your oven and all kinds of other interesting stuff.

He hardly mentions electric/gas at all, and then only in the way the oven works, not how roasting works. His opinion is that dirt works better than an oven anyway :) (That is, clay, earth, brick, etc., rather than metal.) It's possible that there's no mention so as not to bother the readers, but I'd guess it's more because it's not that big a deal. Otherwise, you'd think he'd give differing instructions for different equipment.

I had one gas and one electric in my last kitchen. I naturally gravitated toward roasting meats and fish and casseroles in my gas oven. The roasts really were better than done in my electric convection. But I liked poultry better in the electric oven. Pizza was better in the electric.

I DIDN'T prefer the results of baking in the gas oven, so ended up using the electric oven about 75% of the time. It wasn't enought to warrant my putting a gas oven in my new current kitchen so I'm going back to electric convection plus a steam convection oven.

You get used to cooking with whatever you have really. We now have both a 36" convection gas range and a 30" electric convection wall oven. Why? Wanted two ovens first and foremost. Already had the gas hook up and the electric there to run both in our house. To run an electric double oven would have required electrical work to be done for the extra load. So, most cost effective for use was to get an AG range and then add a single electric wall oven under counter to give us our second oven. I've said on previous post that the thought was also that it would give us the best of both worlds, but the reality is for us that you learn to cook whatever you want in whatever you have.

On the particular brands we have the gas has the circulating fan and the rear. We've only used it on convection a couple of times so far. Not because it is gas, but more because it takes a while to heat the 36" oven space as compared to the 30 oven we have so we tend to use the wall oven a bit more. Not a gas/electric issue for us, just a habit now.

On ours, as with any range/oven you're not familiar with yet, it has been a gradual learning curve. The first time we used the convection on the gas one we put in a full sheet of shortbread and it seemed to be browning faster directly by the fan than it was elsewhere. Upon reflection, we had not adjusted the temperature down (which you have to do with this brand) to account for the convection feature. Think they suggest something like 25 degrees less.
The next time we used convection was with pizza on a stone on the bottom rack of the oven. This time it worked great with the dough puffing up nicely, getting a good crust and the toppings and cheese cooking evenly.

Our electric wall oven has a different process for convection. Don't remember the sales jargon on what it is called, may have been "European Convection" or some such. Basically we have the hidden lower element, exposed upper broil element and there is also an element back in where the fan is at the back. When we've used convection it has worked well. We've used it for chips and they come out evenly crisp. We've also used it for pita type pizzas, but there you are just melting the toppings, crisping the pita and browning things. Even so has worked well, but we still find that we tend to swap trays with multiple layers to just be on the safe side with all being done evenly. Might just be appearances and still learning how to use both ovens, but does seem to brown the tops of those things higher up in the oven a bit faster than those below it. May again be a temperature setting issue perhaps.

I guess what I'm rambling on about really boils down to get what you like. I really can't say one type is vastly superior to the other across the board especially for general consumer home use. You can cook well with all it is just a matter of the learning curve to find what works.

For us, just having two ovens is bliss no matter that one is electric and one is gas. Also no matter that the appliances don't match. They are all stainless and the slight variation from brand to brand is no big deal. We looked at many kitchen books for higher end kitchens and I would say 99.9% of them had different brand appliances in the kitchen. Saw many pictures of kitchens with ranges with the big commercial range handles and then the wall ovens had graceful curved modern look handles on them. Looked just fine. Go to Lowes or HD and look through the idea books. Just a matter of finding what you like, the quality, what works in your design and what works for your budget. I can only remember one telly show where a realtor made an issue that the appliances did not match due to different brands. I really think that the statement the realtor made was more from lack of experience with that level of kitchen/home perhaps (just from what I've seen with the multitude of books we looked at) if that makes sence.

Oh, and for us, we also went range and single wall oven for the ease and cost of install issues. Your situation is your situation, but for us it was cheaper (as you mentioned counter wise etc) to pop in a 36" AG with 6 burners and then just build a cabinet to hold the wall oven under counter.

Best of luck with it!
Cheers

We have a similar setup as Pggirl, AG range plus electric wall oven, for similar reasons & with similar results. We're very happy with them. We have 5 different brands of appliances in our kitchen: DCS, Gaggenau, GE Monogram, Miele, SubZero. They have integrated panels, overlay panels, or are stainless steel.

Thank you everyone for such detail responses. This is really great information, very helpful.

Additional question: do all ovens which are approved for undercounter use have the same "feel" when installed this way? Or do some of them work better than others? I have looked in a store and the undercounter ovens felt low comparing with my current gas range. Does a swing-out door make a difference?

annab6

I don't know much about undercounter placements but have seen some: One thing to look for is a smaller door. Some current ovens have huge doors that cover the whole installation, rather than just the cavity. These can be very awkward to reach over, and I think they're worse when mounted low (though that's counterintuitive).

Going to see if this works. Not done pictures here before or web wise. If it does work, please be kind as we've done all the work ourselves on an extreme budget (yes, probably does show). Here is the DCS 36 next to an electrolux icon single wall oven mounted under counter per the specs in their installation manual. We modified a cheapo 36' kitchen sink base cabinet from the home store to do it.
If the picture comes up (fingers crossed)you will see they are pretty different. Look does not bother us. Handles are about aligned. If this works I'll try to post the other shot with the ovens both open and respond more. WELL CAN'T GET THE IMAGE TO WORK SO HOPE THE LINK PROVIDED WORKS FOR YOU TO SEE THE PICTURE
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Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1373132}}

Okay, so the link thing seems to work so here is the second shot with the doors both open.

Not totally sure on your question, but I believe it is more to do with how low the oven will be? On ours we chose the Icon, because we loved the look and the features it had. Who cares (we don't) that the look is a bit different and the interior is blue on one and not on the other. The key to the Icon for US at least was that it was a single 30" oven, could be mounted under counter, it had full extension roller glide racks, electric and what sounded like a good convection system that so far as worked out really nicely for us. Everything is compromises though. Another bonus to it was that we liked it, but we were struggling with the price on it. Then we saw the exact model in the scratch and dent department. Upon look up we found it was taken to be installed in a customers house, the installer scratched it under the emblem and so the customer did not want it. We got it for about half price, carefully sanded the scratch and polished it up and you can't tell unless you are laying of the floor. Price was right so there it is.
As you can see, the actual oven space IS lower on the counter oven. This has not caused a problem for us because it has the full extension racks on all three racks. As such, we open the oven, slide the rack out we want to use and either load or unload by just picking up or putting down the item. I hope that makes sense. The issue is, that with the full extension roller racks the oven is probably just as easy to put things in if not easier than a regular range oven.
In mounting the counter oven we kept the counter heights the same so we could have a flush range to counter. With the Icon oven that means we had to cut down through the cabinet base a little and make a new lower one. No big deal. No one seems to notice that the kick is a bit lower. Maybe if there were cabinets on the other side they might, but I don't think it would be an issue. The oven cabinet has given us a really nice work surface too. Had a metal shop make the commerical stainless top to slide on the base we made. Still have a back splash to decide on and do and will probably move that phone.

So, compromises as I said. We would have loved to have done a double wall oven, but space not there in our somewhat tiny kitchen, would not have left adequate clearance for pantry door and also the required safe space around range. Doing the kitchen this way worked out the most economical as we were not paying extra for granite cut outs (decided on stainless in the end anyway, but considered granite) for a counter top burner set, got the two ovens we wanted and ended up with extra counter top in a size that works really well.
Hope in my epic ramblings I've answered your question or at least give you something you DON'T like to go off of lol.
Cheers

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1373133}}

Pggirl, great set-up! I like how you've made yourself an estate range on the oven level but on the surface a home sized cooktop plus counter :)

Thanks, has been working great for us. Slow cooked roast in the one and roast potatoes, yorkshires etc. in the other. Nice to have plenty of room. Be glad when it is done.
Cheers

I guess I'd say that just having quality appliances makes the most difference. I'm finally using my dream kitchen after working in 5 different kitchens in 10 years (military). The Wolf AG 36" range with convection fan, fabulous temperature control, huge oven for big turkeys, roasts, multiple chickens, several racks of ribs.

But, I feel guilty for using all the energy to heat up that huge oven, so I use my KA electric combo oven with true convection for smaller casseroles, potatoes, reheating, broiling, etc. We keep our Hearthkit insert in place almost all the time, and it makes the best pizzas ever! In previous ovens, I'd have to take it out if I was cooking something too big for it, such as a turkey, but if it's that big I use the range oven.

The flexibility with the one electric and one gas is wonderful, but mostly because they are great performing appliances.

BTW, we bought our KA online and installed it ourselves and haven't had any problems. The cook time and delayed start features really come in handy for a busy family (those are the only fancy features that I've tried so far).