cynic, as an aside to the roaster discussion, I use a big green unbreakable Stanley Thermos. It's not pretty, but I got mine because all th farmers and construction workers I know used them. Mine will keep a pot of hot chocolate steaming hot for several hours while the kids go tobogganing, so we're talking outside in a Michigan winter and usually stuck right into the snow. I used them a lot for camping, I could make coffee at breakfast, put it into the Stanley and it would still be drinkable at supper. Oh, and I've put ice water in it or iced tea when spending a few hours out in the hay field and it keeps ice in the liquid for a couple of hours too. I can definitely recommend them, although my oldest one is over 20 years old, so I'm hoping they haven't "improved" them. Annie

I have an old Nesco Roaster I bought at a garage sale. It has the enamel porcelain and the inside is 11x15 inches. I think I could get a turkey in it. Do I have a 12 qt or an 18 qt? It doesn't say. Stamped on the bottom it says it was made in Granite City, Ill, and on the side is stamped the number 41E04044. The cord is rubber not braided. Any idea when it might have been made? It's white with a stainless top, bakelite handles, black porcelain, has a rack with sides you can lift and a little extra square tall pan with a lid for side vegetables, so I was told. Has the logo Nesco in script over a dial with numbers up to 400. I measured and I think I can even get my cast iron pan in there to bake cornbread. That's what I wanted it for, to bake. My regular oven is so big, why waste all that heat on that big space for a couple loaf pans. Can I use a silicone muffin pan in the Nesco or will it melt on the rack? Oh and I have seen people put water in the heatwell, under the cookwell, I was told it made for more even heating and to prevent damage to the enamel. But you don't want to do that, do you? If the water got through the heatwell seams it would get into the electrics.

This topic is one of the most frequently asked on this Forum. There is no right or wrong choice; it depends on your cooking/cleaning style in your kitchen, and also on the amount of space you have for a sink. Your OP does not mention what size of sink you are considering, or what size will be your base cabinet for your sink. IMHO, if you do not have a lot of space for a sink, you are better off with a single bowl so that you can soak large pans. If you have more room for a sink, then you have more options for the double bowl like what Buehl has. Also, IMHO, if you are space-constrained, a rectangular sink will give you more interior space than a D-shaped one. I myself have a large rectangular single-bowl sink. I have the space for a double bowl, but really wanted a single bowl. I love it, and would never go back to a double-bowl, but that's just me. As to Bugbite's example of raw chicken, I will rinse a chicken under running water, and immediately place it on a cutting board, with the bad parts going down my powerful disposal or in the garbage immediately, so I am not leaving chicken sitting in my sink, so I don't see how a double bowl would help me with raw chicken, but that's just my style of prep. Speaking of my cutting board, it's large and heavy, and I am glad to have a large single bowl sink to clean it properly. Also, I spent Very Big Bucks on my Miele dishwasher, and by golly, I am going to use it, so I don't have much that needs hand-washing or draining. I do hand-wash my pots and pans, and am very happy for the space of the single-bowl when I do so. Then I either dry them with a towel and put them away immediately, or put a towel down on the counter and leave them to dry before I go to bed. So that's my style, but I hope that helps you understand why some people prefer a single bowl. P.S. - when you are shopping for a sink, whether single or double bowl, it's nice to have an "offset drain". That's where the drain is not in the center of the bowl, but toward the back. That way, you can set dishes and pans down without covering the drain. It seems like a minor point, but it's really a nice convenience.

I lived with doubles all my life and couldn't imagine having a single bowl sink until I read about them here and it finally dawned on me that I could have the best of ALL worlds with a single bowl sink. I handwash a lot of things. I use a small tub in my sink and throw things into hot sudsy water while I'm cooking. If I need the full sink I merely lift the tub out of the sink (still full of small items and water) and place it on the counter next to my sink. The thing about a single bowl sink is that it can be configured any way you want and the configuration can change multiple times while cooking. The single bowl sink can be configured as a: SINGLE BOWL--this is rare for me because I generally have multiple tasks happening in the sink at once. But when needed I can put sudsy water in the sink for washing large items. The sink is deep enough that there is plenty of room for rinse water to flow into the sudsy water. DOUBLE BOWL--As I mentioned above, I usually use a wash tub (or the largest pot or bowl I'm washing instead of the tub) making the single bowl into a double bowl. The tub can easily be lifted out to leave room for any other tasks I want. Dirty items are confined leaving the rest of the sink "clean." TRIPLE (or more) BOWL--The way I tend to use the sink the most. Sudsy tub of water at one end (or sudsy water in pot or bowl, taking up less room than the tub), colander draining at other end, center drain still clear with plenty of room available for draining water from pots and washing/peeling veggies. Each task takes up only the space needed without a permenant divider determining the amount of space I can use. I prefer to dry dishes in a dishdrainer on the counter (since there is better air flow than a drainer in the sink. For those concerned about germs, air drying is supposedly better than towel drying.) My mother keeps a dishdrainer in one side of her double and the dry dishes are constantly being splashed which seems to defeat the purpose. Plus if there's soapy water on one side and clean dishes on the other, there's no place to drain dirty water from pots. I'm used to a big open sink and I get frustrated by the confines of her sink when I try to wash large pots since I end up banging them into the barrier over and over. The tub I use in the single bowl is quite short which still leaves lots of space above it for manipulating items. I do have a prep sink on the other end of the kitchen from the main sink but since the main sink is in my prep and cooking area, it gets used for all types of cooking tasks. At this point, the only reason a double bowl sink would make sense to me is if there is a faucet at each bowl so that it can be a 2 person sink (taking the place of a second sink) but I still think I'd prefer a single sink with faucets placed at both ends.