Electric Stove Familiarization
Getting used to your Electric Stove and Oven
This section helps you become familiar with electric stoves and ovens. You will find techniques here for safe handling, exploring the components, and labelling controls. For information on cooking with an electric stove or oven, see Kitchen Fire Safety Precautions.
If you have no experience using a stove or if you are a skilled cook and have recently experienced vision loss, ask for assistance from a Daily Living Skills instructor who is trained in teaching and safety techniques.
Getting to know your electric stove
Safety
Cooks with impaired vision need to know how to detect and avoid heat sources. Always feel around the perimeter of the stovetop—never on the top. This avoids leaning over a hot stove to check food or adjust burner controls.
Never wear loose-fitting sleeves when cooking on a stove.
Exploring the stovetop
Owner’s manual
- Try to get the owner’s manual in your accessible format. If you know the name, brand and model number of your stove, you can often find the manual on the manufacturer’s website.
- Review the manual completely. If you can’t access it yourself, ask a sighted friend, relative or D.L.S. instructor to go through it with you.
Technique
- Check for live heat sources by feeling around the perimeter of the stovetop.
- Explore the stovetop while it is cold.
- Approach the stove with your hands below your waist and bring them up the front of the stove to the edge of the stovetop.
- Move your hands out to the left and right edges of the front of the stove. This will let you know when you are centered in front of it.
- Find the right and left front corners of the stovetop, then trail your hands along the sides of the stove, one at a time, toward the back of the stove. Be careful not to lean forward during this process. This is important to remember when the stove is hot.
- Notice the control panel you'll find once your hands have reached the back of the stove. Trail your hands part way up its edges.
- Use search techniques to familiarize yourself with the location of the controls.
- Note the location of the burners. There will likely be two different sizes.
- Be sure you understand the position of the burner dials relative to the burners they control.
- Learn to remove, clean and replace the coil elements. A Daily Living Skills instructor can teach you how to do this.
- Be sure you understand how to turn the controls to high, medium, low and, most importantly, off! See the next section on marking controls.
Marking stovetop controls
It may not be necessary to mark the controls on your stove. Some cooks find the right temperature by remembering how much to turn the dials. Because dial positions vary from model to model, it’s important to learn the positions on your own stove. The burners on one stove might reach a medium temperature when the dial is turned to the “3 o’clock” position. The oven temperature may reach 300°F when the dial is at “2 o’clock” and 450°F at “5 o’clock.”
If you do require markings, ask for help from a sighted assistant. Here are some techniques:
- If you have functional vision, use a brightly coloured tactile marker such as Puff Paint or Hi-Marks. If you don't have sufficient vision to use colour contrasts and you share the kitchen with others, you might want a more subtle colour. To avoid leaning over hot burners to see the markings, use tactile markers like Lock Dots. Lock Dots are transparent, self-adhesive tabs that have a small circular base with a raised dot in the centre.
- Remember that less is more. Mark the oven dial at 350°F and 450°F. Mark the lowest position before “off” for slow simmering. The broil setting tends to click into place and may not need to be marked.
- Mark the stationary pointer beside the dial. Set the temperature by lining up the indicator on the moving dial with the indicator on the stationary panel. This will help you set other temperatures by feel.
Getting to know your oven
Safety
The following techniques assume that the oven is part of your electric stove. Start with a cold oven. Access it the same way as you would a hot stove. Remember to avoid wearing loose-fitting long sleeves.
- Use the longest possible oven mitts. These will prevent you from burning your forearms if you accidentally reach into the oven at the wrong angle. Use either 17" fire retardant mitts or silicon mitts. These are very durable and can be easily washed.
- Do not keep dishtowels on the oven door handle! They can fall into the oven and cause a fire.
- Always check the inside of the oven before turning it on. Putting something in a hot oven that already contains another pan is dangerous. Also check for spills and ensure the racks are in the right position.
- Pre-heating the oven is generally not necessary except when baking breads and pastries. It’s safer to place your dish or pan into a cold oven. Just increase the cooking time by 10 or 15 minutes to compensate for the cold start.
- Have a trivet or other heat-resistant surface on the counter beside the oven for hot pans.
- Pay close attention to your clothes and body position relative to the oven door. Don't wear loose-fitting long sleeves and be careful with pant legs, skirts, and long hair.
Exploring the oven
Owner’s manual
- Try to get the owner’s manual in your accessible format. If you know the name, brand and model number of your stove, you can often find the manual on the manufacturer’s website.
- Familiarize yourself with the owner’s manual before starting. If you can’t access it yourself, ask a sighted friend, relative or D.L.S. instructor to go through it with you.
- Explore the oven while it is cold. Make sure you can identify all the components.
- Remove and replace the racks to get a feel for handling them.
- Explore where the elements are so you can learn to avoid touching them.
- There will be a light at the back of the oven. The switch is likely to be on the same panel as the control dials or on the top of the panel.
Labelling oven controls
- Make sure you can set the oven controls accurately. A sighted assistant is important at this stage. Decide which temperatures you use most frequently. These will be the ones to mark. Many modern digital stoves have flat control panels that are more difficult to use. If the numbers on the dial or panel are not tactile, ask your assistant to mark the positions you want with Hi-Marks, Puff Paint or Lock Dots. As with stovetop dials, you may be able to avoid marking the oven dial by using the clock face as a temperature guide.
- Before starting to cook, make sure you can turn the oven off!
- Only mark the temperatures you use the most. Too many marks can be confusing.
- Mark the oven dial by following the same procedure for marking stovetop dials. Some ovens will have 2 dials—one for temperature and another for setting the oven to oven, broil, and cleaning.