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Buyer's Guide | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
How to Maintain Your Butcher Block | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Do you know... How to maintain your butcher block?
The average person can lengthen the life of a meat block 5-10 years through observing the following rules in its care.
IMPORTANT: If you make any cuts or alterations in your Butcher Block, be sure to refinish the exposed edge with mystery oil, or EZ-DO poly gel. Holes or notches that have been installed in the tabletop must also be refinished. If you do not refinish these edges, your top may crack due to dryness or changes in humidity. |
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The Difference Between True Commercial and Professional Style Home Ranges | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The following is an attempt to explain the differences between an actual restaurant range and a professional style range built for the home. It may sometimes be confusing because several commercial manufacturers also produce home units. It is very important that you understand these differences and thus will justify the large difference in pricing between the two. Products listed on our site, which are built for commercial use only will display a note to that effect. If, at any time you have additional questions, please contact us. In a commercial kitchen, the sidewall, rear and oven door temperatures of the range are not a concern because they are installed in an all stainless steel environment with no combustible materials around them, including toddlers! You may remember seeing professional chef's often using towels when they grab things around their restaurant stove. That is because they get HOT! All home-approved ranges are well tested and certified (usually by either AGA, American Gas Association or IAS, International Approval Services) for safe installation against wood cabinets, sheetrock walls, resin or plastic countertops and children. The allowed limit for side, rear and front surface temperature increase in home ranges, is generally 75oF (for bare metal parts) above room temperature (example: room@ 77o + 75o = 152o). At those temperatures, you will notice heat but will not get a burn and combustible materials like wood cabinets will not burn or ignite. The knobs, porcelain parts, glass windows etc. all get tested for similar heat levels. Aside from the temperatures reached by these units, many other differences exist and the following chart may help to illustrate them:
All of these things also means that the vent hood required for a home unit is simpler and less powerful than commercial hoods. It is fair to say, that in most areas of the country, building inspectors will not allow the installation of true commercial units in a home and insurance companies may use it as an excuse not to pay, in the event of an unfortunate home fire. It is true that many people have bought and installed true commercial units into their homes, however this was mostly before the availability of so many modified home units and before the building codes were adjusted to consider the dangers of commercial equipment. Although commercial units are much less expensive, the added cost of trying to safely install it into a home environment, the wasted gas burning in the pilots and lack of safety features should convince you that the home versions are worth the money. From a cooking point of view, the added cooking functions and configurations available in a single range really make these a better choice for the home chef and easily compensate for a little less power. (Keep in mind that a typical home range only has 8 to 11,000 BTU burners) Commercial units are great for high volume, fast turnover cooking needed in a restaurant. They are also installed in concert with many other specialized pieces of equipment, such as separate ovens, griddles, fryers, broilers, steamers and more. But in a home, even professional chefs enjoy the cooking flexibility, high quality construction and safety of the home approved units. |
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What convection ovens really do | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Once again the manufacturers out there have confused many people about convection. One company even advertised their convection oven by showing the room spinning around outside of the oven. Standard bake and roast ovens are not obsolete or outdated. For most of us they are just fine, thank you. However there are some things to know about convection that may make you switch your thinking and spend a little more for it. Convection ovens all have a fan built inside the oven cavity, which circulates the heated air throughout the oven and around all of the food. This does the following:
Here are the positives. If you plan to do catering out of your home, convection is a must have. Trays of cookies and appetizers will cook evenly and quickly. In fact, you can load up the oven on every level and get great results. You can also cook different items such as fish and bread and not get a transfer of flavors from one to the other. For most of us, the oven is really not used all that much. Of course, Thanksgiving comes to mind, but the rest of the year is what, an occasional casserole, roast beef, or some roasted chickens and potatoes and a standard oven will work fine. In fact, on the commercial style units, the standard ovens not only work fine but also usually have much more capacity than a standard home unit oven. Here is the bad news. Convection ovens usually cost hundreds of dollars more and they take a little getting used to. Because of the forced heat, you have a choice of reducing the temperature and cooking for the normal amount of time or leaving the temperature the same and cooking faster. Either way you will need to adjust your recipes accordingly. This may take a few burned dinners to get used to, but you will. Eventually, cookbooks will be written with a conversion to convection values, but I haven't seen too many yet. You need to look at your annual usage, family size, style of cooking and whether you entertain often before deciding on convection. Ideally, every kitchen should have at least two ovens and if it were mine, I'd make at least one convection. Just remember that you won't be left out in the cold without one, they really can't do anything a regular oven can't do, but for a busy kitchen, they are nice to have. NOTE- If you like to bake your own fresh breads, you will achieve better color and more consistent loaves in a convection oven. Try a stone baking shelf too! |
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How do I buy/redeem a gift certificate? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
To purchase a gift certificate for someone, click here. If you are the recipient of a gift certificate and would like to redeem your gift certificate, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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To find the product(s) you're looking for, you may (1) use the navigation menus on the top, left & bottom of our website. (2) type a keyword into the SEARCH box. If you have any trouble locating a product, feel free to contact customer service for assistance. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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