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trout21

Gas Convection Vs Electric (Dual) Convection

trout21
15 years ago

I am a newbie at all of this. I recently visited a Wolf showroom and the salesperson cautioned me that the gas convection wolf range was limited.

She gave as her example roasting a turkey. She said that if I cooked the turkey in the gas convection oven I would need to cover it with foil, baste it, etc. whereas with the electric convection, all I would need to do is put a probe in and let the oven cook it.

Related to this, based on the threads on this site, I am now looking at the DCS. Is the issue above relevant to the DCS?

Comments (5)

  • chefkev
    15 years ago

    I can't imagine what your salesperson was talking about. There may be some subtle differences, but you do not need to cover a turkey with foil and baste it in a gas convection oven any more than you would in an electric convection oven (you can argue about the benefit of basting vs. the effort required, but covering it in foil just means it's going to steam instead of roast in either oven.) The school I used to work at had over a dozen wolf gas convection ovens and the convection option worked swell when we used it. I know that some bakers prefer electric convection, but I've gotten good results baking with with gas convection. I'll look forward to what other posts have to say.

  • weissman
    15 years ago

    Gas convection is outstanding for roasting poultry - probably even better than electric convection because of the moist heat - I do turkeys in my DCS gas convection oven - no foil, no basting - bird comes out brown on outside and juicy on the inside. I'd expect the Wolf to be the same. The salesperson was just trying to push you to the more expensive dual fuel range.

  • trout21
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    So, as I understand it, you get very little from spending the additional money for a dual fuel as compared to a gas convection?

  • weissman
    15 years ago

    There are divided opinions on that topic - some serious bakers swear by electric ovens for the fact that they can provide more even heat for baking cookies, cakes, etc. Also, electric ovens are usually self-cleaning whereas most gas ovens are not. Gas ovens are generally considered better for things that benefit from moist heat like roasted meats and poultry and breads. Also, gas ovens have a gas broiler which is generally considered much better than an electric broiler.

    The Wolf dual fuel range is actually a very nice product - but it has a lot more electronics than the all-gas. Also it has sealed burners whereas the all-gas has semi-open burners. Now I prefer sealed burners but their are many people on this forum who don't.

    The bottom line is that the Wolf dual fuel is a reasonable choice but not for the reasons that your salesman gave you.

  • weissman
    15 years ago

    A dual fuel range will require you to run a 240V electric line if you don't already have one in place.