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Post by nana on Jan 20, 2016 17:11:43 GMT -5
Sweet potatoes baked in the thermowell--where have you been all my life?
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Post by vaporvac on Jan 21, 2016 0:09:15 GMT -5
Yes. Some things that were always a PITA become a breeze. "Oh yes, I cooked those beans overnight, and finished off the soup while at work. It was nothing". Sometimes I wish I had two Twells.
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Post by pooka on Jan 21, 2016 0:26:34 GMT -5
I think you're going to constantly rediscovering dishes that are far better when cooked in a Chambers. Sometimes the tools you use are as important than the ingredients you use. In the case of the Thermowell, it's a whole other animal from anything else. It works like nothing else really, so there's nothing to compare it to. I read a blog some time ago about an older lady that got a shiny new stove for her kitchen, but she kept her old antique stove in the basement because it baked better pies. It wasn't even a Chambers. It wasn't necessarily the old stove per se that made better pies. It was the way the old thermostat worked to hold a more consistent temperature. Sometimes it's the old methods & tools that's the secret that distinguishes between good cooking & great cooking. Modern stoves are more fangled than the old, but that doesn't make them better. Most people wouldn't know the difference between an OK stove & a great one. The only thing they can tell is does it works when they turn it on. vaporvac, perhaps you need one of these. You'd probably have to make your own though. That is unless one of these survived until today & is lurking in someones barn, basement or attic.
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Post by nana on Jan 21, 2016 8:13:08 GMT -5
You could even take it camping!! And what a stroke of marketing genius. "Here--take it for a test drive! We'll give you a sample recipe to try." No wonder they sold so many stoves. Thank you for that bit of Chambers history, Pooka.
VV, don't Imperials have two wells? Or am I thinking ovens... I seem to recall a picture of something that had 2. You may need to add to your collection.
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Post by vaporvac on Jan 21, 2016 11:43:26 GMT -5
That is Great! YES, nANA, I believe the Imperials do have two wells. I love one or the older huge stoves with the multipe ovens as they can be used as a Twell. One of the ovens has a pilot and it suggests using it as a Twell. I don't think I could face redoing my kitchen, but I thought about it long and hard before I finally made the decision to look for a copper 61C. My kitchen is average big, but has FOUR doors, three at the corners and one halfway along a wall. It makes for a difficult layout and I have a lot of STUFF! I can barely fit in a table and still let people sit around it!However, that just makes it cozy.
BTW, I got the BEST complement from an acquaintance who stopped over. He's a guy so it was even more surprising (sexist comment!) Anyway, he commented how wonderful everything in my kitchen went together.... noticing all the details and focusing on the Chambers and copper pots hanging over it, etc. However, since I still have my original counter cooktop laying on a cabinet, he thought all the copper stuff was just for decoration!!! He couldn't believe it worked and was even more impressed when I showed off everything the Chambers can do. Now he wants one for his wife, but unfortunately she lives in Australia.
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Post by nana on Jan 21, 2016 18:59:32 GMT -5
Like my friend who is a contractor always tells me when I get some crazy home improvement idea and ask him "would it be possible to...", anything is possible, if you have enough cash to pay for it. That usually puts an end to MY flights of fancy. But it's not impossible to buy and ship a Chambers to Australia. Just logistically difficult and wicked expensive.
Those copper stoves are beautiful, as are the glimpses I've seen of yours. I was hoping to get one myself, but Marilyn came along, and she's not exactly chopped liver herself! Baby blue is pretty sweet too.
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Post by vaporvac on Jan 21, 2016 21:28:22 GMT -5
I've yet to see an unattractive Chambers. They all have their place somewhere. I adore the coloured ones and wish I had another kitchen for my blue 91C. but then I'd be on the look out for a pink one! I hope I can convince my Dad to get the blue. I really like the Copperlite stoves, as well. And then of course, there are the wonderful mint green 20s/30s stoves. I wanted a Copper on because my cabinet are Cherry and my floors are 100yr old gray/green and ivory accented tile. I originally thought my options were black, light gray, dark gray,but in a blazing moment of insight I realized a CoPPER lowback would be beyond what I could ever imagine in the space and so began my crazy quest. As my PICC says, "It looks like it growed there!"
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Post by pooka on Jan 22, 2016 7:36:02 GMT -5
First, only the big eight burner model 7982 Imperial had two Thermowells. There aren't too many of those floating around. Few of us have room for a monster like that either. It would be neat to fabricate a demonstrator like is shown in that sales book. There's all kinds of uses for it. Chuckie has talked about mounting a extra Thermowell in a counter-top.
Talk about a Chambers that went to an exotic place. Some time ago there was a member join on Todd's website that wanted to get one to take to the jungles of Grenada. They said they were rebuilding a coco plantation that had been damaged by a hurricane. They were way off the grid in the boonies. I believe they got a stove from Don Mattera & put it & supplies on a ship for transport. We never heard back from them, so I don't know the rest of the story.
There was another guy in Argentina that wanted to redo his grand mothers 60C, but there was no saving it from the tropical regions rust damage. He ended up cutting a opening in the top to put a modern cook-top so he could at least save the stylish carcass.
I know I've heard of Chambers stoves in England. I believe it was a model B I saw discussed on a blog some where. Who knows, there might be some in Australia. I seems I remember the video from PBS said in 1927 Chambers was exporting to something like twenty nine counties.
I love all the colored stoves, especially the teal greens & faux bronze verdigris of the 20s & 30s. The only one that I was a bit lukewarm about is the few chocolate brown model Cs I've seen. But even those would look good in the right setting. The copper stoves are so appealing with their earthy glow. Copper is such a basic element dating back millennia to before the dawn of written history, you kind of feel drawn to it. To have someone say "It looks like it growed there!" is the best compliment I could imagine. I keep thinking of doing a post on the colored stove through the year, but I never seem to get around to it.
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Post by nana on Jan 22, 2016 7:47:40 GMT -5
Don Mattera had a copper one when I went to pick out a stove, but the copper was all pitted and corroded and would have needed to be redone. In his words: " Believe me, you don't want that stove." Then I saw Marilyn all wedged into his garage and she looked at me with the puppydog eyes, and well, now here we are.
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Post by pooka on Jan 22, 2016 8:20:56 GMT -5
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Post by nana on Jan 22, 2016 17:24:15 GMT -5
And probably still doesn't cook as well as a Chambers, even at that price!
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