British English...what's the difference between a range, a stove and a cooker

Slightly off-topic . . .

Years ago I read a book on cat care. It was written by an English author. The book kept warning to never let a cat jump on the hobs. I had no idea what he were talking about. It wasn't until near the end that I figured out the writer was talking about what we call a stove/range burner or element.

Lauram6123 said:

Oh no! I hadn't heard of that one. Okay...so what's the difference between as stove, cooker, hobs and range?

I absolutely love discovering the differences in British English v American.

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re the time period.

A stove is a basic range, range is usually larger, but both terms are often used interchangeable. both are fueled by solid fuel. came into mainly central Europe late 18. early 19th C. not an item the poor would have.


a cooker is the more recent, late 1930 onwards term. can refer to electirc of gas cookers, and is not fueled by solid fuel

more here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_stove#Early_and_non-industrial_kitchen_stoves

They might well heat the water over an open fire. Otherwise a range usually came with an inbuilt water heater at the side or a moveable grill that dropped down over the fire for you to place the kettle on. Otherwise there might be an arrangement which we can't remember the name of that dangled the kettle over the fire, and which had a handle that enabled you to tip the kettle to pour the water, so you didn't need to touch the hot kettle.

ETA: Your character might not have any cooking facilities beyond the open fire, as food was often bought then taken to local cafe-equivalents for cooking. You can learn a lot about cooking arrangements in Dickens.

To me, a range is something like an AGA (prounounced "argger", despite being an abbreviation).
I don't use the word stove, but if I hear it I tend to think of the hob.
A cooker is another word for oven.

This is modern usage though, so I can't be of help for 1829 - sorry!

Lauram6123 said:

I have a character in London who needs to heat some water for tea, but I can't figure out if he would do this on a range or a stove. And then I saw the term cooker and that completely confounded me.
Oh, and my story takes place in 1829, so there is that...

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Strangely, I don't think there's any difference between British and American on this. A stove is an indoor heat source in general; it can be a wood stove, a gas stove, an electric stove, etc. A range is a stove that has a range of heat; it can be adjustable as a gas or electric range, or different parts can have different levels of heat. A cooker is a single burner electric or gas range or stove, or anything that cooks by itself.

In 1829 there were wood/coal stoves and ranges. I don't think the term "cooker" was in use for such things.

Apparently different people use different terms.

Pitsligo said:

To me a cooker would be an oven with hobs above it, possibly with a grill higher up, like this:


Stove would possibly be interchangeable but to me it would tend to mean the gas rings or hot plates rather than the oven.

Range isn't a term I've heard used much in the UK.

Disclaimer: I'm Scottish and we tend to have a slightly different dialect to the rest of the UK.

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Pitsligo, can you resize the image in your post, please. It's way too big. And remember, no hotlinking. Here is the link to the relevant FAQ about image sizes: FAQ: Don't Hotlink to Images, How to Include Images, and Image Size Info

To me, a 'stove' is typically a solid-fuel-burning thing that sits in the room and makes heat. Most are cast iron, black, and typically differentiated by what they burn. They come in all shapes and sizes, from little things that look like a bin with a door and chimney to the whacking great round pot-bellied stove of legend. Cooking is almost a secondary function, the primary function is heat over time. These weren't particularly fashionable, but they were leaps and bounds better than an open fire. (You couldn't cook with an open vessel on a coal fire, the smoke reeks, hence the introduction of stoves and ranges.)

A 'range' is typically a cast-iron thing specifically made for cooking on. Originally solid-fuelled (usually coal, given the relative cheapness of coal and wood) but now often oil- or gas-fuelled, these things are also cast iron. They have doors you can open to access ovens, and often to access the heat-generating bit too; a lot of the more modern ones have lids you can open to access hotplates on top, or room for the central heating pipework. The primary function is also heat-over-time, but people seriously thought about cookery too. Your 1820's range would probably have been cast iron, black and built into a chimney breast; they were highly fashionable, but less fashionable/poorer houses would still have had a stove.

A 'cooker' is any of the above, plus much more modern stuff. It's probably a more modern usage, denoting anything specifically designed for cooking. Heat-over-time is not such an issue.

I would think of the Aga as a stove, not a range. It doesn't have an accessible fire.

That's the problem with this country - different regions using the same words for different things to a more confusing degree than our friends across the Pond!

Back in my university days, I went out with a bloke whose mum fancied herself as being posh. They had an AGA at home, and she'd refer to it as "the range". Being from peasant stock and therefore more familiar with cookers, I accepted this term.

I prefer cold food anyway!

I sometimes use stove for an electric cooker, but more in the context of put it on the stove. This is despite having a multi-fuel stove heating the lounge.

I'd say "hob" for the entire top of a cooker and "oven" for the bit you put food inside. You can buy separate electric or gas hobs to have inset in the worksurface.

Aga or Rayburn are both ranges, though Rayburn also make items purely for house heating - usually fires built into the wall with a back boiler that does hot water and central heating.

None of this is archaic.

Fuel was very expensive compared to what people were paid, except in coal mining districts where they were often paid in part in coal.
I remember reading an account of life in Aynhoe (called something like Apricot Village) at a period which might have been late 19th century or early 20th century. There was mention in there of how the village baker hired out his big oven on a Sunday for all the village to put their roast in - so they'd all trot along to the bakers with the joint of meat and vegetables in a metal tray, put it in a spot in the oven, go to church and collect their cooked dinner later. They were all doing moderately well to be able to afford to buy meat for roasting.

If you go back to 17th century economics, then the diet of the workers was pottage twice a day, or if you were slightly better off, porridge for one meal. Pottage was basically whatever you could lay your hands on boiled up in a pot.

Saw a documentary on Hannah Woolley a while back (cookery book writer) and she was writing in the Georgian period. The new middle classes had the money for some nice china and reasonable food, but mostly only knew how to cook pottage. So it was instructions for how to roast, or how to teach your maid to roast, cook cakes etc.

I'd go looking for websites by re-enactors - you get social history in that.

Further thought
Tea.
You want to check who could afford tea in 1829 if you are talking about tea imported from China or Ceylon. It became more affordable over the 19th century but I don't know enough to say when. Also look up mugs/cups/teapots etc.

Also - open fire. It is a hazard if you are wearing a long skirt, long apron. In 17th century it was one of the big causes of death of women, up there with child birth, as hems of skirts or aprons would catch in it. Closed stoves were a life saver. A fire up in a grate is less hazardous but not perfect.

Buffysquirrel said:

I would think of the Aga as a stove, not a range. It doesn't have an accessible fire.

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Depends how it's fueled. The Aga I grew up with was coal fired and every day my dad stoked it with new coal and cleared out the ashes. Years later they had it converted to oil-fired and then the fire was blocked from normal access. I'd definitely include Aga under the heading of range.

BUT in 1829, the kind of ranges that were coming in were not like modern ranges or Agas.

girlyswot said:

Depends how it's fueled. The Aga I grew up with was coal fired and every day my dad stoked it with new coal and cleared out the ashes.

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More likely coke. We had a coke-fired one for years but it was stoked through the hot ring. It didn't have a fire you could hold a slice of toast up to.

/pedant

Lauram6123 said:

Very good thought. My characters are a physician and a famous London procuress, both of whom are financially solvent when this scene takes place, so they can comfortably splurge for the tea. (and yes, it was available in 1829, thank God, and much better to drink than the hopelessly polluted, un-boiled water.)

I've totally looked up tea kettles, cups, etc....and those items are historically accurate, but I'm still racking my brain trying make certain I haven't missed anything. Maybe I should just look up every noun in my story to make sure its right!

Thanks all for the insight.

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Good for you on thorough research - consistent economics for a character is quite a hard one.

Question for you on tea, since you've just researched it.

I've read a lot of Georgette Heyer, who is pretty good on research. That is all Napoleonic War, pretty much, or a few earlier. Tea makes an appearance as a rich man's hobby - special tea caddies, tea spoons (as in fancy scoop) for measuring it into pots - and the rich tea fanciers are creating their own blends (e.g. Earl Grey I assume) and it is part of a social occasion to admire rich guy's blend if you are privileged enough to be served it.
So was there "builders tea" going on at the same time as rich men's hobby tea? (Bit earlier than your period.)
and
Do you know what the time line and evolution was from rich man's hobby to availability in your period?

As in - how did it get from GH land to your land?

Lauram6123 said:

I have a character in London who needs to heat some water for tea, but I can't figure out if he would do this on a range or a stove. And then I saw the term cooker and that completely confounded me.
Oh, and my story takes place in 1829, so there is that...

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I wonder if your character would be heating the water himself?

During that time period I wouldn't have thought that a man would be heating water for tea on any of those things. They were for more wealthy people in their kitchens. Almost all but the lower classes hired cooks and/or cook maids to do that. Many cooks were male but I wonder if the actual cook would be heating water or one of the cook maids?

Who is your character? What class is he? Where is he making this tea?


ETA:

Lauram6123 said:

The more complicated question was how exactly were they drinking it. What kind of kettle? What kind of infuser? Was it fashionable to drink with sugar, were lemons even available? Yada yada yada.

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My research is 20 years before your story. But my understanding is that there would not be an infuser, you'd put the tea straight into the teapot, not the kettle. Sugar and milk were used. Lemons were available but I have no idea if they were used in tea. I haven't come across it to date.

Oranges were imported and available in season rather inexpensively in the markets. Lemons, too, as there are many mentions of Lemonade and lemon ice and other lemon confections.

As for sugar, it was sold in solid cones. Lumps could be nipped off with sugar nippers and served in a sugar bowl. Or the sugar could be pounded into granules and served in a sugar bowl.

They didn't keep milk cold; they bought it fresh daily. London milk however was notoriously adulterated.

And may I say that I have long coveted an AGA. They are ridiculously expensive in the US, and totally not practical in central AZ. I read a newspaper article many years ago about an AGA being installed in the home of a very very wealthy woman in Dallas. When asked about the heat generated by the AGA, since summers in Dallas are quite hot and the AGA is always 'on', she said she would just run the AC more.

MM

Buffysquirrel said:

They didn't keep milk cold; they bought it fresh daily.

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Agree with buying fresh daily. There were milk cows kept all over London.
However there was a small degree of keeping cold or at least cool. Houses were built with larders - north side of house, big slabs of slate or marble shelves, air bricks to put a cooling air flow through. Also, if you stand the jug of milk in a bowl of water - couple of inches of water - get a cotton cloth (e.g. tea towel) and make it damp and wring it out a bit, drape it over the milk jug so the ends are in the bowl of water, then evaporation of the water cools the jug of milk. A steady re-supply of water into the cloth keeps it going.
I've done that with a plastic bottle of milk while camping in mid-summer. Did have it on the shady side of the tent, but it stayed cool enough to be OK for breakfast the next day.

If you don't keep it cool - then it can go off before the end of the day even though fresh from the cow.

Lauram6123 said:

I don't know exactly when it became available for the average man to enjoy it on a daily basis. I do know that Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford supposedly came up with the idea of tea in the afternoon, as a way to bridge the gap between lunch and dinner...and that was in the early 1800s.

Again, this is only for one minor scene, and I'm dealing with characters who are lucky enough to have some disposable income.

I also know that the characters in Jane Austen and particularly in Dickens' Sketches by Boz (which takes place very close to the time of my book) are all drinking it... here's a quote
"it appears from the voluntary statement of Mrs. Walker, that her ‘kittle’s jist a-biling, and the cups and sarsers ready laid,’ and that, as it was such a wretched night out o’ doors, she’d made up her mind to have a nice, hot, comfortable cup o’ tea—" continuing with " After a little conversation about the wretchedness of the weather and the merits of tea, with a digression relative to the viciousness of boys as a rule, and the amiability of Master Peplow as an exception, Mrs. Walker sees her husband coming down the street; and as he must want his tea, poor man, after his dirty walk from the Docks"

Seeing things like this makes me feel comfortable using it in my own story.

The more complicated question was how exactly were they drinking it. What kind of kettle? What kind of infuser? Was it fashionable to drink with sugar, were lemons even available? Yada yada yada.

I love this stuff, but it can make you insane.

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I love this stuff too and yes it makes me insane.

I was just asking out of curiosity not to further critique your scene. The Boz scene certainly suggests it was pretty wide spread. Interesting.

I would definitely expect such an establishment to have maids. With all the fireplace equipment then they would be sufficiently classy for a reasonable standard of housekeeping to be expected by the guests. Since you said 'upscale' this is not a queue up the stairs kind of place but a "home from home".

One question to everyone in general. I have seen (when a guest in a house) a combined spirit burner and kettle arrangement, so you could just heat a kettle of water for tea without having to run downstairs to the kitchen (or in 19th century London light a fire). Not talking camping kit, but a very elegant drawing room item in polished silver. Anyone know whether that was a nineteenth century item?