Our firehall, like many others, uses electric roasters to keep food
warm at various fundraising functions. All of the roasters you can
buy today are made in China and tend to be substantially inferior to
their made-in-USA forbears of 40 or 50 years ago, both in design,
overall quality, and durability. For instance, the heating element
may be wrapped around the sides of the cooking well with none of it
under the well, resulting in a tendency to burn around the perimeter
whatever you put in the pan, even if you put water in the cooking
well. And the knobs break off, and so on. The old roasters we used to
have worked a lot better, but they eventually wore out.

Still, some of the made-in-China roasters may be better than others.
I would like to hear from anybody out there who uses roasters in this
way (i.e., for warming rather than cooking). This would be fire
departments, churches, clubs, whatever. Have you found a currently
available roaster which has given you satisfactory performance, which
you would recommend?

On Apr 18, 1:53*pm, heteroscedastic > wrote:
snip...*Have you found a currently
> available roaster which has given you satisfactory performance, which
> you would recommend?
They do have the sides-around heating coils, but my daughter and I
both love our Nesco cookers. Mine is the six quart and just today
I've filled it with sauced spaghetti & meatballs to take to work for
the week. "Miss Jeanine's Kitchen" is actually an extra office work
center about 20' from my desk, and there I will turn the cooker on a
low setting mid-morning so as to have everything hot for serving
during chow times.

I'm with you on the want of a well made, sturdy and bottom heating
cooker for better all around use, though. I'll be keeping watch of
this thread to see what may be suggested....Picky

In article
>,
heteroscedastic > wrote:

> Our firehall, like many others, uses electric roasters to keep food
> warm at various fundraising functions. All of the roasters you can
> buy today are made in China and tend to be substantially inferior to
> their made-in-USA forbears of 40 or 50 years ago, both in design,
> overall quality, and durability. For instance, the heating element
> may be wrapped around the sides of the cooking well with none of it
> under the well, resulting in a tendency to burn around the perimeter
> whatever you put in the pan, even if you put water in the cooking
> well. And the knobs break off, and so on. The old roasters we used to
> have worked a lot better, but they eventually wore out.
>
> Still, some of the made-in-China roasters may be better than others.
> I would like to hear from anybody out there who uses roasters in this
> way (i.e., for warming rather than cooking). This would be fire
> departments, churches, clubs, whatever. Have you found a currently
> available roaster which has given you satisfactory performance, which
> you would recommend?

Hamilton Beach. Comes with a triple insert to turn it in to a steam
table. Fill the bottom of the roaster with water, place the three trays
in the top and use the lid. Mine is the 18 qt. variety.

I've been using it now for 3 years for various stuff and have been very
satisfied.
--
Peace! Om

Web Albums: <http://picasaweb.google.com/OMPOmelet>
*Only Irish *coffee provides in a single glass all four *essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar *and fat. --Alex Levine