gas cookers . this is the first of two related reports on cookers . the second one , dealing with electric cookers , will be published shortly , together with a comparison of the two types . whatever features or trimmings a cooker may have , the main requirements are few and simple . the oven and grill must cook evenly - the oven , over a wide range of temperatures . on the hob , food must be cooked fast or slowly , as required . the cooker must be easy to use and easy to clean . the finish must be able to stand up to hard wear . brands . the 16 gas cookers chosen for testing are listed in table 1 . they cost about &amp;pound;30 to &amp;pound;70 , the most popular price range , and had four boiling burners ( except for the New World 33 and Peeress , which had three ) , an oven and a grill . one , the London , was only available in the north Thames gas board area , where it has a very wide sale . the New World 173 Rangette , larger than most , was included because it was in the same price range , had unusual features and is widely sold . table cookers and small models with only one or two boiling burners were excluded ; so were very large , expensive models and those designed to be built in as part of a series of kitchen fitments . full names are given in table 1 . shortened forms are used in the text . dimensions . if the cooker is to fit into an existing kitchen layout , then the height - particularly of the hob - the distance the cooker stands out from the wall ( depth ) , and its width are important . these are listed in table 1 . ovens . useful cooking space . there is considerable difference between the size of an oven and the useful cooking space in it . this is because some space is necessary round the food to allow the heat to circulate . the cooking space has been calculated in cubic inches from the area of the baking tray provided and the height from the lowest cooking level ( the bottom of the oven ) to the lowest projection at the top - usually the top of the door frame . this is the method of British standard 1250 : 1955 ( domestic appliances burning town gas ) for calculating cooking space ( figures in table 1 ) . the whole oven can be used when necessary , however - for a turkey , for instance . for the best results , no baking tray larger than the one provided with the cooker should be used , as it might make the cooking uneven . shelves . two shelves were provided with each cooker . a third , reversible one was provided with the Envoy . there were 13 possible cooking levels , including the oven base , for the Envoy , compared with only four for the Leisure , and five to nine for the others ( see table 1 ) . all shelves were designed to slide out without tilting appreciably and - to prevent the risk of accidentally pulling the shelf right out - most had to be lifted in order to remove them . those without this safeguard were the Cannon , Equerry , Envoy , London , Monarch and the New World 33 and 42A . the Leisure had an additional inner glass door - a possible advantage , as cooking progress could be inspected without allowing much heat to escape . the glass door became too hot to open without an oven cloth . cleaning . how easy the ovens are to clean depends as much on how they are used as on their design . but the removable oven top and base of the Cavalier , the removable oven top of the New World 44 , and the hinged oven top of the Equerry were definitely helpful . oven cleaning can be tiresome . it may be useful to remember that there will be less splashing when joints are cooked longer , at a lower temperature ; when the meat is covered with foil ; when a container is well filled ; and that the oven floor can be protected from spilt juice if a tray is put under pies or tarts . when the oven does get dirty , it should be wiped out while it is still warm before the dirt has time to stick . thermostats . all the ovens had thermostats . this meant that they heated up to , and stayed at , a temperature that depended on the thermostat setting . all were marked 1/4 , 1/2 , and 1 to 9 . the Renown also had settings 10 , 11 , and 12 , but its cookery book gives no recipes for them . eight cookers had extra low settings - lower than the 1/4 settings - for dishwarming and for slow cooking . the British standard implies that all cookers should cook the same dish at the same setting . for each cooker , the manufacturer &apos;s instructions indicate the best shelf position for different types of food ; this is important as the oven is , intentionally , much hotter at the top than at the bottom . we recorded , as a matter of interest , the temperature ( &amp;deg; F ) at the top , middle and bottom of each oven , at settings 2 , 6 and 9 . it was not easy to set the oven to the same temperature each time , because of play in the thermostat knob . it is worth getting into the habit of always setting the thermostat from a higher figure . cooking performance . CA carried out the cooking tests specified in the British standard . they show whether the right amount of heat reaches the top and bottom of the food . also , by the evenness of browning , they show how even the heat is at different levels in the oven , when both baking trays and circular cake tins are used , as these affect the circulation of heat differently . the oven is tested at cool and hot settings , and when it is filled with different size dishes , for a complete dinner . each dish has to be ready within a specified time . there is nothing adventurous about the recipes , but they provide a good test for cookers . details of the tests are given in table 2 . some ovens cooked better than others , but all were satisfactory . the three best were the Cavalier , Envoy and Prince . the Leisure , Monarch and Cabaret , at the other end of the scale , were fairly good . on the Leisure , the food tended to overbrown on the underside . the Monarch oven cooked slowly ; neither the rich fruit cake nor most of the dinner was well cooked in the time allowed . the Cabaret oven was cooler than most , particularly at higher settings . food cooked slowly and the top browned before the underside . gradings of the cooking performance of each oven are given in table 1 . hobs . cleaning . the tops of cookers get very messy . even the most careful cook lets the milk boil over sometimes . so it is most important that the top should be easy to clean . in our tests , the hobs were dirtied by letting milk boil over on two burners of each cooker . all the milk was then cleaned from the cooker , and whatever parts were necessary to do this were moved . both time and difficulty in cleaning were taken into account when assessing the results . the Cannon and New World 42a came out best , then the Peeress , Cabaret and Newhome . worst to clean was the Monarch . the milk burned on the hob very readily and trickled down under the spillage tray . cleaning was both slow and difficult . the Leisure and New World 44 were little better than the Monarch . the New World 33 , 44 and Rangette had similar hobs , completely different from all the other cookers . they consisted of removable stainless steel rods ( see photograph on p 252 ) . the rods became discoloured by heat from the burners and had to be rubbed with abrasive to restore their original appearance . the time to do this was not included in our cleaning assessment . we have been told that some people prefer this new design , but in two series of tests carried out by CA , we found that they were more difficult and slower to clean than most of the others . boiling speed . the speed with which water could be heated was considered to be particularly important . a pint could be boiled in a pan on at least one burner of all the cookers in under 3 1/2 minutes . the quickest was about 2 3/4 minutes . it was found that burners of the same make and gas rating took slightly different times to do the same job . because of this , and the fairly small difference in time taken by the different models , we consider it impossible to pick out any as being markedly faster than others . three pints could be boiled in 6 to 7 minutes . simmering . all the boiling burners could be set low enough to keep one or three pints of water simmering at 180 &amp;deg; F with the lid off , but not with it on . when simmering food , you burn it if the heat is not evenly distributed at the bottom of the pan . to find out which cookers provided the most even heat , porridge was simmered at as near as possible to 180 &amp;deg; F in a light , 7-inch diameter , aluminium pan without a lid for 30 minutes . only the size of burner producing the most even heat was rated as this would be the best one for simmering . the Monarch simmered most evenly , leaving a negligible deposit on the bottom of the pan . only one , the Envoy , caused any burning , and this was only slight . special burners . the Monarch and Renown each had a thermostatically controlled boiling burner as well as three ordinary ones . they are designed to raise food to , and keep it at , a constant temperature . this is achieved by a device which adjusts the gas according to the temperature of the pan base , against which it is spring-loaded . different types and quantities of food , and different pans , need different settings , mentioned in the manufacturers &apos; cookery books . we found , however , that , when chips were put into a pan of hot fat , there was a delay before the burner responded to the change in temperature . the fat heated up again much more slowly than on an ordinary burner with the tap turned full on until the fat was hot again . the chips cooked on the two special burners were considered very soggy compared with those cooked on ordinary burners . but , in general , the special burners are useful when you want to leave the cooker unattended . when you have learnt the setting - for the pan , the food and the quantities - you can do this , knowing that nothing will boil over , or burn . grill . design . a recent trend in cooker design has been to move the grills to eye level . the advantage of a grill above the hob is that it is easier to watch , as you do n&apos;t have to bend , and allows the oven to be higher . only one of the models tested , the Envoy , had the grill in the old position , below the hob . one , the Rangette , had the grill just above the hob , on which the grill pan rested ( see photograph on p 252 ) . all the others had the grill at eye level . with all but one of the cookers the grid of the grill pan could be at one of two possible distances from the heat . the exception was the Cannon , which had four available positions . the Cannon and New World 44 grill pans had two handles and were difficult to hold in one hand . this meant that the grill pan had to be put down before toast could be turned , for example . five models - Leisure , Cannon , Rangette , Envoy , and Monarch - had grill compartments which could be closed when not in use , but only on the Envoy and Monarch could they be closed with the grill pan under . the grill compartments are also useful for putting dishes to warm with heat from the oven or boiling burners . other cookers had open shelves under the grill which could be used for the same purpose . there were no such facilities on the Renown whose grill pan was suspended between runners . as with ovens , the size of a grill or grill pan grid was not the same as its effective area ( see below ) . 