We Set Light to the New Cooker

A couple of weeks back we had some friends round for a meal and I thought it would be good to use the cooker in the cottage for some of the cooking. But it roared at me and went out when I tried to light it. So I left it.

Finally this weekend I sat down to read the manual and found that the cooker came fitted with burners for town gas. No problem, there were burners for bottle gas in the pack with the easy-to-read manual and a nice handy wrench for changing the four on the top.

Ah, but then there's the oven. And suddenly the manual is less helpful and there are no useful gadgets. The back has to come off - eleven fixings that look as if they need allen keys. But no. Tod finally finds a screw driver that fits and removes the back - progress.

Here we are confronted by a long pipe, a complex attachment on the end, a hole into the oven and a not very useful diagram. We fiddle about, guess what we have to do and put the new burner so it's resting in the hole, tighten it all up, go round to the front and light the oven.

The burner comes on, but there is also a strange roaring noise. Tod looks round and then dives to turn off the gas as flames are licking up the back of the cooker! Not what we intended!

I march off in high dudgeon as I think "my" lovely new cooker is ruined. But after a restoring cup of tea, a calm look at the manual, a damp cloth to take off the soot and a good yank with a screwdriver to get at the hidden town gas burner, we find out what we should have done. We get the town gas burner out, put the one for bottle gas where it's meant to be, re-attach the back and it all works perfectly.

The cooker comes with a roasting spit and Judy tells us that the best way to roast potatoes is to put them in the tray under the turning chicken. Can't wait to try it!