Whirlpool is a brand name of GE (General Electric) for a line of electric ovens and ranges. These products were created in 1928 by a man named Carl Palmer who was inspired by an ancient Greek pottery vessel called a “casserole”. The original Whirlpool model OV-500 was released in 1958 and it was an instant success. Over five million units were sold within the first year and the popularity of the product has continued unabated ever since. Today, there are more than 300 different models of Whirlpool ovens and ranges available and they are still manufactured and sold right here in the United States.
In this recipe, we are going to use a little-known feature of Whirlpool ovens to give us some tips on how to set the delay cook time on those famous “baby blue” ovens.
The delay cook feature is easy to find. It is located on the back of the control panel on the inside of the door of the oven. You will see three push buttons arranged vertically with white labels. The top one is labeled “Normal”, the middle one is labeled “Fast”, and the bottom one is labeled “Slow”. The idea is you press the button corresponding to the time you want to delay the cooking process. For example, if you want to cook a roast immediately but you also want to give it a 20 minute head start, you would press the “Normal” button for a few seconds and then press the “+” or “-” button repeatedly until you get to the number 20.
Now here’s a couple of important things: First, do not use the buttons on the front of the control panel. Those buttons are for changing the temperature and other advanced settings. Instead, use the ones on the back of the control panel to change the delay cook time.
The second thing is that the numbers on the “+” and “-” buttons go in twos. So, if you want to delay the cooking process by 10 minutes, you would press the “+” button once and then hold it down for a count of two and then release it. Keep doing this until you get to 10 minutes.