At Cooker Spare Parts we spend a lot of time examining, probing, and talking about cookers, so if there’s a chance to create a sublime dish that doesn’t require one, we’re all-ears! Plus, if your cooker is kaput, it’s nice to know there are still some delicious and divine recipes available to you.

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta

There are about a million variations on this Italian classic, but we like authenticity here at Cooker Spare Parts so have kept it simple. Now in the original Bruschetta you would use hot coals or a griddle to lightly char your ciabatta, but as we’re steering clear of the cooker your toaster will do the job just fine!

Cut a ciabatta loaf into manageable slices and toast them so they’re nice and crisp. Then rub an open clove of garlic on the upside of your toasted ciabattas, and glug a generous helping of good olive oil on top. Add some sliced ripe plum or cherry tomatoes to the top, along with a few sprigs of fresh basil, and some salt and pepper – enjoy immediately!

Prawn Cocktail

This 1970s classic is anything but dated, and as long as each individual component is good, you have yourselves a winner! Mix some ready-cooked prawns – you can go shrimp or king for this one – along with a basic Marie-rose sauce: 4 tbsp of mayonnaise, 4 tbsp of crème fraiche, 1½ tbsp tomato ketchup, and a dash of Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Simply add this mixture to a cocktail glass full of little gem lettuce leaves, and garnish with a wedge of lemon (and be sure to actually use your lemon as it loves this dish).

Antipasti

We’re back to the Mediterranean for this last no cook starter, and if you thought the others were easy, this one is simpler still. Antipasti simply means ‘before the meal’ and is a platter consisting of any number of the following: cured meats, olives, crostinis, olives, artichoke hearts, stuffed peppers, and some Italian cheeses such as pecorino. Everything here is all ready to be eaten, so all you must do is simply arrange it in small bowls or on a platter, and watch just how sumptuous your guests find this simple starter!

They say eating well doesn’t have to be difficult, and it’s so simple you needn’t even wait for your cooker to be fixed! Any one of these no-cook starters will tantalise the taste-buds terrifically – not bad for a 5 minute stroll in the kitchen, huh?

Broken ovens can be a bit of a nightmare. Partially because you have to survive on takeaways and microwaveables for a little while, but mainly because, sooner or later, you'll have to bite the bullet and get the darn thing fixed.

But don't call the professionals in yet. Repairing your oven may be easier than you think - to help, here are a few commonly-asked questions that the Cooker Spare Parts team have attempted to answer.

Q: What’s wrong with my cooker?

A: That’s a very broad question, but there are a few diagnostic tricks you can use to narrow down the possibilities. Firstly, switch your oven on – if there’s no sign of life whatsoever, it’s likely to be an electrical issue, and you might need a new terminal block. If the lights are on but nobody’s home – that is, if your oven turns on but fails to heat up – you may have a broken element.

Bear in mind that oven elements can break without being faulty in themselves. If you have a malfunctioning thermostat, or if something else is awry in your oven, these problems can cause perfectly serviceable elements to kick the bucket. Don’t assume that you can simply replace a broken element and get back to business as usual – there could be another issue at work.

*

Q: How do I find the right part for my appliance?

A: We appreciate that there are lots of different cooker parts that look more or less interchangeable. Instead of making you inspect every single product on our site, we’ve done our best to make finding the right part as easy and as streamlined as possible. 

For example, if you’re looking for a new oven timer on the Cooker Spare Parts website, you can select your manufacturer from the list on the left-hand side. For extra reassurance, we recommend entering your model number while you search as well.

*

Q: I can’t find my model number! Where is it?

A: Our dedicated Help Centre page contains all the information you’ll need to find your cooker’s model number. Knowing your number will make the spare-buying process a whole lot simpler, so it’s definitely a good idea to track it down before you proceed.

*

Q: Is there anything I should know before I attempt to repair my oven?

A: First of all, you must always unplug your oven at the wall before you begin any work on it. From there on out, it kind of depends on what you’re repairing – thanks to this wonderful thing we call the internet, specific advice is just a Google search away.

Finally, we should make it clear that it’s not a good idea to attempt oven repair work if you’re not sure what you’re doing. If you’ve taken a good hard look at the problem, read all of the articles online, and you’re still a bit fuzzy on how to fix it, then it’s always better to leave it to a professional. After all, you don’t want to make it any worse!

The Cooker Spare Parts website has only been live for a few weeks, but we've already received plenty of orders. You've kept us all very busy - not that we're complaining!

We've also received a fair bit of feedback, and happily enough, it's all been extremely positive. Take Clive from Yorkshire, for example; he purchased a new oven element from us, and he was exceptionally pleased with the service we provided. He emailed us to say that our customer support was “excellent”, and noted that the new part arrived the day after he placed his order.

Alan from North Wales was similarly satisifed with his Cooker Spare Parts Experience. “I would just like say thank you for such an excellent service,” he said in an email to our sales team. “Ordered on Friday morning, received Saturday, fitted in minutes.” Alan’s oven is now working perfectly once more, and he rounded off his review by adding that he “will not hesitate to recommend” us.

High praise indeed! We were thrilled to hear about how satisifed these customers were, and if you need a new cooker part, we will do everything we can to meet your own requirements. If you’d like to take full advantage of our Next Day Delivery option (like Alan and Clive did), don’t forget to place your order by 3.30pm!

Image by Vaikunda Raja (via Wikimedia Commons)

We’ve got a lot of spare oven shelves in stock here at Cooker Spare Parts, and the people who order them generally do so because they’ve broken or misplaced their existing shelf.  But even if your oven still has all the shelves it came with, there are several good reasons to invest in a new one anyway. Reasons like...

• More cooking space
  Adding an extra shelf to your oven will give you more room to cook without actually making the oven any larger. When you’re catering for a large group of people, it’s nice to have the option of cooking two or three dishes at the same time.
  
  
• Less energy use
  Most modern cookers come with two ovens – a main oven and a top oven – and when you do have a lot of food to cook, you probably use both of them to get everything done in time. But adding an extra shelf to your main oven may allow you to cook everything in the same place, which would mean that you could leave the top oven off and save a fair bit of energy in doing so.
  
  
• Easier cleaning
  So you’ve already got all the shelves you need – why would you bother buying another one? Two words: stainless steel. Quite a few of our spare oven shelves are made from stainless steel, which is much easier to clean than wire and other metals. If cleaning your oven has always been a nightmare, you may find that stainless steel shelves make the job that much easier.

To find an appropriate oven shelf for your appliance, pop over to this page and select your manufacturer from the ‘Narrow by Manufacturers’ menu on the left-hand side. For even more accurate results, you can also specify your model number.

There are few things more infuriating than unevenly cooked food. Whether it’s meat that’s half raw and half well-done or pizzas that have to be rotated to ensure that every slice is right, getting an even cook can sometimes be tricky.

Fan-assisted appliances use fans to distribute heat evenly around the oven space; in theory, every part of your meal should be equally cooked, but it doesn’t always work out like that.

Let's be honest, there are some of us who can't cook food evenly because we're not the most capable in the kitchen. There are many factors that contribute to evenly cooked food, ensuring you're utilising the correct rack position could be a good place to start before we start dismantling things. That being said, if you know that the unevenly cooked food is not a product of your kitchen incompetence then it's probable that there's a problem with the components of your oven, more often than not, the fan. 

A full-functioning fan should cook everything, not just the stuff nearest the back of the oven. If you’ve invested in a top-of-the-line fan oven and your dinner is still coming out inedible, replacing the fan motor may be enough to fix your unevenly cooked food for good. A new motor will bring your broken oven back to life, so it's worth giving this a try before replacing your oven completely. Take a look at our guide to see exactly how to replace your oven fan. 

Here at Cooker Spare Parts, we have all kinds of oven fan parts available for a vast range of appliances. Use our search filters to specify your manufacturer and model number. We’ll only show you the fans and motors that are compatible with your cooker.

For help resolving your unevenly cooked food problems, take a look at our cooker spares or alternatively, give us a call. We can help you identify and resolve your oven problem quickly, so you can enjoy evenly cooked food once again!

Contact us >