The pandemic lockdown had been going on for months and my wife, son and I had been fairly adventurous in cooking. I forget what exactly inspired us to make our own French fries, except that we were fixing on making cheeseburgers, with some talk of French fries that caused me to remember the vintage Dormeyer Fri-Well deep fryer I had picked up not so long ago and never used. Well, here was the perfect opportunity to try it out. Our 19 year old who’d been home from college since spring break was into it, and it was a plus that we’ve had a nifty little vintage French fry cutter we hadn’t used for a decade. The only potatoes we had were Yukon golds, which seemed perfectly sized for the cutter.

As I plugged in the Fri-Well and looked at it sitting on the countertop next to the Chambers, some instinct told me that it just seemed a little risky. Could it have been Chef Dormeyer’s demonic red eyes? Whatever it was, that same “something” told me that putting it within the broiler space of the Chambers might just be a safer alternative.

On digging out the Fri-Well, we were thrilled that we actually had the owners manual, because of course, without it we’d be clueless about what to do. Yet speaking of clueless, for some insane reason I immediately began discounting what it was saying. One can of Crisco? When melted, the fryer was only one third full. The manual also said to cover the bottom of the basket with only a single layer of potatoes. What the heck? We were getting hungry and excited about this whole idea. With so few spuds and so little oil, it seemed it would take forever to cook enough fries for the three of us. That would never do, so I made the executive decision to add another can of Crisco. While the white lumps turned to hot clear liquid inside the fryer, we covered the bottom of the basket with a layer of potatoes alright, only this layer was three deep.

From my days as a grip in the film production business, I have a saying: We’ll find out later why this seemingly brilliant idea is really a rather horrible one.

With the temperature of the grease at 450, it was time to cook. Immediately after our son dropped the basket into the fryer, all hell broke loose. Imagine your vinegar and baking soda volcano experiment from grade school and, you’ve got a pretty accurate idea of just what happened, only ours was a foaming fountain of super-heated grease! As much as our instincts wanted to contain it, thank God we attempted nothing of the sort. AND, thank God again, the molten Crisco flowed down the sides of the deep fryer and harmlessly – magically - into the enameled box of the Chambers broiler (instead of onto the countertop, and splashing onto the floor and most likely onto our feet). Finally, thinking clearly, I lifted the basket from the fryer and the eruption ceased.

Everything turned out fine in the end: no one got hurt, the cleanup was rather minimal, and the fries – they turned out dang tasty. We did try again just a few weeks later, and I gotta say, they weren’t nearly as good as that first night. Might have something to do with a saying I’ve heard about how the spice of danger gives extra flavor to life. That’s fine: we’re sticking to reading (and obeying) the deep fryer’s instructions from now on, and getting our excitement like most normal people do nowadays, from Netflix.

Lessons:

Whenever boiling hot oil is involved, hungry male operators of any age are not to be trusted. Any post-pubescent female must be consulted for the final say.
As a corollary, the deep fryer’s owners manual is to be respected, not ignored. As a matter of fact… it should be followed to the letter.
A Chambers is a fantastic stove, as we know, but now what makes it even more useful and lovable is that the “In A Top” Griddle and Broiler is a fantastic spot to place a deep fryer, should anything go wrong.

PS: Some may wonder “Why not use the Chambers’ Thermo-Well for deep frying?” Simply because the presence of the burner flame at the bottom of the Thermo-Well would easily ignite any hot oil flowing over the side of the pot in a boil-over.

In the past five years Chicago residents have witnessed one of the largest, most widespread and often irritating infrastructure improvements in the city's recent history: the upgrading of the natural gas distribution system by the local utility People's Gas. Streets and parkways are torn up, parking can be disrupted and restricted for weeks, gas meters are relocated from inside to the outside of many houses, often requiring rerouting of inside gas lines. To top it off, the different phases of the work in any block can be spread out through a year or more, with very little communication provided on what work will be done and when it will happen.

For many owners of vintage stoves, including Chambers, the change can have drastic implications. This is due to the fact most vintage stoves built prior to the mid 1960's do not come equipped with built-in gas pressure regulators. People's Gas employees are directed to disconnect any stove not so equipped.

Here's the back story: All gas stoves and other gas appliances are manufactured to operate with a uniform standard pressure of gas: If that pressure is exceeded while the stove is being used, the burner flames will be drastically higher. If the stove is not being used, certain components of the stove, mainly the valves used to turn the gas on and off, can be overpowered and raw gas will escape past them and into your kitchen.

Avoiding this problem was originally the sole responsibility of the gas utility, which utilized the "gas supply regulator" installed on a home or apartment building. It's a disc-shaped device (about 10" wide) attached to the building's gas supply pipe just before it enters the building. You can see it in the photo on the upper left.

Some old regulator installations are inside the building. There may be a meter between the regulator and the building, or the meter may be inside.

The purpose of the regulator is to "regulate" (decrease) the pressure of the gas from the high pressure "street" supply, to the lower standard pressure for a building's gas appliances. It also prevents any accidental "spikes" or "surges" of "street" pressure from entering a building's gas lines and appliances.

Since the mid 60's, all gas stoves (as well as furnaces and water heaters) must by law have their own regulators built-in for safety redundancy. The reasoning is this: if the utility company's supply regulator fails, allowing high pressure gas into your house's gas pipes, the stove's regulator prevents the surge from entering and overwhelming the stove's components.

Many old neighborhoods in Chicago still have low pressure gas supply systems that date from the original installations of the late 1800's to early 1900's. For various safety and efficiency reasons, those and many mid-century systems are being replaced with a new high pressure supply, and when they are being replaced, new exterior "supply" regulators and meters are being installed. It's at this point in the process when your vintage stove will be tagged and disconnected.

When the gas company upgrades a building, they must first turn off the gas supply, attach the new equipment, then turn the gas supply back on. Before they leave the building, the utility's personnel are required to enter each residence to relight any pilot lights on water heaters, furnaces, and stoves. They must also check any vintage stove to check to see if it has its own built-in regulator and modern flexible connector (stainless steel or plastic coated). If not, the stove is summarily disconnected, the supply to the stove plugged, and the owner is told that it cannot be reconnected until one or both have been installed.

Fitting a regulator to your Chambers is a fairly straightforward job that any plumber should be able to handle in an hour, two at most. If you don't have a modern yellow plastic coated flex line and an on/off valve between your stove and the pipe coming out of the kitchen wall or floor, now would be the time to update everything. You can buy all the parts for about $100, though regulators are not usually available at hardware stores: check professional appliance supply stores in your area.

Of course if you are not qualified to work on gas systems, leave this upgrade to a professional. If you need this work done and you haven't had your Chambers looked at in a while, please give me a call.