Is it a warming drawer? A broiler? Or for storage?

[Rudi]

    
Under my nose all these years and I never knew!!! A simple, but interesting article!

I always thought it's a convenient storage spot! It never occurred to me that oven 'drawers' could have these other specific functions.

I will be checking my oven drawer when I get home this evening, hoping its a warming drawer.
With winter upon us, the food gets cold so quickly; so then I can warm the plates while the food is roasting.

[Doc.AElstein]

You could also make a small modification to the oven and use the drawer as an oven cleaning aid:…....

I never knew what it was for, but we had a big one in our communal kitchen Oven when I was a student.
The drawer was particularly big, metal, and never used.
We often were curious about its actual purpose.

The oven was used ( and abused ) quite a lot. It seemed to get very dirty and oily, and even caught fire once or twice.
I had an idea to make cleaning the oven a bit easier. I drilled a lot of holes in the bottom of the oven , as well as cutting out a few bits bigger . To clean the oven, I just chucked in very small bits of water, whilst I scratched around and scraped the walls, and top an bottom a bit and let all the crap fall down the holes into the draw.
It had the extra nice feature that when ever the oven was used, you always had that nice smell of cooking food, even if you were not actually cooking much. Well I thought so.
Surprisingly I never needed to empty it.
So the next years occupants would have had the pleasure of the nice smelling feature.
Stupidly I never followed up the idea. I expect it could have been a nice idea.

I am often reminded of my invention when I clean once a week our big wood burning oven. – The ash is collected in a tray at the bottom which seems to work on a similar principle as my oven cleaning assistant.
But I have to empty that. It fills up a lot quicker
( The way the air flows, the smells all get sucked up the chimney, so I miss the smell )

[Skitterbug]

Mine does have a warming drawer but beats me how to use it. I never have. It has always been a storage area for my skillets. Maybe after all these years, I ought to see if it could actually be a useful addition to the food preparation process.

So is yours a warming area? As you hoped it would be?

[Rudi]

Unfortunately note Skitter
Its a for storage only and the oven is designed to reflect heat up and away from the storage. I'll have to warm me plates some other way.

Good luck if you choose to try it out for yourself.

[Skitterbug]

Unfortunately note Skitter
Its a for storage only and the oven is designed to reflect heat up and away from the storage. I'll have to warm me plates some other way.

Good luck if you choose to try it out for yourself.

for you! Time for a new range!

[BobH]

We have one as well but almost never use it as a warmer preferring to store lids for pots and pans there. We only use it when preparing meals for 6 or more which usually requires cooking ahead and keeping warm.

I vote for storage drawer.

[Rudi]

If its big enough, it can accommodate for both functions.

[steveh]

WE are lucky enough to have a 7 ring range cooker with 2 ovens (Fan and normal) and a warming draw. Whilst it is ideal for plates I use it to slow cook in the winter. As I leave for work at 6 I will get a stew pot (large) dice up my beef into 1/2 in cubes and the chop up all the root vegetables and add a sauce / gravy.

When I get home at about 16:00 my wife will have made the dumplings, preheated the normal oven and then will add the dumplings to the stew for the last 30-45 minutes.

Mm, feeling hungry already

[Rudi]

Certainly sounds a treat!