General – Cooking Performance

A Thornhill range cooker delivers the same all-round, radiant, cast-iron cooking that has made range cookers so sought-after – but with full controllability.

Traditional heat-storage cookers remain on continuously at constant temperature, regardless of whether you need them. A Thornhill can be turned on when you want it, turned down when you do not, and switched off completely in summer. This means you enjoy everything that makes a range cooker special without the fuel costs of a cooker that never stops running.

Most households with a traditional always-on cooker also maintain a second cooker for summer use. Most Thornhill owners do not.

Cast-iron absorbs heat slowly and holds it exceptionally well, creating a stable, even cooking environment that is difficult to achieve with lighter materials.

The result is consistent oven temperatures, thorough and even heat distribution, and the kind of results – bread with a proper crust, roasts that cook evenly from edge to centre, pastry that crisps from the bottom – that experienced cooks associate with a range cooker.

On our Wood-Fired Hybrid, Oil-Fired Hybrid and All-Electric models, this cast-iron heat retention is combined with independently controllable ovens, allowing you to set different oven temperatures to suit a variety of cooking tasks while still benefiting from the even, radiant heat that cast-iron provides.

Cast-iron is also exceptionally durable. It does not warp, corrode or degrade with use. A cast-iron cooker looked after properly will outlast most other kitchen appliances by decades.

Traditional Thornhill range cookers are designed around a single heat source that creates a natural temperature gradient throughout the oven compartments, hence the name ‘range’.

The main oven operates at the highest temperature – suitable for roasting, baking and grilling. Adjacent ovens progressively reduce in temperature, giving you dedicated space for slower cooking, warming and proving bread simultaneously.

On our Wood-Fired Hybrid, Oil-Fired Hybrid and All-Electric models, selected ovens can also be independently controlled, allowing you to set different temperatures for different cooking tasks while still enjoying the benefits of cast-iron heat retention and even heat distribution.

Whether using the natural graduated heat of a traditional range cooker or the flexibility of independently controlled ovens, Thornhill range cookers allow you to prepare multiple dishes at the same time without flavour transfer and with exceptional cooking performance.

Yes. The combination of radiant cast-iron heat, stable oven temperatures and graduated oven zones makes Thornhill range cookers particularly well-suited to baking.

Many of our customers are serious bakers who chose a Thornhill specifically for the results it produces with bread, pastry and cakes. The even, all-round heat – without the drying effect of a fan – is well-suited to artisan baking in particular. Several customers have mentioned baking four loaves at a time in the 5-oven model.

Yes. Multiple ovens operating at graduated temperatures allow several dishes to be cooked simultaneously.

Because each oven compartment is separate, there is no flavour transfer between dishes. You might roast meat in the main oven, bake a tart in the second, slow-cook a casserole in the third and warm plates in the bottom, all at the same time – without adjustment.

Yes. One of the pleasures of a cast-iron range cooker is the gentle, even warmth it provides to the kitchen. Many customers find it becomes the primary heat source for the kitchen, and in some cases for adjacent rooms as well.

This dual role – cooking and heating – is one of the practical advantages that makes a range cooker genuinely different from a conventional oven.