They move THE WHOLE KITCHEN?! Kitchens in Germany vs. USA | Feli from Germany
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- Опубліковано 23 тра 2024
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👉When I visited the US for the first time, I was mindblown by these GIANT American fridges! 🤯 And those aren't the only things that are different between German and American kitchens, so let's talk about it!
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Mentioned videos:
Germans SLEEP DIFFERENTLY than Americans?! ▸ • Germans SLEEP DIFFEREN...
POOP SHELVES?! German vs. American Bathroom Differences ▸ • POOP SHELVES?! German ...
Inside the Home: Germany vs. USA ▸ • Inside the Home: Germa...
Germans PEE DIFFERENTLY than Americans?! ▸ • Germans PEE DIFFERENTL...
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0:00 Intro
1:06 Kitchen Layout
3:41 Fridge
9:14 Trash
10:19 Stove
12:22 Oven
14:30 Exhaust Vent
15:16 Kitchen Devices
15:54 Garbage Disposal
16:21 Sink
16:36 Dishwasher
17:48 Washing Machine
18:30 Design
21:23 Moving
23:28 Did I forget something?
24:40 Cat Bloopers
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 29, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other topics I come across in my everyday life in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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▸Have you noticed any other differences between German and American kitchens? 🤔 Or what's unique about kitchens in YOUR country? :)
Love magic spoon
You explain me now why the Germans, when they want to invite friends for "supper" (with a small kitchen), they invite them at a local small restaurant (there's so many...). Maybe that's why they buy eggs by unit, my girlfriend had a restaurant in Koln(Cologne) and never bought more than 2 eggs at a time... And those eggs were not in a refrigerator, even at the store...
well, we do have dining rooms, you know? :D @@lavluvlov
Feli , ich glaube ein paar Jahre Europa würden Euch gut tun!
You have never seen a "Speisekammer"? Maybe I'm too old.
Garage fridge is usually just the last iteration of the kitchen fridge. Like we move the old one to the garage
Because the garages are usually not climate controlled, these are a HUGE energy drain in the summer months- the closed up garage is often 10-20 degrees hotter than the ambient outside temp in the shade, and the garage 'fridge just keeps pumping out more heat into the enclosed space, causing it to work harder and harder .... as it's generated heat adds heat to the enclosed space it must pump heat into ....
Yup. For a very long time our old fridge was in the garage. But it's also crazy that she's only seen huge fridges with water dispensers, etc. we've never had one, here in NY. Our fridge is still 20 years old. 😂
@@danieparriott265actually, garages tend to have concrete slabs and no windows, so they stay cool. At least here in the NE.
my mom has one of those really old death trap fridges out in the garage that has a latch that can't be opened from the inside. it only get any use during the holidays when overflow leftovers and the abundance of drinks get stored in it.
It’s the beer fridge, and last sovereign territory as per Man Law.
As a Swiss: It's very weird to move the kitchen. Our Appartments here always come with the kitchen permamently installed
I think this boils down to German perfectionism. Many Germans want to design their apartment exactly how they want to, and having a kitchen that looks exactly how you like it plays a big part in that. Since Germans are long-term renters, just like the Swiss, they want their own kitchen in a place that they're gonna live in for the foreseeable future.
If the landlord provided the kitchen and you switched it out with a new one at some point, you'd have to hold on to the old kitchen and store it somewhere, since most German rental contracts stipulate that you have to leave the apartment the same way it looked when you moved in, and that includes everything that was in there when you moved in (unless you reach an agreement with your landlord that says otherwise).
*quite always, while looking for my first appartment 3 years ago, I saw one without the kitchen but only one, probably none soon
@leDespicable Swiss are like the Germans in perfectionism. I think more so than Germans. Germans aren't known for their precise perfect watches. Switzerland is known for that.
As an American that moved to Germany 5 years ago, it was so strange to me how German people take their kitchen and light fixtures. Lightning OK maybe, but kitchens, not every kitchen is the same size so why take a kitchen that is perfect for that kitchen. Gas Stoves are awesome, she's watching to many movies. I also have approximately 5.5 trash cans, paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, and food. Plus a recycle bag for all my deposits. It actually stressed me out when I 1st got here, silly after a few months, because everyone kept telling me if I messed up the German trash company would not take.
US citizen here and never heard of moving the kitchen
As an American country boy, we always had both the "deep freezer", aka the long, low chest freezer, and a garage fridge. The deep freezer was for storing meats and stuff long-term such as venison from a deer we hunted. The garage fridge was mainly used for beverages like beer or soda as the country garage was used for a lot of cook outs and get togethers and was more convenient then constantly going inside.
That said, my mother's side were German stock so my Grandmother always had a breadbox and kettle etc. And seeing these things always remind me of her ❤
“NO KITTIES ON THE COUNTER 😠” Izzy proceeds to jump on counter 😂 like a normal cat that ignores their owner 😭
Cats don't have owners. Cats have Staff. .... and also track around Staph, and E. Coli ... NO cats on the counter.
I always found it easier to adjust the heat with a gas stove, not an electric one.
It’s definitely easier in the sense that any change is instantaneous. That’s why chefs prefer them.
Though I think modern induction hobs are instantaneous too, I still prefer gas though. Induction hobs have other issues.
Growing up in the U.S. the kitchen was where you socialized. Playing games, Coffee clatch, do homework
Growing up in Germany - it was the same here. We had a separate kitchen with a big table in it and even with guests usually stayed in the kitchen and seldom moved to the living room. Today it is my appartment. It is in the house my grandparents build in the 50s. But in multi-storage-houses with more appartments or standard appartment houses that were built starting in the 60s they often had a kitchen that just had place for a 2,80 m long standardized kitchen block. My first appartment after I left my parents house had a kitchen like this. My table was in one part of the living room and the kitchen was just there to prepare and store food.
In the U.S. we often say that the kitchen is the "heart of the home". It's no wonder why we have so many open concept floor plans that combine the living room and kitchen into one space.
Coffee what
@@therealCamoron I found many different spellings for clatch. It's the term my Ma's family and friends used.
@@kevingray8616 I HATE open concept homes. They are ugly, lack charm and character and destroy privacy.
Give me a breathtaking old Victorian home any day. Craftsmanship and character are strictly forbidden in the ugly, cheaply constructed newer builds.
Open concept homes are also much more dangerous in a fire.
gas stoves have the advantage that you can turn off the heat and the heat is gone, just like induction. The coil plates stay hot and you have to move the pot/pan to stop it from cooking even though the stove is turned off already.
So with invention of induction, every advantage is gone.
Although I'd still move the pot or pan on an induction stove. The stove itself may not get hot, but the bottom of the pots transfer an awful lot of their heat to the stovetop, so they still get awfully hot and retain that heat for some time. Not nearly as bad as with electric stoves of course, but I've almost burned myself wiping our induction stove down after cooking multiple times.
@@holger_p Not quite. A gas stove can be used as a grill. They also work without electricity. Those are real advantages for cooking. Having said that, those are fairly niche advantages. If I were building a new house I would probably go all-electric. A portable camping stove would be good enough for the rare times an actual flame is desired.
@@eDoc2020 a grill is the dirtiest thing you can imagine. Nobody wants this in the kitchen.
And while a gas often has only bottom heat, electric has top and bottom. That's more often needed.
Not to forget the danger of open fire, as Feli noticed.
No wonder you glorify fire fighters, you really need them.
@@holger_p For some reason people like to brown tortillas directly on a gas stove. I don't get why they can't use a pan. And regarding an open flame, it's not that dangerous. I'd argue electric coils are more dangerous because they're less visible. IMO the bigger problem with gas stoves is the lack of proper venting in 99% of installations. Pure natural gas is theoretically 100% clean burning but in practice using gas stoves results in a significant decrease in indoor air quality.
Elder Millennial here-, we just had a single fridge/freezer combo (no ice dispenser) in my childhood home. When I bought my house, the previous owners were all "Hey, do you want the fridge in the garage too, or should we take that with us?"
So I do have a 2nd fridge, somewhat careworn, but it is not plugged in very often. I did plug it in to temporarily store all my food from the kitchen fridge when I was having the house's original 90s carpeting replaced with LVP. After that was done, and I transferred the food back to the kitchen, the garage fridge serves as overflow for things that I buy in bulk that I donate to the food pantry, but don't want to leave out in the open in the garage until I have enough of a load to fill my trunk and drop off.
I’m from the Midwest-Kansas City-we prefer to have to a gas stovetop. We have very icy, cold winters. Sometimes the ice will break the power lines; if so, we still have the stove to help to keep warm.
I also live in Kansas City and have always had electric. I think it is personal preference
Having gas when the power goes out is awesome. It's even better if you have a city water hook up.
Here in Norway it is common to have a wood stove in the living room. Power outages are not common (at least not in cities/towns, I haven't experienced one in more than ten years), but it is nice to have the wood stove as a backup and it also is very nice on cold days. The winters aren't to bad here in southeast of Norway where the temperature mostly is above 0 Fahrenheit (in January/February it can be below but usually just during night) and we seldom have more than about two feet of snow.
Many places in Europe don't have a mains gas supply, my town in Ireland only got mains gas 20 years ago, so electric or solid fuel/oil stove. LPG often too expensive.
We have a gas stove for the same reason here in Nor zcal.
In rural areas in germany the fridge/freezer-situation is quite similar to the US. My parents have 3 freezers, 2 of them are those trunk things and multiple fridges. Not all of them are running all the time. The freezers are necessary if you get a whole pig or half a cow once a year.
We usually call them chest freezers in the US. That is the same reason I have one. The cow is actually hanging in the butchers cooler right now. I get half of a cow from my brother every year. My parents get the other half.
In Switzerland I would also crowdfund a quarter pig every now and then. Best pork meat. Then the freezer is full :)
Rural areas, really? 83 million people in an area half the size of Texas? It couldn’t be anymore than exurban.
@@b-genspinster7895there are extremly rural places in germany sometimes you need almost a half hour to get to somewhere😅
@@b-genspinster7895 They do have crops and cattle. It’s all relative depending on where you live. if you live somewhere in western USA,you probably think we don’t have rural areas in Pennsylvania either. I do know they don’t have large areas of land where you basically can’t can’t live and nothing grows.
American kitchens have an open floor plan thanks to Frank Loyd Wright. In the 50s he wanted to open up the kitchen and bring "Mother" out in the rest of the home so that she would be included in daily life, and not have her shackled away in the kitchen. Unfortunately the opposite result followed.
Kitchens being notoriously active places with lots of dirty things going on, Mom got stuck in the kitchen most of the day keeping it clean as anyone and everyone could see right into it.
OMG the way the oven door opens then slides in at 14:19, and the rack slides out! That is so freaking cool! I had to rewatch it several times. I'd love an oven like that!
then buy one. they're available here
The door thing isn‘t that common, but the rack sliding out is standart with newer ovens
My brother moved from Chicago to New York. Here in Chicago, we went shopping once a week, stocked up for an entire week. So you'd grab a shopping cart and fill it to the top. In New York, everyone takes public transportation and every neighborhood has a little store within walking distance. My brother and his wife soon found out that New Yorkers shopped almost daily on the way home and used hand baskets instead of shopping carts. So, that does exist here, but it depends on the city.
In the city, yes that is common. Out in the suburbs of LI and upstate, we have drive. So week or longer is nornal. But stopping at the store in between is done too.
Yes, cities like NYC are the exception. But even in a city like Cincinnati, that's not the norm.
@@FelifromGermany Denver is a top 50 market and it kind of depends on the neighborhood. Some you have near enough shops to do several trips a week, usually areas with strong ethnic communities like Latinos and Asians, while others it's big trips to the store. I personally do larger orders for delivery due to disability and being too cheap to pay delivery fees for multiple smaller trips.
Daily shopping has a few things as in buying fresh veggies but, its very wastful as it discourages planning but, encourages impulse buying.
Having and using a large and a smaller refrigerated storage capacity can greatly reduce the time and energy used in shopping. A dried food storage pantry complements that.
The longest stretch between shopping I've ever achieved was seven weeks. If my place survives a nuclear war not destroyed and I had to stay indoors to wait for the fallout radioactivity to decay sufficiently, I know that I usually have the capability to wait. I've also been building up my storage supply of fresh drinkable water.
Fun fact:
Open Kitchens and Kitchens combined with living room and so on is actually a very old concept.
At least here in Bavaria on rural areas it was very often like that. I think most common name was "Bauernstube" or "Wohnküche"
So it's like with many US things. - The concepts are actually not modern but from Europe but 100 - 150 and more years ago. When many germans, dutch and so on emigrated to the US. And then both sides of the atlantic developed a bit different.
DDH- American farmhouses design differed greatly over the last 150 years- my grandparents' farmhouse, an early "Foursquare" built in the 1880's, had no kitchen at all-cooking was done on the wood/coal stove in the dining room during the winter or inclement weather, and in a separate shack outside the back door the rest of the year. A kitchen was added onto the north side of the house in the 1920's or 30's. It also had no bathroom, and did not get one until the late 1960's...
Historically speaking, most early European settlers built one room cabins on a farm plot.
And once they "proved up' they either bought out their less committed neighbors, or built a bigger barn, and then a bigger house .....@@robertsitch1415
I'm from Belgium. I build a new home in 2019. I have a modern open floor design with kitchen island. Most people these days are more worried with the looks than the practicality of the kitchen design. The open floor design has the benefit that you can cook and watch the kids. But the kitchen mess is visible for everyone. Meaning if you have guests over and prepare food for the guests it's tough keeping a balance between a clean kitchen and good food. If I would have it do it all over again I would go for something in the middle like Feli showed. A counter that is open, but otherwise the kitchen is closed from peaking eyes from the other sides.
Your kitchen should always be clean, for hygienic reasons. Regardless if anyone can see it or not.
@@mikeenslin8344 You should understand that you can have a hygienically clean kitchen, but still leave a visual disarray when serving the food. But I get a feeling you either never prepared food yourself or you're trolling.
LMAO, a disarray serving the food, are you under severe stress and have to serve 100 guests in under a minute or what?? Of course using the kitchen will cause some disarray and mess. You're supposed to clean it up afterwards! @@PatrickKalinowski
When I first moved to Austria as a Dutch person and started looking at apartments, I was so confused about all the places that didn’t yet have kitchens. While it’s not everywhere here like it seems to be in Germany, there are definitely quite a number of apartments where you as a tenant have to bring the kitchen. I had never even heard of that being a thing in the Netherlands. What is more common there, when renting cheap apartments or student housing in particular, is having to bring your own appliances (fridge, stove, oven etc). Also, I actually quite like the look of American kitchens, they’re not as sterile as what has been considered modern and trendy here for at least the past 10-20 years.
I would always search for an appartement or house without a installed kitchen. I worked for a company which sells kitchen and I saw landlords coming every day to equip their apartments with kitchens. What did they take? Usually the cheapest of the cheap. No thanks, I would like to decide for myself whether I want to stay in rustic oak or white.
Usually a "garage fridge" which I have never had, is an old refrigerator that used to be in someone's kitchen and it got replaced by a new model.
As long as the old fridge isn't leaking coolant, it's probably better for the environment than putting it in a dumpster. 7:58
well it would not work in Germany. 1) because most Germans are in a rental and do not own a house, and lots of rentals don't have a garage. Some have parking lots and some have carports. And some have nothing so you will park your car simply at the side of the road. 2) because most Germans tend to use their fridges until they completely break down. Only snobs would buy a new fridge though the old one is still working! :D
I love your kitties! Showing old fashioned kitchens with a table made me flash-back to my Grandmother’s house. Grandma was a widow and when we came over we always ate at her kitchen table. She did have a formal dining room that was used during holiday meals with the entire family. Alas, the kids still ate in the kitchen and the adults in the dining room. That was nearly 70 years ago when our houses were much smaller.
PS: the one advantage to gas stoves is that we still had heat if the power went out. Of course, we had to crack the window to circulate fresh air. Fortunately, power outages were rare back then!
Yes!!
When Texas and Oklahoma had that strange Arctic blast that hit a couple of years ago and knocked out power for a week, I had a gas cook stove, so I was ok.
Also, the moving of the kitchen was news to me. I had no idea. Never heard of that. I see the pros and cons of this, as per the others' comments, but, WOW!
The large appliances are negotiable here, but fixtures are fixtures; afixed to the structure of the building.
No, there is hotwater, coldwater, dumpwater, as easy to connect as a hose in the garden. You don't even need tools, or just for the last turn maybe.
Installing a stove is as complicated as running an iron. You plug it in. For the oven you have extra high voltage sometimes, and you need an electrician for 10minutes, but most moving companies do this aside.
I live in the San Bernardino mountains in Southern California, and we use a gas stove because we have frequent power outages. Some are planned for maintenance, and some occur when we get high winds, snow or heavy rain. With a gas stove I can use a match to light a burner and cook hot food when we have no power. We have a generator, but it is expensive to run so we save that for power outages that run multiple days. We also have a full size large freezer because our mountain roads are dangerous during inclement weather, and so we keep plenty of food on hand. Last winter we were snowed in for almost a month, and because of our freezer we didn’t run out of food.
Sounds like third world, or emerging country, to have power outages, to a german.
Germans also used gas, but for a much simpler reason: Is was there before electricity. Gas was available since 1850, electricity started 1890-1900.
Today it's mainly for camping only. Propane BBQ gained popularity in the last years (as American style copy).
But not replacing electric ones, it's replacing charcoal.
@@holger_pfound the insufferable, holier than thou European. The area of the mountains they live in is fairly remote. Germany doesn’t really have any landscape that compares on the same scale. It’s extremely hard to run power out there. Gas stoves were around before electric ones, but they’re still in more common use because they’re easier to cook on that electric ones and pretty much every home has gas. If you’re not hooked into a city gas line, you will have a large propane tank that you get filled a couple of times a year.
@@alexphillips4325 I guess holger_p mean the losing of electricity. Usually in germany you have never seen an outages in your whole life. This is because all the power cables are in the ground, there are just a few over land.
@@alexphillips4325 In don't see any dependency between remoteness and electricity. Maybe an earthquake destroys a cable, or the wildlife is destroying it ?
I think Gas in US is more a matter of heating. In warm parts, you only need small central heating devices, and you can run them on bottled propane if you like.
This was never an option in Germany, it's way to expensive and incoformatable.
I grow up with a propane stove in the kitchen, buying bottles once a month, but the demand was so low over time, they stopped selling such stoves.
@@SkeeveTVR the majority of power cables in rural areas of the US are above ground for ease of maintenance and expansion, however this makes them vulnerable to things like fallen trees which happen a lot during ice storms or torrential rain
My wife died last summer. I live alone now, not counting two dogs and a cat. I'm learning about kitchen things that my wife took care of. I would definitely love the German oven that you showed. It still requires a lot of button-pushing to get the timer to work on my oven.
Sorry for your loss. Given that you're alone, consider buying a countertop oven such as a Breville. Ours has tons of presets and nice digital display; more than the German oven she showed. You can also use it as a toaster too. My wife cooks using our Breville more than our big oven as it's just the two of us.
Thanks, but I don't have sufficient counterspace for additional appliances.@@kevingray8616
Seconding what @kevingray8616 said. I use the "big oven" during the winter and for baking at volume, but during the summer, I bust out the countertop oven. It's a really basic model, but it gets the job done without putting off as much heat. Aside from all of that, I hope your wife's memory is a blessing to you.
When my microwave died, I bought a microwave/convection oven. You can do just about anything in it except grill.
When I look at an American stove, I can't help but think of ALF trying to cook a duck à l'orange, forgetting to light the gas and ending up flying through the house to the front door when the kitchen exploded. 😂
Nobody can buy a gas stove that needs a match to light it in the u.s. that was changed many years ago. 🇺🇸
@@libertyman3729Not true. You can easily buy a used one.
On older stoves, there is a component called a pilot light. This component burns and maintains the gas valve in the open position. It also assures the gas ignites when the valve is turned on. On modern stoves, it's all electronic, and the gas valve will not open until a flame is proven.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's been at least 50 years since I heard of a stove blowing up because of gas failing to ignite.
@@PrimericanIdol they are not supposed to be sold anymore. So if you are buying a used one it is illegally being sold. The standard prohibited standing pilot lights in gas ranges and ovens that have an electrical supply cord. In a 2009 final rule, DOE extended the "no standing pilot light" requirement to include all gas cooking products whether or not they have an electrical cord.
@@williamcahill2462 Exactly, my old apartment it took the landlord a year to change the stove because it was leaking gas to the point where I had to turn the gas off if I wasn't using it. It was several months before we figured out it was gas that we were smelling and yet every time we lit the stove nothing blew up. It turned out to be the stove and the line connected to the stove leaking. He was a slumlord...
The German ovens are convection ovens, the fan circulates the hot air, while most American ovens are conventional ovens, the hot air just circulates based on the physics of hot air. That is why it takes longer to cook items, especially frozen pizza in the US.
moving the kitchen from place to place is not that hard as it sounds. all cabinets have standart sizes that makes rearange everything to the new place easy. most of the time you need only a new coutertop. but the most important thing is, the kitchen is build after your taste and not after the landlords or preowners taste.
ugh - not going to happen in my life
My older brother was a professional chef. In his house, as at his work, he always had a gas stove top and an electric oven. It was a matter of greater control over cooking temperatures. It worked, he was a great cook. He's retired now and has gas everything where he lives in Wisconsin. We grew up in Michigan and had gas everything. I live in Florida now and its electric everything.
Yes, Feli says that "When you have a gas range, you also have a gas oven", but I think it's only about 50% of the time.
It's sort of common if you have a built in oven for it to be electric convection with possibly a microwave function. Separate stovetops are probably about 50% gas,though. Separate built in ovens and cooktops are way more expensive than a basic 30" stove, so those things are typically only found in larger custom built houses in North America.
Gas stoves are expensive. I would like to have gas but can't afford it.
@@suzieseabee It depends on where you live. Where I lived in Cali, the electricity was more expensive and the gas was cheaper.
@@shadowkissed2370 they do seem to be more popular in the western states than Eastern Canada. A lot of our older homes have or recently had oil or electric heat, so it was more convenient to use an electric stove than install a propane tank for just the stove in the regions that don't have natural gas.
A gallon of milk usually doesn't last all that long because we cook with it, drink it, and use it in cereal.
I think that’s far more common in the elderly and lower socioeconomic areas. In general with the more modern research I only know two families that routinely buy cow milk in the US.
@@lijohnyoutube101 Dairy plays a significant role in the American diet: 84 percent of US consumers eat and drink dairy or dairy alternatives, and only 16 percent don't consume either product.
@@TeamEvil84 ‘dairy alternatives’ depending on study read/variables only about 60 percent of US drinks cows milk and its far more common in less educated areas and in older adults.
@@lijohnyoutube101 Are you a liberal?
@lijohnyoutube101 people buy cows milk for their kids after they stopped drinking breast milk or formula (if they aren't lactose intolerant). Kids drink whole milk until they are 2. Now if toddlers eat cheese, yogurt, ice cream (in moderation), seeds, some leafy greens, etc they don't have to drink milk. Cheese is either crappy for you, or super expensive in the US so most parents don't do this. I'm upper middle class and in a well educated area I still use milk for my protein shakes, coffee, banana pudding, mashed potatoes, some sauces, cobbler, home made Mac and cheese, some homemade hot chocolate recipes, etc. Youre the one thats not educated. Youre making blanket statements. There's definitely nothing like a small glass of milk with a chocolate chip cookie. Some teenagers will chop up their cookie and put it into the milk and have the cookie absorb the milk (yes some teenagers are weird).
Although natural gas stoves and cooktops are very common in the U.S., they only account for about 40% of homes and apartments. I've lived in the midwest most of my life and all of my stoves have been electric. I moved to Oregon in 2019 and my house here had a gas cooktop, but I replaced it with an induction cooktop 2 years ago and I'm much happier.
True! In Germany it's about 6%, so a huge difference
Same here. I moved from California to Washington 2 years ago. Our brand new house came with a gas cook top. Unfreakinbelievable! We got rid of it as fast as we could and got an induction top. Much much nicer!
I never heard of a moving kitchen. My Oma and Opa in Heidelberg had a fairly large permanent kitchen. This was about 50 years ago so they may have changed. 😂
I mean, you only move the kitchen when you move to a new place, you're not moving it around while you live there lol
One of the other videos pointed out the difference in distances in the US vs Germany. This partially explains the large refrigerators in the US in order to cut down on driving.
For what its worth, I have a fridge/freezer in the kitchen. A full size, upright freezer in the garage. A European sized refrigerator in the garage. A large chest freezer in the basement. If we aren't able to leave the house for 5 weeks, we'll be okay.
I have a small cabin (16 x 20) and I have a small chest freezer on the porch. I save a lot of money buying things on sale--plus--it's a long ways to the store.
I would not want to see your electricity bill with all that! 😅
@@AHVENAN Refrigerators and freezers don't cost that much to run if you have modern ones. Energy Star chest freezers (or deep freezes as some call them) cost $30 per year to run while upright freezers cost $60 per year to run. (heat can't rush into a chest freezer when you open it, thus the big difference in cost) An Energy Star refrigerator may run around $35 per year. Compare that to a 1980s refrigerator that would cost $200 per year. (yes, there are probably taxes and other fees that make this numbers a bit larger, but Energy Star appliances use far less power than those from back in the day)
Yes, everything brakes down to car dependency
US also has more multi-person households than European countries due to the higher birthrate and other socialisation.
Gas cooktops are regional. I grew up in the Northeast and since we don't use gas to heat the house, we don't use it for cooking. I now live in the mid-Atlantic and here gas is used for household heating, so also for the cooktop. Bosch is a popular German brand of dishwasher in the US and it works great.
I don't like the Bosch dishwashers. It's the bottom rack that particularly irritates me. It is wavy and you're supposed to load it just so. It might be great for loading tones of plates, but it doesn't accommodate what we want to load into it. We replaced our Bosch with a Whirlpool. The bottom rack is flat with straight tines. It may not accommodate the most plates and such, but we can throw damn near anything in there. A top rack support did break as you can throw a ton of glasses and such up there. The replacement supports where made of metal and are much beefier and we haven't had a problem since.
I grew up with electric stoves in Michigan (my mom's house still has one). When I moved to Chicago every apartment had a gas stove.
@@kevingray8616 I don't know what you mean about wavy. I do know there are lots of Bosch models. There is the line across the back for plates and two columns in front.
German here. I don't have a dishwasher, my kitchen doesn't have enough space for it. But all my other appliances are Bosch and I really love them!
Back in Chicago, we only had gas burners.
I'm German, where we usually never have gas, thus no gas burners. Here in Switzerland, where I live, we also use electricity to cook. I used to hate it, but with modern burners it goes very quick. No ultra-heavy plates that take forever to heat up before passing the heat to the pot.
Looking forward to my american style fridge/freezer after I move. Best way to have icecubes and chilled water. One thing I miss in Europe.
Being 64 years old and moving around a lot, I’ve seen it all regarding US kitchens. The style has changed dramatically over the decades. From all white metal cabinets and counters to pastel pinks and greens in the 50s to Formica and patterns in the 60s to “harvest yellow” in the 70s to colonial style light woods in the 80s, back to white in the 90s, to granite and stainless in modern kitchens.
Typically in the US, If it is screwed in, it stays in. Even if you sell a house everything attached stays with the house. It has to be a written agreement about anything screwed in to be removed at the time of sale. I think gas is more common here because gas per unit is typically cheaper than electric per unit. Also, if there is an issue with the electricity a gas stove can still be used to cook and bake food, creating heat. Never go to bed with the stove/oven running. Cooking can help heat the space.
Same in Germany. Just the kitchen is screwed as much as your Sofa (not at all). Cupboards hanging on the wall like pictures. And you can take away your pictures, can't you. If people want to have gas, they had to buy their propane in bottles. Gas in the appartment was common maybe 1860-1960, it's not built in today any more.
@@holger_p you can take your pictures. Most salespeople will tell you to take them down to make the place less personal for potential buyers.
In old Berlin appartments you can sometimes still find a little extra room on one side of the kitchen, normally facing outside walls and without heating (to keep things fresh without the need to cool).
Speisekammer
Yep, especially in Altbau apartments pantries are pretty common. Though not as much as they used to be, because in many old buildings, the pantry was usually the place that bathrooms got retrofitted into when private bathrooms became popular.
That's really cool!
In old houses in Stuttgart it was common to have a small build in closet on the balcony as a pantry.
At my grandparents' house (on the Schwäbische Alb) they have also a pantry(Speisekammer) where my grandma stores some food and also some appliances and tools. As a kid I found this room really cool, especially the fact that there was Knäckebrot and some cookies
Wir sind Südtiroler und haben eine "deutsche" Wohnküche mit NEFF-Geräten, Ofen auf Augenhöhe, eingebaute Geschirrspühlmaschine, sechs verschiedenen, versteckten Müllkübel (reicht nicht, da wir 8 verscheidene Abfälle sammeln: Papier, Kartone, Glas/Metal, Plastik, Biomüll, Restmüll, Komposit verpackungen (Tetrapck/Evopack); Altbatterien) nur die Mikrowelle ist freistehend und Italienisch (DeLonghi)!
Klingt super. Ofen auf Arbeitshöhe ist echt ein Comfort. Hatten wir früher in Deutschland nicht - da war das immer kombiniert mit dem Herd.
Ich ziehe bald um und werde einen Teil der Müllcontainer auf dem Balkon aufstellen, dann gibts drinnen keine Insekten.
I have known some apartment dwellers to store their apartment stove and fridge and buy their own nicer one. The one that came with the apartment, when they move, goes back into the apartment.
they sound creepy - stay away from them. You have been warned.
I've seen pantries in Germany, usually under the label "Speisekammer", or in Tyrol, just "Speis". If your house was build before World War I, it probably has a Speisekammer. I've also grown up with double sinks, where the second sink often was occupied by a drying basket for the dishes.
19:35 As far as I know this is called country house.
ditto; we have speisekammer in croatia and italy too....
I'm in Tennessee. I have a wall oven separate from the stove. My stove is electric and looks like the induction top. It's glass on the top and conceals the coils. Our garbage can is built in into a kitchen cabinet. It's not sitting out in the open. I have a kettle and boil the water on the stovetop for my tea. I can't believe that Germans have to furnish the kitchen when they rent or buy an apartment. I can't believe washing machines in the kitchen EXCEPT when I moved into an apartment in 2004 here in TN, they had a very small washer and dryer in the kitchen. that was the most weirdest thing to me. But I think it was a space saving issue.
Wow, having a kitchen in its own room sounds fantastic!
Hell, at Grandpa's farm, in Florida, the kitchen was its own building. The elevated porch connected the kitchen to the rest of the house. The outhouse was out in the yard.
We do have walk in pantries in Germany, actually, it's the good old "Vorratskammer" :-). The pantry situation in Germany depends on the age of your home, I suppose. We've bought a house from the 1870s and there is a pantry next to the kitchen. Although, back in the 1950s, it was originally adjoining the master bedroom - so no one could just get in and grab some food without the parents noticing, I guess.
I (US American) grew up with a gas stove/oven and used them often in restaurants. I personally find them easier to gauge by eye. That may just be from frequent practice.
How can you evaluate "easier" if you haven't tried anything else ? On induction you see "a pott on the stove could be hot", no pott on the stove - definitly no heat. Very easy to see with your eyes.
It's a little like you say, mail on paper is better cause you can really see it, while for email you need an app to check it.
they are much easier to gauge, agreed
@@holger_p I've tried all 3 versions, gas definitely best, easiest, most precise (cheapest, too)
@@Marcel_Audubon including induction ? Since natural gas in the pipelines and a prohibition of gas bottles in appartments, it's almost completly gone in germany.
The biggest contra is the cleaning.
Glas really is the preference.
I think the sizes of kitchens in Germany vary a lot with how old the building and the apartments are because I've noticed that a lot of kitchens in buildings from pre-war are a lot bigger and usually have a pantry whereas buildings from the 60s-80s usually have way smaller kitchens (but they're a lot less spacious in general). I've also mostly ever seen wooden, framed country-side style kitchens in Germany than the modern sleek ones, so learning that these are more common in Germany was pretty interesting lol
This is, if renters, not owners decide about the kitchen, they decide if they replace the old one or not. People go to IKEA and can only buy what they offer.
"Country-style" is rather a newer fashion, may from 1990-2010. Before it was with orange-greeny-plastic look from the 70ies.
My kitchen is 5 years old, it's woulden but in concrete look.
Thanks for sharing. We spent a few weeks in Germany over the summer and we absolutely loved everything about it, everything. Funny thing though, we went to the store and bought icecream, when we got back to our AirbNb, we noticed in our very adorable small fridge that there was no freezer. Needless to say, we all enjoyed icecream right then.
That's why there are Italian ice cream parlors everywhere.😂
I'm glad you liked it here.
Next time check in advance. If it's not mentioned, ask if the fridge has a freezing compartment. Not all Airbnbs will have it as they save on decent fridges, but you'll find one.
Now in the US, a gas cooktop may come with an electric oven. I recently read an article stating that garbage disposals are only to used for the food stuck on your dishes. The rest of the food waste goes in the trash can.
As a fellow german I want to share my opinion on 2 things you mentioned:
1. I like that I move with my whole kitchen, even though it is a lot of work. We moved twice in the last 2 years so I know what I am talking about;).
We have also a kitchen from IKEA and it is very flexible in how you put it together.
So before we moved I would sit down with the IKEA kitchen planer online tool and decide how to build it, my girlfriend would then tell me what she doesn't like and I would replan it until she gives her approval. Since the kitchen would always get bigger I would then buy new cabinets to extend the kitchen and also a new countertop since I could not use the old one (the placements of the sink and stove were different). The final steps are doing the cutouts in the countertop and putting everything together which takes about half a day or even a day.
I can say that it is really satisfying and it always feels like a new kitchen.
2. We live together with a baby, 2 cats and a dog.
We did have an open room concept before were living room, dinning room and kitchen were combined.
It was a nightmare. The cats would always hop on the counter so we had to clean up right after cooking or lure the cats in a different room to lock them away and everything would smell after cooking.
So I like our new kitchen which is a seperate room where we can just close the door and do the dishes later on.
yeah, most slobs prefer a kitchen hidden behind a door
The walk in wall closet is called a Speisekammer, a small room next to the kitchen for storage. One by one meter or so in size. At least in the north of Germany some homes have that. Maybe more older homes and not new builds.
Quite funny, I learned in school to use the double sink. But I never came across them in any houses.
I do have a double sink and many of my friends as well, but to be fair, the second sink is half as big! Deep south Bavaria.
I was stationed in Augsburg Germany in the early 80's. Lived on the economy in two different apartments. The first one was tiny and the kitchen was more like a boat galley (with a 3 burner gas range). The second one was larger, nicer and of course more expensive. That one came with a partial kitchen- stove, sink, and two cabinets. It was large enough to have room for a table, although there was a combined living /dining area in the apartment. The open concept for kitchens is relatively recent in the US. Most of the homes I visited while growing up had a separate kitchen and a dining room or arear adjacent. Prior to WWII, many families had "help" to do some of the household chores including cooking. And in larger, more affluent homes, the kitchen was the cook's domain where the lady of the house did not enter except to speak to the cook. The kitchen was separate to keep the smells away from the rest of the house. The fish may be delicious on your plate, but you may not want to smell it all night in the living room.
In traveling around Augsburg I noticed that it was a city of neighborhoods, each with a little business district of little shops, baker, butcher, green grocer, etc. On any given day one could see the Hausfraus going shopping with their baskets.
All in all, I found living in Germany like living in the US during the 50's and early 60's. The shops were mostly closed in the evening, and on on Sunday, so you had to make sure you were stocked up on anything you might need.
I think kitchens were also kept separate to keep heat out of the rest of the house before air conditioning. My home was built in that era and has two doorways between the kitchen and other rooms. It is a small house, small town, working class, and I don't think they would have hired a cook.
@@EinsteinsHair From what I remember of German weather keeping heat out of the rest of the house would not be a concern. In the southern US it most surely would be. In colonial times, sometimes the kitchen was a separate outside.
The same here in Germany.
But back then the kitchen was separated because there was no way to remove odours apart from an open window. Today there are good exhaust air systems that were pure science fiction 50 years ago.
Only when this technology became "affordable" did the walls disappear at the same time.
I wish in communities here in America would go back to the local butcher and other smaller shops. It would build a sense of community and it would get rid of those mass Chinese money making machines.
@@fedupamerican6534 I live in rural Wisconsin and everyone here shops local.
I think of wall ovens as something from the 70s.
And 2DF Kuechenschlacht!
I have only ever seen one kitchen from the 70s that has a wall oven here in Germany, and that is the kitchen of our landlady's mother. They only became really popular in the last 20 years
My grandmother's house in Texas (built maybe in the 1940s, but I'm not sure) had a washing machine in the kitchen. It's rare in the US, but not unheard of in older homes.
Similarly, when I got a stackable washer and dryer in my early-1900s condo, I put them in the kitchen because it was the only room with both the space (barely) and existing water and gas lines. Would have been prohibitively expensive to put them anywhere else. Just part of fitting a modern lifestyle into an old home!
Of course there are many apartments in the US where there are hookups for washers and dryers in the kitchen, so for flat dwellers, having a washing machine in the kitchen isn't so strange.
My American town house was built in the 70s. It's a tiny thing so space is premium. My stacker unit is in my kitchen. My water softener is also in the kitchen and the furnace and water heater is on 2nd floor. I live in the upper midwest so those things are needed to be inside.
nasty ... I wouldn't eat at anyone's house who brought their dirty clothes into the kitchen (gag)
@@Marcel_Audubon What about dirty dishes? 🤔
Gas stoves in the US is very much a regional thing - only 38%ish of stoves are gas. In New Jersey, California, New York and a few other places it's over 65% but very low in other places.
Didn't know that. Thanks for the information. I have some relatives in Chicago and they all have gas, so I thought it would be like this everywhere.
@@svr5423 I left out Illinois and Nevada where gas is very common
Grew up in NJ and had a gas stove. Moved to Va: surprise, electric stove. Less control, more shifting of pots to compensate. Oh, for the joys of gas!
Gas vs. Electric stoves in the US has a strong regional component. I live in the South (Northern Florida) and the majority of the stoves here are electric (or increasingly induction). My family moved to Florida from Southern California, where gas stoves are pretty standard. I mostly learned to cook on electric but my mom learned on gas. She hates cooking on electric but has made it work after all these years!
It's the same thing in Germany. Here in Berlin gas stoves are very common. But before I moved here (from the southwestern part) I've never seen it before.
I hate gas stoves, I don't trust it. Recently, a home completely exploded to nothing due to a gas leak. I don't trust gas whatsoever. I learned to cook on electric stove and have induction stove at home. Roomie recently shattered the glass top of induction stove, still works though. She is going to have to replace it eventually, yikes!
One reason less electric stoves in the US is the electric system. In the US the system voltage for common circuits is 120V and for high performance users it is 240V. For a 4 or 6 plate stove 240 V is not enough. For that case you need thicker cables to transport the higher current. In Germany and Europe we have 3 Phase Current with 230V phase to neutral wire.With it is easy to power 4 and 6 plate stove with oven. Gas stoves are available in Germany but not so common. Professional chefs prefer gas stoves. Gas stoves can have an electrical connection for temperature. But for stat you need a common 230V plug.
I miss cooking with gas. Being able to change the temperature immediately is perfect for good cooking.
Some parts of the US are banning gas stoves in new construction for climate reasons. My 1950s house had a gas heater and gas jets in the fireplace but the stove, water heater, and dryer were electric. I've never had a gas stove except when I visited Russia.
One thing people seem to forget is the history of large appliances and pantries and freezers. Mainly that in some areas going to get groceries was actually a trip. Even in the past 20 years things have gotten a lot easier. I remember when stores closed early some days and did not open on Sundays at all. When I was a kid we would have to drive over an hour to my grandmothers to take her grocery shopping. There was a small store near her but that was expensive. And winter is not conducive to going out. Stocking up was what you did. Now a days things are closer and the stocking up mentality is basically being breed out of the younger generation.
Every time I see a video of smaller refrigerators, I think "How did they manage during the pandemic?" Like, they'd have to go out every few days for food during lockdown. That had to be difficult.
In my country grocery shopping was never restricted other than having to wear a mask and groups weren't allowed. So a small fridge wasn't a problem as you could still go to the store whenever you wanted.
@@picobello99 I'd be worried about more chance of exposure the more I had to leave my house.
Very interesting. In my experience in the US, gas stoves are preferred by people who are seriously into cooking. Instant on/off and easier to control the temperature. You will find regional differences as well in those areas of the country where most houses have individual natural gas lines that provide fuel for heating, stoves, and even dryers (mostly out west i think). I grew up with this living in town in the Rocky Mountain north. Rural friends and family have a large outdoor propane tank that is refilled when needed by a guy with a truck. I had natural gas in San Diego proper until i moved last year. So bummed that i now have to deal with an electric stove and heat in my new house. I HAVE managed to set electric stoves and ovens on fire, and have learned to check inside for leftover pizza boxes before turning it on. Just my observations having been born and lived all over the US for 63 years (although not in Cincinnati 😊)
This isn't much of a consideration in Germany as there's aren't serious tornadoes or earthquakes or obviously hurricanes and the summers/winters are pretty mild weather wise compared to most of the Midwest. Flooding is usually the worst Germany has to deal with and at that point, you aren't living in your house anymore anyway.
I used to prefer gas stoves, but the modern electric (ceramic or induction) are equally usable in my view.
Hated the old ones with heavy protruding burners that take forever to heat up and then stay hot for an hour after you turn it off.
Currently moving from Essen and sold my kitchen last week. It's so wild the kitchen don't come with the house. Thank god the new place has everything. Minus a fridge lol
that's not everything then, Mike hahaha!
Regarding the distance between two sides of the kitchen: It's not just because of efficiency in space (or lack thereof) but also efficiency when working in the kitchen. As an example, when you're taking a hot tray out of the oven, it's much quicker to put it down on the counter when you don't need to walk several steps to get there - plus you avoid the danger of dropping it accidentally. Generally the optimal distance between the different parts of the kitchen is considered to be three to four feet max. So even if you have a lot of room in your kitchen, it usually makes sense to keep things compact. That's called German engineering. 😉
I live in Norway, and I have bought and rented in Norway and Sweden, all appliances that are fixed, that is to say, all doors, kitchen cabinets, stoves, oventops, floors, lamps and whatever belongs to the dwelling, rented or not. I thappens that people that moves take the ovens and fridges out, but then the renter or buyer by law can buy these tigs and deduct it from the price or rent. Fridges ara often in the same styles as kitchen cabinets as in Germany, but if they are standalone, and only connected by a plug, then it is not fixed, and the owner can take it out, same thing goes for washing machines and diswashers, it all depends how integrated they are. We also use marble and granite countertops. But the kitchens, like Germany are a separate room, but the half open kitchen is becoming more popular, as the kitchen an pantry style is making it's return.
In the old days , whwn you had staff there was a kitchen downstairs, but they also had a pantry next to the dining room upstairs, so did not have to go up and down for everything.
In Norway, a distinction is made between fixed and not.fixed furnishings. Bathroom furnishings and kitchen are fixed and the home is always sold with it. Sofa and table... are not fixed...
I bought an entire kitchen with cabinets and everything near Bergen a few years ago. I didn't know what I was getting into 🤯 It took almost 3 days to remove everything.
Exactly the same as the as the US
@@TheMVCoho "If it is screwed down, it is part of the deal" (Unless you clearly identify what will be removed, during the sales process. Or even better, remove it before showing the home).
@@CineSoar Kitchen are "screwed down" in the US? They usually aren't in Germany.
In Germany basic apartment standards are: A bathroom with a toilet bowl, a bathroom sink, a shower cubicle and/or bathtub, but no furniture (so no mirror, no furniture, nothing), no furniture anywhere else either, only the required connectors, to install your kitchen (for example). And lamps are also not part of the deal. You have to install your own lights. There will only be elctric wires hanging out of the walls and ceiling.
I confess that to me, this is one of the strangest differences between here and Germany. (The fact that you have to move your kitchen)
This isn't a problem for us 😂. Did it twice myself and I'm a woman. We simply rearrange all the cabinets, stove and b I prefer my own, before one who the previous tenants made very dirty or something is broken.
I prefer my own rather than one that was damaged or dirtied by the previous tenant. But it's not uncommon anymore to have a good build in kitchen from the Landlord. You simply have to pay a few month of rental deposit against theft or damage.
@ericvanvlanderen. German here. Moving your kitchen in germany is totally crazy.
@@tnit7554 People seem to manage fine, though
The open kitchen area design began in the ‘50s. The early ‘50s house my parents bought had a “cafe door,” a kind of swinging half door, divided. My dad unscrewed it from the wall the first time it swung and hit one of my toddler siblings smack in the face. From there on it was a doorway, not a door, always open to the dining room. Small as the kitchen was, the builders had included not a “breakfast bar” but a “breakfast nook” in the kitchen. The nook was in no way large enough for the never ending stream of incoming boomers, so mom just put the dryer there. That “wall closet” in the kitchen we never called anything but the pantry. Large fridges evolved from one door to two door; at first the second door was a half door freezer. Then it evolved to a full door. But for my parents who grew up with ice boxes a quarter the size of the ‘50s appliance, it was never a fridge but always “the ice box.” The top of the ice box was the land where cereal boxes sprouted. There were never less than six boxes which as my brothers’ appetites exploded, grew to ten to twelve. This was mostly due to one tall, broad shouldered brother with the middle name Gustav who was the spitting image of a Medieval German farmer named Hans. The super-sized grocery store mom shopped in, one of the first before the big chains we now know, actually had a German name. As the family grew, when a newer fridge came, the old one went to the closed-in back porch to use the freezer for storing the half pig or quarter beef dad bought. The fridge section was for Kool-Aid, sometimes sodas for us kids in the summer. We had a bread box, but by the time I had my own apartment bread boxes were kaput. Washer and dryer in the basement or laundry room is a big improvement. Kitchen dryer and oven going at the same time was a recipe for heat stroke. Granite countertops crept in in the ‘80s and were the posh thing to have by the ‘90s. We have so much granite in the US a whole state is named The Granite State. What you missed is that what appliances are or are not in the kitchen depends on where you live in our huge nation. I’ve lived in five states. In the south the fridge comes with the house or apartment. Not so in many places in the north, even apartments. Residence seekers in the northeast know to always ask if the place comes with a fridge. You also didn’t mention much about how the kitchen is used socially. Somewhere in the ‘70s it began to be fashionable to not just use the kitchen for cooking but for socializing. The party’s not just in the living room but in the kitchen. Hence it’s nice to have open space with lots of countertop and “breakfast” stools. I say this so my German cousins don’t think we’re wasting space. We just want to park comfortably, family birthday celebrations being big to-dos that may include cousins, aunts and uncles. God forbid Aunt Meta has no comfortable spot to nurse her Pilsner. Good job, Feli, and thanks to 🇩🇪 for helping 🇺🇦. 🇺🇸& 🇩🇪 allies forever.
Real
West Coast, fridges and other large appliances stay with the house
Actually the direct visual confirmation of the heat output through the flame size is what I really like when cooking. You can perfectly "see" the heat output. This is why I use use gas . (German here btw.)
Very cool content right here. Interesting. The point about gas stoves/ovens that you may or may not have considered is, when the home loses power, people can still cook. That is the only reason I have gas lines to hot water tank for hot showers, gas fire place for heat and then the before mentioned range/oven for food. Gas keeps going even after the power is out. So it is a consideration for convenience and long term indoor survival. And I was glad you gave your opinion on which you liked better, USA or German Kitchens. BTW, your cat is terrific! Loved the interaction there. 🤣
A lot of modern gas appliances use electricity to light the burners, no more pilot light.
That's nothing a match won't fix in 10 seconds or less. @@dougbrowning82
@@dougbrowning82 Matches still light gas tho. 😝 Fire mixed with gas will ignite it. Tested and proven over and over again.
See, in Germany houses don’t lose power (or very rarely, not for days like in the US) because power lines are underground
@@barbaras5550 Actually, there are a lot of places in the USA where power is underground as well. It is complicated and various reason factor in. 1 example is the grid is not being updated to handle the growing needs.
I grew up in older homes that had the kitchen in its own room. The "open plan" became more popular later, although I believe it was driven by builders not wanting to build a separate room. The logic they used is that the kitchen is the center of activity, with people chatting or helping while a meal is being made, so the larger, open space is allows for that. Personally, I prefer a separate room, but that's just me. As for gas vs. electric, here in parts of California new homes must be all electric. Gas is no longer allowed for environmental reasons. I grew up in the northeast where gas is common and learned to cook with it. Then I moved to Florida where gas wasn't available and had to adjust. I still prefer gas. My current house has gas heat and water heaters and a gas line running through the house to outside where one could hook up a natural gas grill. But for some reason the builder didn't run the gas line to the kitchen, so the range is electric. Those with coils are older. Today only the cheapest models have exposed coils like that. I have a smooth glass top ( which has coils under the glass), and two ovens. One is full sized, the other is half sized and I use that one far more often then the big one. My microwave is separate, not over the stove, but that's because I remodeled the kitchen. The original one was over the stove. The vent didn't work very well, but when I did the remodel, I realized why...the builder never attached the exhaust port from the vent to the pipe going outside! All this was hidden behind a box, which sort of acted as a plenum. Sort of.
The idea of taking your kitchen with you, so common in Germany, is not something I've ever seen in the US, and it seems weird, as you noted. My friend in Germany recently moved into an apartment that came with a kitchen, as well as flooring. But many she looked at came with neither. She has a tiny dishwasher and clothes washer in the kitchen, which is better than not having them, I guess. Having a separate laundry room is very common in the US.
Lastly, styles change, especially in the US. Colors, painted cabinets, blacks/grays/whites are more common now. Natural or stained wood is less common, but is my preference. I have to say that I do like the minimalist look of the modern, Euro kitchens though.
Great video!
OMG - I am American and had no idea that Germany is smaller than Texas. This place is huge!
It really depends on the region. In some regions of the US where there is a lot of hydroelectric power or electricity is cheaper, you'll see electric stoves. In other areas, gas is more common.
Hi Feli,💗💗 you are the bit of sun shine in my day, that is a great report on the kitchens thank you
And at 4:18 she even mentions Canada. Apparently she has relatives in Ontario.
This may be different now, but some features I remember from living in Germany in the 80s: water heaters mounted on the wall directly above the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Also, we had no laundry facilities available in any of the apartments/apartment buildings I lived in. We washed our clothes by hand in the bathtub. We had a motorized spinner to take the water out of the clothes, then dried the laundry on folding drying racks in the living room. Also, heating oil was so expensive the one time we rented a house that we only heated the kitchen, living room, and the one bathroom with a tub in it. Everything else was closed off and kept cold, sometimes to the point of ice forming on the inside of the windows.
Was that the 1880s? I lived in Germany in the 1980s and don’t recognise any of this. Maybe it was specific to where you were staying?
As a german who is born in 1993 i am completely shockt 😮 i've never heard about everything you are describing. Sounds Horrible.
I agree. I purchased a Miele dishwasher and couldn't believe how well it worked. I've had 4 or 5 others in my life and none worked well. Hands off to the Germans!
That idea about the kitchen not coming with the rental trips me out. I remember when I moved from Virginia to North Carolina and learned that the refrigerator didn’t come with the house if you bought it, I thought that was crazy. It always did in Virginia. I can’t imagine having to build a kitchen from scratch.
In many cases, you can buy the kitchen from the previous tenant, unless the apartment is freshly renovated or the previous tenant took their kitchen with them. Many Germans just like to have their own kitchen, since they don't view renting as a short-term solution, but something permanent. So, they like to furnish their apartments just the way you would furnish a house, and that means also bringing or buying your own kitchen. After all, the previous tenant or the landlord most likely do not share your taste in kitchen design, and nobody wants to live with a kitchen they don't like for years. At least many Germans don't want that
Garage beer fridge is pretty common. That's where you put the old one when you buy a new one. Chest freezer in the basement is for the processed elk and Costco haul.
Here in England I keep my beer in what I call 'the infinite fridge'. Basically, it's so damned cold here, I keep beer outside the back door, which is generally lower than fridge temperature. Give me a Tennessee hug any day over this place. Why was I born in the wrong country?
I have.lived in Minnesota and am in Arkansas. I have never heard it referred to as a chest! It's a deep freezer!!!! Fridge, freezer, deep freezer.....
@@PoppiMorrison-nk6kwDeep Freezer is one term. OR some people (and stores) distinguish between “upright” or “chest” freezers.
@@PoppiMorrison-nk6kwI am second generation retired military, and I have lived all over. I have heard them called both. Chest freezer and deep freezer. However, I have lived outside the USA for nearly twenty years, and I see them being called chest freezers more often in the countries I have lived.
Spray bottle of water helped train our cat to stay off the kitchen counter.
Cleaning the counters with citrus based cleaners do as well, since cats hate citrus.
I think we (household of 2) are unique, we have 3 freezers and 2 fridges. 1 American double door with freezer and fridge(for food), 1 standalone freezer(for meat), and 1 fridge(for drinks) with the freezer(for bread) in the bottom.
we live in the south east of the Netherlands and actually do our shopping allot in Germany, just because many things are way cheaper there.
What I like about a gas cooktop is the immediacy of the heat. When you turn it on, it is ON, and when you turn it off, it is OFF. No waiting a couple minutes for the coils to come up to heat, and when you turn it off, you can leave your skillet or pot in place and not burn the food because the coils are still hot for a bit.
Had gas stoves in New York. When we moved to Florida, it was electric. Got an induction stove when I renovated one of the houses that I lived in. otherwise, I have the ones with the heating coil. Same thing with the oven They have a special 4-prong plug which I think is 220V. I've had electric oven on fire before. Keep the fire extinguisher - or sand -- handy. The fridge, garbage disposer, microwave, and dishwasher all run on 110V. Oh, and had those accordian doors to hide the washer (110V) and dryer (220V)
Gas stoves give you immediate heating and also immediate stopping and therefore better for cooks that want to contgrol their cooking.
Same with induction, except that it's even quicker in my experience.
Danie's Dad Here- And if the power goes out (for whatever reason)... what do you do then? I am REALLY interested in your answer .... I have natural gas, which in America, is REALLY CHEAP right now ... but propane gives you some cushion fo price shocks or even total collapse .... @@FelifromGermany
@@danieparriott265 I mean that's a pretty obvious answer :) In that case, it would definitely be useful to have a gas stove.
@@FelifromGermanyNa, wenn der böse Bagger 40 Kilometer entfernt die Gasleitung erwischt, hat ja auch das halbe Land kein Gas - wo ist der Unterschied?
@@jrgptr935 That’s very rare, as that is a huge explosion risk. However, electrical lines usually run overhead, so storms often knock them down or otherwise damage equipment. In all my 54 years, I’ve had one gas leak, but too many electrical outages to count. And the gas leak was from degrading pipes, not being accidentally dug up.
Gas oven burners are surrounded by steel barriers; spills flow down the bottom vents and into the drawer below. They do not impinge on the flame. Note the fire in the oven at 13:25 is in an electric oven, not a gas oven. The owner has put a layer of aluminum foil below the heating element, probably intended to catch spills. That's a big No-No. The highly reflective foil will trap heat and possibly melt, or raise the oven base temperature way too high which can ignite grease, oil, etc. The proper way to catch spills is to put a pan right under the pan with the food being baked, the same size or only very slightly larger.
many kitchens in the USA especially in modest priced or older homes have the kitchen in a separate room, usually they dont have doors on them
Feli. If you go to any UA-cam video about these 20-40-80 million dollar mega mansions in the Hollywood hills and stuff, they will ALL have Miele appliances. Just as certain as they will have Italian marble.
About half of people in the U.S. rent, as so the reason most homes are like that is because the owner will just buy the cheapest appliance and drop it in. Sometimes you have cabinets, sometimes not. Sometimes you have thin windows and linoleum floors, sometimes not - whatever was cheapest to build at the time. U.S. homes build since WWII by and large are like that. Cheap as possible, most space as possible within that budget. And last maybe 30-40 years before they are basically tear-downs.
@@plektosgamingAs of 2023 only 36% of people in the USA rent. The home ownership rate in the USA has stayed between 61 to 65% since the 1960s. Despite the doom and gloom being reported in the media, that figure hasn't changed, and isn't likely to do so.
@@plektosgaming I'm always "shocked" when I see how thin the walls are in many US homes. As kids, we were playfighting and someone was thrown into the wall. He was ok, the wall not so.
During Corona, when I informed myself about home defense, many americans said to be careful with buckshot and slugs and they may easily penetrate walls and injure other family members. Not so in Switzerland, where walls are usually thick steel reinforced concrete.
@@svr5423sounds like a bizarrely unusual case. I can’t think of a place I’ve ever lived or visited that isn’t as sturdy. You’d need a very large truck to hope to dent the walls in homes where I’ve lived, except Hawaii, which does use single-wall construction, which makes sense for the climate.
My biggest shock when I came to Germany and saw the kitchen is that... it wasn't there! That's right, even if you move into a rental, you have to buy your own kitchen!!
Look at EBK Einbauküche
Fitten kitchen
All my apartments had one.🇩🇪
My biggest shock when moving to the USA would be if I moved into a house or apartment with a really ugly kitchen. I want to implement my own style in a room like the kitchen, where most of the family's life takes place, and the kitchens I've seen so far on my visits to the USA are not my style. I wouldn't feel comfortable in them.
@@gerhardma4297That is very fixable, though. You'd just buy a house with a huge kitchen space.
I truly doubt that anybody you rented from would want for you to tear up their kitchen space for the hell of it, though.
@@ChristopherX30 That's where German mentality differs. Germans don't view apartments as a short-term solution, they live there long-term and view them as a permanent home. And you don't want a kitchen that was chosen by someone else who probably doesn't share your taste in interior design when you're gonna be living in that place for the next decade or longer.
My parents still live in the apartment that they moved into during the late 90s, shortly before their marriage and my birth. My parents installed their own kitchen (an old one someone in our extended family didn't need anymore) when they moved in, and we had a new modern kitchen put in a few years back. If our landlady had provided a kitchen back then, we would've had to go to her every time something broke or needed fixing, and it definitely would've been much more of a hassle to have the new kitchen put in.
I love how the refrigerator/freezer is disguised as a kitchen cabinet.
Cleanliness has the idea of invisible/empty/uniform, to a German. Too many materials combined hurt the eye.
@@holger_p That, and big chunky kitchen appliances just seem kinda old-fashioned to Germans. Ovens that stick out from the counter used to be a thing in the 50s and 60s, after that they went out of fashion and got replaced by the ones that are integrated into the counter that we see today
@@leDespicable Integrated is also recent, just started maybe late 90ies.
But even if not integrated, it had the same dimension as the cabinets, you had a flat front. Oven, fridge, Cabinet come in standard size (of 60x60x72cm). It's like playing Lego.
Speisekammer, Feli!
I grew up in Germany (all over) grandparents lived in Detmold, NRW. They built a house in 1932, 4 floors including the cellar and attic flat. They had central radiator heating with a boiler in the cellar. They had a big bathroom with running hot and cold water, separate bath and a shower. They had a Wohnküche and a Waschtisch where you boiled water for one bowl and drain in the second. Gas stove.And they definitely had Speisekammer - pantry - internet wall and a bit insulated. They also had 2 cold rooms in the cellar to store potatoes, home made canned fruit and veg and a huge laundry room.
My grandfather was a teacher, so not rich people, but the house was heaps ahead of American building standards.
Have a cat just like your gray kitty. His name is Dusty. He gets into trouble just like your kitty does.
Mir gefallen deine videos. Mach weiter so. ☺☺ I hope I translated it correctly. 😁😁 When I have moved, the only appliances that I have ever moved with me was the washer and dryer. The kitchen always had the fridge and the stove/oven and the dishwasher, if it had one. The cupboards were already there. But I agree, it would seem strange to me to move the kitchen with you. I also enjoy how open the kitchen is to the rest of the house. I think I would find it strange to have to go through door to go into or out of the kitchen. As for the smell of foods cooking in the kitchen, I think some food makes the house smell nicer. Like if you were baking cookies or something. Again, keep up the good work. Nochmals: Machen Sie weiter so. I hope I translated it correctly.
The video of the oven fire around 13:20 is, in fact an electric oven.
Also, not all stoves with gas top burners have gas ovens. Dual fuel ranges are gas cooktops and electric ovens.
Is this when I'm supposed to point out that at 13:24 the oven fire is in an electric oven? You can tell by the nichrome resistive heating element running around the perimeter near the floor of the oven which they've lined with aluminum foil presumably to make cleaning easier. Yes, fat will catch fire if it drips on the electric heating elements, no open flame needed. Pro tip - roast a turkey on a roasting rack in a roasting pan which will allow air to circulate around the bird producing that wonderful crispy skin and catch all the delicious fluids that drip off and at the end deglaze the pan with a little red wine to make gravy. Don't have a rack, make a bed of stuffing in the pan and lay the turkey on it so it will absorb the tasty juices that would drip off the turkey although the skin on the bottom will not have that wonderful crispness.
Typically exhaust hoods that vent the outside are for gas appliances where electric ranges generally have hoods that vent back into the room but there are grease traps that theoretically prevent spreading grease about the room.
Feli, your cats are funny. My oldest and I co-own a house in the Orlando, FL area. She has two cats. They climb on everything. Neither one seems to understand a word of English or Spanish (my ex-wife's native language and my kids know a lot and I speak some). The cats also don't seem to understand any of the other languages I have some knowledge of (mainly German, Japanese, and Italian). The only cat I ever knew who would obey commands like a dog was a cat we had when I was growing up. He obeyed my father instantly. No one else, just dad. The obedience must have resulted from getting punted down the basement stairs when dad caught the cat killing our pet parakeet.
Cats doesn't understand punishment for doing something. They just think you don't like it, and not anything else.
If a cat thinks you did something (which in your opinion is punishment) - the cat's think it's totally unfair that you suddenly didn't like it. A cat could revenge poop at a place you seem to like, if you did that.
Perhaps so, but this cat was terrified of my dad ever after and obeyed instantly like a Marine. 🙂 I don't remember any revenge poops.@@charonstyxferryman
I still am impressed with your English, no hint of any accent and your subjects are great
There's hints of an accent. Still incredible. I'm a native speaker and have more of an accent.
When you chose between gas and induction, you also chose the expense of the exhaust fan. If you go with gas, then you will need to upgrade your exhaust system. The cost to put in a gas stovetop and ventilate was between 3-5K. With induction, no extra venting and instantaneous heat. It doesn’t look cheffy, but way cheaper than the alternative.
Note what we call exhaust vents do not actually exhaust unless you have custom house construction. They just draw air from the range area and blow it back into the kitchen through a filter. Same with the down-draft blowers in an island range. Those however frequently exhaust to the basement, also through a filter, but in doing so you sacrifice island storage.
nonsense - what kinda dope would buy a big exhaust hood and not have it vent outside?? anyone that stooopid doesn't deserve a kitchen
I wanted to move to Cincinnati. Only know a few words in German. However I really enjoy watching your UA-cam videos. Keep up the good work!!! 😊
Renting is unbearable in Germany for this reason alone.
But most people don't have 800.000 Euro to buy a new house in western/south Germany and even in the more rural areas you still pay your 500.000 for a house and if you find cheaper ones you need to make a lot of stuff by yourself which then comes down to the 500.000 even if the house was 350.000, so what else should one do?
Only solution is move to East Germany in some deep village of Thuringia or Saxony or to ne barely populated northern states, but there's also not much work and lower wages. You can buy houses for 100.000 in Thuringia but you also will only earn 1100 after tax sooo...good solution???
Every apartment I, a German, rented had a kitchen. Search for EBK Einbauküche fitted kitchen.
I heard in France, you have to bring your own bathroom. That's worse!
You only move a few times in your life in Germany, so it's really not that big of a deal. And when you move often, you specifically look for furnished apartments, they do exist.
@@KiryubelleKazuma Well, all that was very simplified.
Of course there are houses in many areas in Germany cheaper than 500,000 €, that don't need massive renovation. Even though prices went up, you can buy land and build a house for less than half a million. For 0.8 million, you'll get a much better than average home. Maybe not in the most expensive areas, but in many areas in Germany.
But prices are not comparable with the US just because houses are not really comparable.
However, of course renting is not unbearable in Germany. To buy a kitchen that fits your needs is not a big problem. And to sell it when you move is also common. No big deal.
It is much fun to HEAR YOUR VOICE! Long ago, I studied kitchens, 1973, and the brochures were Pogenpohl. We loved this look. They were expensive. I did learn that Europeans owned their cabinets and took them with them when they moved. In the United States this was unheard of.
Another gem posting. Thanks for sharing 💎
Open floor plan saves space and makes people feel like they have a bigger home. In Utah, we have the Utah one step kitchen, smaller but more practical.
And especially in single person households, you often don't need/want the extra walls.
Unless you're a person that cooks a lot, then you definitely want the extra walls. My mother cooks a lot, and the few times that I cleaned the top of the kitchen cabinets and the lampshade, I was thankful that all that muck from frying meat wasn't wafting into our living room and sticking to the furniture there lol
Greetings from Germany Hamburg! When I moved 3 years ago in a new apartment, I chose one without a kitchen and bought one by myself. There are apartments to rent with a kitchen inside, but usually the rent is double compared to one without a kitchen. So It's just cheeper to pay 80 € a month for a credit than 300 € a month more for an apartment that comes with a kitchen. On top I do have exactly the kitchen I like 😀
You pay double rent for a furnished kitchen in Hamburg? Here in Bavaria in the part I live , it's becoming more of the norm that the landlord may offer to sell you the kit hem that's already installed instead of having to move it out or if you want to just let it stay free of charge . The only thing I've had to pay extra for is the garage that comes with the unit and that's like and extra 30 -60 eur
@@TheSlanderousTruth I didn't get to know the one who lived in the apartment. There was no kitchen when I visited it.
I enjoy your videos very much. I spent two years in Germany, but that was fifty years ago and I spent most of my time on a US Air Force base. I was in one German kitchen, but it was in a large home and looked a lot like kitchens I was used to in the US. I have owned my own home for many years now. When I was renting I never rented a place which came with appliances, but always bought my own. I used to have a farm house which was built in 1920. It had a large kitchen which was connected to a dining room by a swinging door. The dining room was connected to the living room by a large opening with partial walls about three feet high on each side of it. It was also connected to a large porch which wrapped around to the front of the house. We designed and built the house I have now. It has a great room, combination kitchen, dining room, and living room. We had a lot of trouble with new appliances we had bought not long before building the home we are now in. As a of that we went with very high end commercial appliances. We picked out the appliances and designed the kitchen for those appliances. We also built a laundry room with a commercial washer and dryer. We have a large freezer and refrigerator. Each is about three feet wide and twenty inches deep. They sit side by side and are attached to the wall and to each other. We could have used door panels which matched the cabinets, but went with brushed stainless steel. The wall behind them is red. The rest of the walls are a neutral color. The stove sits next to the double sink. It was built to our specifications. It has six gas burners which have more heat control than I have ever seen on another stove. It also has a gas grill and two electric ovens.it has a very large hood above it which moves a lot of air to the outside of the house. The stove and hood are the same red color as the wall with the refrigerator and freezer only it. I also have a small refrigerator which has going to go in the garage, but ended up in the dining room area. There is a breakfast bar next to the stove with stools in the living room area. I also have freezers in my basement. I do buy milk by the gallon and I buy butter at a Amish store. I do not keep eggs in the refrigerator. I have chickens and keep unwashed eggs on the counter. The house that I grew up in didn't have a kitchen originally. Kitchens used to be detached from the house when stoves burned wood. The house that I grew up in had a detached kitchen from another property moved and attached to it before my dad bought the house. It hung off one side of the house like an afterthought.
Gas vs. electric is regional in the US, IME. Places with ready access to cheap natural gas, you will see more gas ranges...and vice versa. I am in my 60s and have moved fairly often within the US over my lifetime. Most of the places I've lived had an electric stove.
The fact that the kitchen cabinets, light fixtures, blinds, mirrors etc is all removed or missing when moving in is mind blowing to me. 😯
Personally I think it just sounds like such a pain to be required to move it or be forced to go purchase it every time one moves.
One thing to keep in mind, in many European cities renting is not necessarily viewed as a short term stepping stone to home ownership. Many buy an apartment, or enter into a rental agreement with the mindset of an American buying a condo. If you move into an apartment with the intention of living there for decades (maybe even generations), you see it as more of your own space, even if the financial arrangement leaves the actual ownership in the landlord's hands. In fact, in many jurisdictions here, when you enter into a long term rental agreement, the duration is entirely up to the renter. It is not unusual for an apartment to be listed for sale cheap, because the current renter has no intention of leaving, and they're paying rents that are a decade or more behind the current market. I know of an apartment building that was sold, demolished (except for the façade), rebuilt and sold as individual apartments. Two of the units were occupied by elderly tenants who chose to stay (possibly couldn't afford to move in the current rental market). So, the new building owner had to house them during construction, and then move them back into the newly renovated units, at something like 1/2 - 2/3rds of current comparable rents.
One thing to also keep in mind is that Germans don’t move often. Of course you take everything with you when you move somewhere new, because it only happens a few times in your life, and you want the new apartment to feel like home.
Well, I have tile floors, a pull-out trash cabinet, single sink, no island, laminate counters, use a breadbox, and it's a NJ house from the 1910s! It's also pretty small... but it's my kitchen and I love it.
Most U.S. homes build before WWII are like this. There was a huge drive in the 1950s and 1960s to "modernize" homes to these new norms, as having a home where you could show off to guests was a big thing. ( as opposed to the kitchen being a room over there where you made food ). This was also the era when every "proper" home in the suburbs had a liquor cabinet just in case you had to have someone over or throw a party. :)
Grew up in small town Missouri, in a foursquare home. Place had a separate kitchen with a pantry between the kitchen and dining room as well as a closet for food. I'm sure that when the house was built that there was a daily milk delivery service, but that was gone before my day. We still consumed at least one gallon of milk per week. There were families that went through twice as much. We had four neighborhood grocery markets within a couple of blocks, as well as several larger supermarkets around town. We were able to get our food either way. Apartment dwellers did more daily buying due to their lack of storage space, but like I said, we shopped both ways.
Kitchens were the hub of activity. There weren't any exhaust fans or vented hoods, and sometimes there were a lot of different clouds in the place. You actually needed the space to accommodate everyone in there. Designers saw this as a selling point. They started opening up floor plans so there wouldn't be as many clutches of people hidden away in different rooms, but everyone would be together in one great room. There are times I miss the old "clutch" days. What was my point? We went from separation of those preparing food from those consuming it to an all-inclusive living space. Where I live now mostly separates the kitchen, but there's no door. I have family members who more readily embrace the great room concept. The third option is still available. Completely free standing or closed off kitchen areas. Lots of the old floor plan houses around if you want one. Big fridges are probably here to stay. Thanks for letting me think, Feli. Oh yeah. If you don't want your cat climbing where they shouldn't, don't have a cat.