Hot answers tagged oven
21
Removing things from the oven halfway through is not very friendly to baked goods. In general, they'll collapse as they cool off since the structure isn't cooked and set, and the leavening (baking soda/powder in these cases) will be spent, so there's no way to get what you originally wanted. It might be something like what'd happen if you forgot the ...
18
Smoke is normal in an electric oven, but flames are definitely not.
In order to start a fire, you either need a spark, or you need to heat something beyond its autoignition temperature (AKA kindling point). You might have had a short - or you might actually be using a gas oven with spark ignition - but I'm guessing your issue was the latter.
Cooking oil ...
15
Preheating is mainly needed for breads and anything that has a short cooking time (< 15 mins or so). I don't bother preheating when I'm roasting something for a longer time. If you're setting a timer, I assume this is something that will take a while to cook, so I wouldn't worry about preheating.
14
You absolutely don't need a bread maker for good bread. They have been making bread for at least 22,000 years and I promise, in the vast majority of those, having a bread maker would have gotten you stoned as a witch (if you had electricty to run it). However, a good bread maker will vastly cut down on the time you have to spend making bread. Basically, ...
14
Actually I do this, and I do it because my oven is old and tempermental.
Adding a heavy heat-sink (like a pizza stone, or a half dozen fire bricks) to your oven will increase your pre-heat time, but it makes your ovens temperature much more stable. It's a good thing to do if you're planning on cooking anything that is really temperature sensitive.
14
When you don't preheat, you cook your food at a lower temperature as your oven heats up for the first 5-15 minutes, depending on the target temperature and your oven's strength.
For forgiving foods, like a casserole, this may not affect you much - you'll just have to bake longer than the recipe says to. As long as you're careful, you'll be fine.
But if ...
12
I agree with Jay's answer that one of the reasons is because of keeping the skin crispy, but I don't agree about the difference with other types of poultry and have a bit more background info.
The root difference between duck and other poultry is that duck is much fattier, and most of that fat is stored under the skin. If you don't do anything about the ...
11
If we had a magical (or 4d) oven that could heat up the inside of the food all at once and uniformly, the baking rule would be simple:
bake batters and doughs at 100°C / 212°F until dough expands and dries, and
then increase to 150°C / 302°F to brown.
Any recipe that followed it would take way longer (several hours) than regular recipes, ...
10
The idea of a "fast" oven comes from the time when wood-burning stoves without temperature gauges were the most common ones in kitchens. A fast oven is anywhere from 400-425° F.
Conversion to Fahrenheit
Very slow (very low) oven: 300-325° F.
Slow (low) oven: 325-350° F.
Moderate (medium) oven: 350-375° F.
Fast/quick (high) oven: ...
10
Presumably the reason you're cooking directly on the oven rack is to let the fat drip down. If so, do yourself a favour and get yourself a roasting rack. It's an inexpensive piece of equipment that you place in a baking pan or on a cookie sheet; the food cooks on the rack and the pan/sheet catches all the drippings. Way better than trying to replace an ...
10
To clarify: forced-air (a/k/a "convection", a/k/a "fan bake") ovens rely on a fan to circulate the air in the oven. The fast-moving air substantially enhances the rate at which heat is transferred to the food. It is particularly good where you want the surface to brown, such as roasts and breads; it is not as good for more delicate items, such as custards ...
10
There are differences between baking in a plastic bag and in a Dutch oven. If you have access to both, I prefer the Dutch oven.
What both do is to
Trap steam
This makes your food a bit moister, and keeps pan juices and additions to the roast, like a dry rub or mirepoix, from drying out into an unappetizing, carbonized spot. It is not as important for ...
10
That was bad advice. If you're not par-boiling the potatoes they will need at least 40 minutes, but to be honest you are much better off par-boiling.
Pre-heat the oven as before and place a roasting tin in to pre-heat as well.
Cut the potatoes as before, then place them in a large pan of salted water, bring it to the boil, and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain ...
10
On a different tack to those above you can stabilize your oven temperature by using heat absorbing materials such as brick and stone, which will absorb heat when the oven is on, then release it when the power goes out. It does mean for longer pre-heating times as it takes lots of energy to get the stone or brick up to temperature, however it could save your ...
9
If you're cooking something that is likely to spill over, you might want to remove it. They can be difficult to clean.
Otherwise, just make sure it isn't blocking airflow (possibly a problem with the very bottom of the oven, but depends on the design). I leave mine on the bottom rack all the time...
See also: What are other uses for a pizza stone?
9
The forced movement (convection) of the hot air by fans is what improves the cooking in a convection oven. The beautiful part is that it allows you to cook on ANY or EVERY single rack in your oven. Here are the adjustments you'll need to make:
For baked goods you typically drop the temperature by 25 degrees. If the recipe says to bake at 350 then you'd ...
9
I set the oven to 400F, line a half sheet pan with aluminum foil, place a cooling rack inside the pan, and then put the bacon on top of the cooling rack. It takes between 20 and 30 minutes to reach the point that I like it, but you may want to stop it earlier.
Also good, blend some brown sugar and pecans until the pecans are well mixed with the sugar and ...
9
Put on a cookie sheet. Use a high temp (375F+) for 10-20 minutes depending on desired crispness.
For easier cleaning of the cookie sheet, line it with aluminum foil.
To let the grease drain, corrugate the foil. (This is by far what I prefer.) If you do this, remember before you tear off your sheet from the roll, you'll need ~2x as much foil for the same ...
9
This depends on a lot of things.
The idea of preheating is that you want to get all the surfaces inside your oven (walls, floor, door, racks) up to the desired cooking temperature. This makes for more even temperatures throughout the oven, and gives a little thermal mass so you don't lose ALL your heat when you open the door for a few seconds or put ...
9
A oven is a box for containing high heat. It really is the best place to have a fire.
Though electric ovens are not supposed to have fire in there they do a fine job of containing it. Even if you somehow manage to set the heating element aflame (I've done this and still don't know how).
Leave it closed and wait for it to go out.
9
Yes, there is a difference. You shouldn't be baking a cake (or anything else) in a microwave oven.
A microwave oven excites the water within your food. When you put in dough or batter, the excited water doesn't bind with the starch the way it does under normal heat, it escapes the starch, leaving you with a stone-hard piece of dough or batter.
There is ...
9
Microwaves specifically heat water molecules in the food. This turns them to steam, and because the air in the microwave is actually cool, the steam then condenses. There is often not proper air circulation to move the steam away from the food. Often times the outside edges of the food will not be soggy, but rather burnt, because they receive more energy and ...
9
The book "Cooking for Geeks" has a preview available online which explains how to use sugar to check whether your oven's temperature is above or below 186°C (367°F). It won't tell you whether it's getting up to 250°C, but if you're right that it only gets to 150°C then it will be obvious that it's not fixed.
8
For baking cakes and breads it is important to control the humidity in the oven. In early stages of baking one typically needs the humidity to remain in the baking chamber, which is hard to do with a gas oven. Two of the bakeries near my house use electric ovens with brick lined baking chambers; the other uses gas.
Expansion
Gas and electric ovens can be ...
8
Microwave: A microwave heats water and molecules in the food by using microwave radiation. It will heat food efficiently and quickly, but does not brown or bake like a conventional oven.
Oven: Fueled by gas or electricity and heats from the bottom (baking, roasting) or from the top (broiling). The heat is from a single direction and not uniform.
...
8
Short answer: They're probably not safe.
Unlike "microwave safety", there isn't a safety risk in contaminating the food contents of the jars due to heating in an oven; in this case you just run the risk of the jars breaking.
I am not sure what the symbols on the bottom of your jar mean; (see edit below) from what I understand—unlike plastic resin ...
8
I'd suggest a digital probe thermometer AND an instant read digital thermometer like the OXO (which is pretty cheap) or the Thermapen (which isn't). A leave-in probe lets you monitor the general progress of the food, giving you a good way to gauge how much cooking time remains without having to open the oven and slow down the process. The instant read ...
8
In the oven, that heat is coming from all directions more or less equally. On the stovetop, the heat is coming only from the bottom. This can potentially cause convection, and almost certainly requires occasional stirring (especially for larger batches), meaning that the ingredients are being moved around. The combination of the ingredients being heated more ...
8
The general answer is that you use a loaf pan if you want the common rectangular loaf shape (it's good for slicing for toast and sandwiches), and otherwise you don't need one.
For example, the link you gave for french bread completely describes how to shape and bake the loaf. There's no wrapping in foil or anything; you coax it into that shape, and it's ...
7
I would recommend a combination toaster and convection oven. While I have a regular oven in my small apartment, I rarely use it in favor of saving energy (and money on my energy bill) by using the toaster/convection oven. I have purchased toaster oven sized muffin tins (just a 6 muffin tin) and a toaster oven sized roasting rack that fits two sizes of ...
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