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New Episode - Preheating Ovens

Hugh
2008-11-12 12:02:00 UTC

Preheating your oven – it’s a total pain in the ass. Or at least, Paul thinks so. We test to see if you need to heat your oven – with Science. Sort of.

Two weeks to the release of the Kamikaze Cookery DVD, by the way!

Comments

Fhtagn | 2008-11-12 14:36:15 UTC

Interesting. I tend to let my oven partially prehead, in that I turn it on when I walk into the kitchen, fiddle the stuff which needs to go in and then just whack it in and walk away.

Out of interest, when did we start caring about the suffering of a donkey? ::grins::

Stuart Carter | 2008-11-12 15:41:58 UTC

I can tell you that since leaving my pizza stone in the oven, I have been getting much more consistent results in baking and roasting. Alton Brown recommends this as well: the presence of a chunk of stone in the oven helps to even out the rise and fall in the oven temperature, helping the consistent results… thing ;)

sandra stewart | 2008-11-12 16:16:46 UTC

Johanna is right.

Paul needs to be less pushy! OMG!

You actually eat duck?

Good info on historical ovens vs modern day ovens. Question – is there a difference between a gas oven and an electric oven? I grew up cooking with a gas oven and now have an electric – ever since the switch, I’m really bad at baking – ie burn things a lot. Cause?

Hakuo0000 | 2008-11-12 23:20:53 UTC

Well, interesting episode. Defiantly going to be revisited, aye? I do think the question that Sandra has is valid, what’s the difference? I have an electric oven (used to have a gas one, but I was too young to really remember. . .) and it seems that I have to put things at a lower temp than suggested for cooking, where the gas one seemed to be spot on. What’s up, doc? D:

Oh, by the way, Johanna tis hawt. ="D ~~Shot.~~

Hugh | 2008-11-13 11:25:48 UTC

My understanding is that electric ovens hold temperature more consistently, but the short version is that modern ovens are a bit rubbish. I’d recommend getting a thermometer – either a digital one with probe or an oven thermometer – and testing your oven a bit to see what temperature it actually reaches for each temperature it claims to be hitting. You just can’t trust the thermometers.

Fan ovens are better, but not much.

Duck – hell, yeah. That stuff is gorgeous. Particularly if you get the skin, erm, “the crispy”.

Pizza stone / bricks – good tip. Yeah, that would definitely help – the thin walls of modern ovens are what screw the entire thing up. You could try sticking non-flammable insulation around it too, which would probably reduce your energy bill in the bargain.

@Fhtagn – yeah, me too. Precision in oven cooking is not my strong point…

Fhtagn | 2008-11-13 12:32:17 UTC

So, when it comes to modern ovens, is it very much a case of you get what you pay for, assuming your not paying for a shiny finish to match your kitchen?

@Hakuo0000 – This is purely anecdotal, as I don’t have a gas oven and have never tested it, but my mother always lamented changing to electric ovens because the gas ovens were moister because of the water produced by burning gas and so heated faster and also kept cakes and pastries from drying out as much. Presumably in a non-fan oven, the same effect could be achieved by putting a ceramic bowl of water in the bottom.

Jens | 2008-11-14 15:12:45 UTC

There are some things that require a preheated over, particularly when baking. If you put bread in a cold oven, it won’t give you the proper oven spring. (Where it puffs up in the oven.) If you tried to do puff pastries or yorkshire pudding in a cold oven it would be a complete FAIL.

The main advantages of a preheated oven in many other cases is that once an oven is fully preheated, the temperature fluctuations will be minimal and the cooking times will be more consistent. Every oven preheats at a different speed, so if you want to tell someone how long to cook something, the only reliable way to do it is with a preheated oven.

Hugh | 2008-11-14 15:50:09 UTC

Fhtagn – yeah, I’ve heard that fan ovens, in particular, have a real problem with drying food out in comparison to gas.

Jens – Actually, there are a bunch of apparently very good cold-oven bread recipes – Google for more info. The New York Times covered them a while ago.

However, you’re absolutely right about the temperature fluctuations. If you’re wanting to cook for a specific time, preheating is the way to go (although, as we mention, the temperature can still wobble pretty dramatically). You can avoid the whole problem with a probe thermometer, mind you…

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