Questions tagged [oven]

Questions about selecting, operating, and maintaining conventional and convection ovens.

This tag is not a catch-all tag for any recipe or technique that uses an oven. Please read the full wiki text before adding it.

Topics accepted within this tag:

  • Conventional ovens, both gas and electric, which use one or more heating elements to cook by heat radiation. If you don't specify , we will assume you mean electric.

  • Convection ovens, which heat food using fan-forced hot air. Include the tag.

  • Wood fired ovens, which are heated using flames from burning wood. Include the tag.

  • Toaster ovens, which are technically a form of conventional oven. Please be aware that toaster ovens vary drastically in their characteristics and capabilities, so be as specific as possible when asking about these.

Topics not accepted within this tag:

  • Microwave ovens; use the tag for questions on microwaves or microwave cooking.

  • Questions about recipes or cooking techniques that happen to use an oven. This tag is about the equipment itself; if your question is not actually about selecting, operating, or maintaining an oven, then use the appropriate technique tag such as or .

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Why is it necessary to preheat an oven?

Just about every recipe advises to preheat the oven before using it. I often forget this, but luckily this doesn't seem to matter all that much. Hence my question: why would it be necessary to preheat the oven?
Dimitri C.
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Why should one pre-heat an oven?

When cooking potatoes and bellpepper in an oven, it is highly recommended to pre-heat the oven. Why would it be a problem to put them in the oven while it is heating up ? Thank you very much ! :)
niilzon
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Is it normal to see flames inside my self-cleaning oven?

I spilled some sauce in the oven, so I decided to clean it today. I wiped the bottom and glass door, but the rest of the stuff was crusty and stuck to the bottom of the oven. I started the cycle and went about my business. About 15 minutes later I…
Michael Moussa
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How should I cook bacon in an oven?

I've heard of people cooking bacon in an oven by laying the strips out on a cookie sheet. When using this method, how long should I cook the bacon for, and at what temperature?
Donut
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When to use convection/fan bake vs bake

Are there any general rules to follow when choosing between bake and fan bake to cook something in the oven? What effect does each have and what are the advantages and disadvantages of both?
ajbeaven
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28
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2 answers

Oven management in restaurants

Background: I'm an ERP consultant and one of my customers is a metal works factory in which they have an oven. This is an expensive piece of hardware so they have only one oven. It is important to schedule the jobs that use the oven in order to use…
No'am Newman
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3 answers

What are the pros and cons of Convection Microwave Ovens?

Are convection microwave ovens a useful item to have? Or are they not good as a microwave and not good as a convection oven either? I understand that a regular convection oven helps to cook things faster. But a microwave cooks things pretty darn…
milesmeow
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When baking, is it better to use a gas or electric oven?

I'm looking for an oven and wanted to know if there is any difference between a gas or electric oven when it comes to baking things like cakes, biscuits and scones?
lomaxx
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Do modern ovens bake the same as the old ones? Is the new oven the reason popovers don't rise?

My popovers always popped over perfectly tall and golden using an old recipe handed down from the 40's, which called for baking at 400 °F and using old-fashioned glass custard cups. Now with my new electric oven, the popovers do not rise at all…
SusanMary
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Where can I buy borosilicate (Pyrex) bakeware in the U.S.?

Because of the shattering dangers of the apparently inferior lime glass that Pyrex uses for manufacturing in the U.S. as exposed by Consumer Reports, I'd like to replace my Pyrex with borosilicate bakeware. Apparently Pyrex used to manufacture…
Jeff Axelrod
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How do you decide what temperature to bake at?

What is the logic behind the choice of temperature for baking? Obviously if you're following a recipe it will say what temperature to use, but I'd like to understand the reasoning behind it. Is it a matter of density (thicker foods need to be cooked…
Gabriel Hurley
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Is there no use for high temperatures in ovens?

I'm about to buy a new oven. I can buy one which is able to steam the food, or one without. The one with steam (a nice, but not necessary feature) only goes to 230 °C / 446 °F, while a regular one to 275 °C / 527 °F. The salesman claimed that no one…
NiklasJ
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Can a microwave oven cook chicken?

The other day I was looking for chicken steak recipes, and most of them suggested to use an oven. They mentioned particular temperatures and times. But the problem is, I am in Japan and I have a standard Japanese electric oven (電子レンジ) [microwave…
HungryFoodi
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Timing an oven to start while I am out - but what about preheating?

Many ovens have a timer which allows you to set the start time, so you pop your item in and later in the day it will automatically start cooking it unmanned. But all the oven cooking I can think of requires I preheat the oven before putting…
Tea Drinker
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When should I use convection when baking?

I think I understand what convection does, and (some) of the benefits, such as eliminating hot/cold spots, and being more efficient overall. Does this mean that I should always take advantage of it? If not, which circumstances are better for…
Jimmy
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