Restaurant Recipe Reviews

Canvassing for convection ovens is interesting because you will find a new approach to baking, cooking and roasting food. Convection appliances are quite different from traditional ovens we are used to. Before buying one from excitement, you should look into its features first and know more about convection cooking. It will be an advantage for you to enter an appliance store armed with more knowledge about something you wish to buy.

Once you start talking to a sales representative at an appliance store, you might get talked into buying an oven before you even know how to use it or what kind of food works best with this type of cooking. These types of cooking appliances are a bit more costly than regular ovens and you should study the pros and cons first before deciding to buy one. Find out if you really need a stand alone appliance.

Find out how convections work with roasting baking and cooking. Convections are known to cook food evenly unlike microwaves and regular ovens. Convections also cook faster. A built in fan in convections facilitates even distribution of heat around the interior and into the food itself. You can have a whole chicken or turkey cooked in half the time, and have cakes baked faster too. Convections are also energy efficient.

Since convections are more efficient at cooking and baking food, you should cook with temperatures 25 to 75 degrees lower than you would with a standard oven. When you first use a convention oven, start 75 degrees lower than usual. If the heat does not seem sufficient, then raise the temperature gradually to find the ideal cooking temperature.

It is not unusual for temperature requirements to differ depending on your altitude and the food you are cooking. An advantage to cooking this way is that you get to save energy because convections heat faster, meaning you will not have to pre-heat your oven for at least 10 to 20 minutes. This will definitely lower your electricity bill.

If you typically use an oven to bake cookies and cakes, you have to decrease baking temperature by 25 to 75 degrees to prevent your food from burning. As previously mentioned start baking at 75 degrees lower than usual and adjust the heat if necessary. Pies and pastries come out better with this type of appliance baking with crusts more flaky and fillings more moist.

It takes a long time to cook, roast or bake with a standard oven. Convections can cut cooking time by 25% which also converts to using 25% less energy and lower energy payments. Food taste better and have better texture cooked in a convection oven. Roasts will brown faster while keep the insides tender. You can cook anything in a cooking appliance such as poultry, seafood, fish, and meat.

Another benefit to convection ovens is better results with reheating food. With microwaves, you can end up with rubbery meat, dry poultry and food that is cold inside but burnt outside. Reheating cooked dishes on convections will give you food that looks, tastes and feels like it was just cooked.

Rebecca Hollifield is a caterer and freelance writer. For more information on convection ovens, visit www.dacor.com.