Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Advantages Of Convection Ovens Over Standard Ovens

By Rebecca Hollifield


If you are shopping around for convection ovens, you will discover that they are quite different from regular ovens that we grew up with. Before jumping in and buying a new nice looking cooking appliance, you should find out what convection cooking is really about. It would be best to be armed with knowledge about certain products before you walk into a showroom and talk to a salesman.

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.

What you need to know is if you will be able to cook, bake or roast better with this type of appliance than with a regular oven. The advantage of convection cooking equipment is its ability to cook faster and evenly. Traditional ovens are sometimes unreliable when it comes to consistency and even cooking. Convections are equipped with a fan that evenly distributes heat around the oven and into all parts of the food.

Cook food about 25 degrees to 75 degrees lower than you would with a traditional oven. Remember that convections heat up faster and distributes heat efficiently which makes the temperature inside the oven warmer. Start cooking on low temperature and increase it by 25 degrees more each time you think the oven is not hot enough.

Temperatures also differ when you are at a higher or lower altitude. Sometimes the temperature requirements change due to the type of food you cook. One thing though, you will not have to pre-heat a convection oven because it heats up fairly quickly compared to a traditional oven. This will lead to significant savings on power bills.

If you use the oven mainly for baking cakes and cookies, you should really start seventy-five degrees lower as mentioned earlier to avoid burning your cookies, pies and cakes. Speaking of pies, with this type of appliance, expect your pies and pastries to come out with flakier crusts and moist fillings.

A traditional oven will cook food longer than a convection which cuts cooking time by twenty five percent. This will also result in lower electricity consumption and more affordable energy bills. Your dishes will taste much better; roasts will brown faster while the insides are cooked to perfection. Steaks will be tender and seafood fresh and firm. You can cook anything in a convection including vegetables.

Reheating food is another thing you can do with these appliances. Foods reheated in microwaves tend to become dry, hard, and produces uneven heating. With microwaves, the insides of food may remain cold or frozen while the outer part might burn or darken. Reheating food in convections will produce tender meat, crispy crusts, and evenly heated food quickly.




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