Convection cooking
BonnieL
bonnie.lymer@shaw.ca
05/23/05 		Does anyone have any suggestions/tips on using a convection oven? I have never heard anything but positive comments about them, yet my first two experiences in using convection left me convinced that there are NO benefits and it is not worthwhile using.
ellen

05/25/05 		The convection oven is hotter, drier, and faster than a regular oven at the same setting. If you use a regular recipe you may have to reduce temp up to 50 degrees and time by up to 1/3. Try a recipe made especially for convection, such as the ones in the manual.

This type oven is really terrific for roasting and baking. You didn't mention what foods you had trouble with.

BonnieL
bonnie.lymer@shaw.ca
05/25/05 		I tried a roast. My oven has a temperature probe and a feature that automatically adjusts the temperature when converting from conventional to convection (the temperature was set to 325, rather than 350). When the probe indicated that an internal temperature of 175 had been reached, I removed the roast; it was rare inside.
Thinking that perhaps the problem might have been with the probe, a few days ago, I decided to try some convection baking of cookies. The recipe calls for baking the cookies at 350 for 10 minutes. The temperature was adjusted to 300 and I placed three trays of cookies in the oven. After 15 minutes, the bottom tray was cooked, but neither the middle tray nor the top one were. Altogether, it took me 25 minutes to bake three trays of cookies (a small time saving of 5 minutes, but I had to babysit the cookies the whole time). Although they were brown, I did not notice any dicernable difference between these cookies and previous batches baked using a conventional method.
I am using a Kitchenaid Superba gas oven.
ellen

05/25/05 		3 trays of cookies is a lot, and the bottom tray of three does always cook first. I do two and rotate half way though. The trays should leave at least 1 full inch of space at each side and the front. Usually the timing in a recipe is for a single tray, and even in a regular oven you have to increase the time a lot, especially if the batter is cold.

If the probe is touching the fat streak or bone in meat, you will get a false high reading.

BonnieL
bonnie.lymer@shaw.ca
05/27/05 		Thanks for your help.

It seems to be a lot less work to just use a conventional oven, since I can set my timer and can depend upon what I am cooking being ready when I think it will be. I never rotate my cookies now, and I get fairly consistent browning. I was under the impression that part of the benefit of convection was being able to cook larger batches of food and having the whole thing ready at once.

Given what you have told me, I doubt that I will bother with the convection feature in the future.

ellen

05/28/05 		In the new "Cook's Illustrated" magazine there is a really good article on convection cooking that addresses a lot of your questions. This is a great magazine, but if you do not want to buy it, you could go read it at Barnes and Noble-