What is convection Oven Cooking?
Convection Broiled for Electric Ovens
Convection (fan assisted cooking) combined with broil is a fabulous tool for searing steaks, chops and thicker cuts of fish. Learn about the sophisticated technology in your oven with tips to ensure safe effective oven broiling.
Best Uses
Broiling thicker cuts of meat such as steaks, chicken thighs, lamb chops, pork chops, and fish steaks. Meats should be cooked on a 2-piece broil pan with slats to prevent the dripping fat from being exposed to the intense heat.
Small quick-cooking items, shrimp, vegetables, thinner cuts of fish, and chicken can be cooked on a rimmed baking sheet in the Broil Mode.
Determine the best rack position by placing the broiling pan with the food on the oven rack before heating the oven to ensure the food will not be too close to the heating element.
Broiling is similar to grilling in that we use Direct Heat for searing the meat and to create flavor. However to cook the meat through we use Indirect Heat, which means moving it away from the intense heat source. To achieve this in the oven, sear the meat on High then change the Mode to Convection. Drop the temperature to 300 - 350 degrees and move the food to a lower rack away from the strong direct heat.
When you remove the meat from the oven after broiling always take it off the broiling pan and rest it on the cutting board to prevent the meat from continuing to cook from the residual heat of the pan.
A BRIEF INSIGHT TO THE CONVECTION OVEN
Forty years ago a new feature was introduced in ovens that came from Europe, the Convection Fan, a remarkable invention that provides many benefits over traditional oven cooking. Today, Convection is a standard feature in most ovens. However, the benefits of cooking with Convection have remained a mystery for most users. This is because recipes are not written referencing the appliances we cook with so learning the basics of cooking with these enhanced features and new technologies is the only way to benefit from using them.
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Recipes are understandably written with generic information; for example, “preheat the oven to 350 degrees.” But this simple directive poses a challenge if you have an oven that features eleven or two modes of cooking since you will first have to choose a mode to cook with before you can turn the oven on.
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The great thing about multiple modes of cooking is that you have the option to cook food in the traditional oven Mode or in a Convection Mode. With a little experimentation and practice, the results will guide you to your preference, and soon choosing the Modes that best suit the recipe you are cooking will be easy.
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Convection technology was developed by the baking industry to enable the baking of large quantities of food on multiple racks. By adding fans encircled by heating elements at the back of the oven, air could be evenly circulated ensuring all racks would cook evenly with no need to turn them.
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Convection Ovens are tools that can really simplify cooking. When you better understand how to use them, the marvelous results will give you greater confidence with your cooking overall.
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In a Convection oven, there is a heating element around the fan that is engaged in some cooking modes. However, even if the heating element is not engaged, the fan is circulating the heated air; this is still creating the Convection effect.
In addition to the Thermal Modes, Bake, Roast, and Broil many electric ovens also feature the following Convection Modes: