What is convection Oven Cooking?
Convection or True Convection for Electric Ovens
There are many benefits to cooking with Convection, the challenge especially if your oven has multiple cooking modes is to choose the mode most suited to the type of food you are cooking.
Best Uses
Baking
Multiple racks of cookies, cakes, pie shells (blind baking), appetizers, pastry items, basically like items on trays. Custard items cooked in a water bath.
Braising
For foods cooked in a Dutch Oven with a tight-fitting lid or large foil-wrapped roasting pans.
Roasting
Meats that have been seared on the cooktop and need a gentle oven finish to cook through without drying out, such as boneless skinless chicken pieces, pork tenderloin, pork chops, beef fillet, thick cuts of steak, and fish fillets.
Low-Temperature
Roasting Ideal for gentle cooking of lean tender cuts of meat. Meats can be slowly cooked at 200 degrees and finished on a grill or with a high heat sear in the oven. Timing is dependent on the weight of the meat.
This Mode can also be used for Dehydrating providing your oven temperature can be set to 140 degrees.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: