Know your oven

When we were first married, in the 1970's, we lived in a flat and the cooker looked very similar to the picture up there!  Actually it was a remarkably good cooker.  It had a lovely blue-grey mottled enamel finish.  The only bit that wasn't great was the grill.

I am sure many of you have found things that you cook all the time do not cook as you expect when you use a different oven.  This is why times and temperatures are just a guide and you need to get used to how an oven behaves.

I grew up always using an ordinary gas oven and in many ways still prefer them to any other, particularly as you can cook different things at slightly different temperatures just by choosing their position in the oven. Even gas ovens however can vary quite a lot.  My mum's oven at home tended to be hot, so we usually set the temperature one number lower than the recipe recommended.  I currently have three different ovens I can use and they all need different treatment.  My cooker has a double oven and the little top oven needs setting one number higher than the recipe says.  The main oven however seems pretty accurate.  I have just had to buy a new combination microwave and am sti!ll learning about that.  The fan oven settings are generally considered to be 20°c lower than a normal electric cooker.  For the life of me I can't see why they can't be set to cook at 200° and the cooker just run at the appropriately lower temperature instead of me having to do the maths.  This cooker seems to get a bit too hot so I may have to set it a further 10° lower to avoid burning things.

I don't have as much experience with electric ovens, but generally find them less co-operative, I find they often take longer to cook things, but turning the heat up cooks the outside but leaves the inside under done.  My sister in law has lived in lots of houses with more expensive fan ovens, but she says that she finds them no better than any other oven, so you really have to learn by experience.

Many people swear by the halogen ovens that sit in your kitchen impersonating a dalek.  I've never used one myself although I have been tempted to buy one on many occasions, but have so far resisted!  Again I think you have to learn as you go.

Don't be disheartened if you don't get the results you want straight away, it does not mean you can't bake merely that you have to understand the vagaries of your oven and work round them.

Karen Lizzie