Let's talk CONVECTION cooking

[lordkenmore]

It's been years since I used convection, and I never really had the chance to make the best comparisons.

That said, convection was more or less what I grew up with. My mother bought a Farberware tabletop convection oven ca. 1980 to replace a wall oven that had A)broken B)wasn't repairable (according to the repairman--this was before the Internet, and AW.org, of course!) and C)apparently had a dimension no longer supported. While the Farberware was an "easy fix", my mother grew to really like it, and said that she'd never go back to standard ovens again. Two points that interest me: the failed wall oven was probably pretty good (and my mother said years later that it had been in some ways the best oven she'd had to that point). Point #2: she wasn't much of a baker. She baked, but wasn't much of an enthusiast. She could keep a supply of cookies around, etc, but she wasn't like some people here who live in the kitchen.

When I first started baking, I used that Farberware, dropping the temperature 25 degrees IIRC. It seemed to work OK, but I had no standard for comparison, until the early 1990s, when I lived with a conventional range that had horrible ovens. I adapted--I had to--but it was painful, and I missed the Farberware.

Although I have to say that recent ovens I've used have been OK. But then most of my baking in recent years has been breads. Although I would be interested to try convection again.

 

[chachp]

I also have the Jenn Air Double Ovens

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I use convection for just about everything I cook with the exception of Pizza.  I like a really hot oven for the pizza and find that sometimes the cheese browns before the crust is done to my liking.  I love the way Poultry and Meat come out though.  Always nice and juicy given how the convection oven sears the meat.</span>

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I have always followed the rule of drop by 25 degrees when using convection vs. conventional.  I had a Kitchen Aid oven in Chicago that would convert recipes for you from Conventional to Convection and I believe it usually dropped it by 25 degrees.</span>

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I wonder if the 50 degree example is for a commercial type convection oven that I would think would be more powerful than a home model?  I have never cooked in a commercial unit so I don't know if they are more powerful but it seems they would be.</span>

 

[gizmo]

I have a Modern Maid gas stove from 1986.
(Australian Modern Maid, no relation to the US brand of the same name.)

Its oven it calls "Fan Forced" not convection. I generally use the fan when baking on more than one shelf, or when hurrying along something that is browning too slow for me.

I actually think fan forced is a better name - the word "convection" actually refers to the natural phenomenon where warmer air rises and cooler air sinks to replace it. So a conventional oven with a burner or element at the bottom, where the air slowly rises as it is heated, and forms a natural current of rising when heated and sinking again as it loses heat, is actually a true "convection" oven.
Using a fan to increase air circulation and make the heat more evenly distributed is NOT convection, that is fan forced or fan assisted. Calling a fan assisted oven "convection" is just marketing.....but that is just me being a pedant.

 

[DADoES]

 
My GE Profile has both convection modes.  Labeled as "1-Rack" (conventional element with fan) and "Multi-Rack" (fan with 3rd surround element).

It reduces the temp by 25°F, although for some items less than approx 20 mins I find that I need to add a little time to compensate, or in some cases I bypass the temp reduction.

I routinely use "Multi-Rack" for cookies, pizza, biscuits, muffins, baked chicken breast ... largely everything except cakes, brownies, and cheesecakes, which I do on conventional non-convection mode.

Yesterday I baked a box cake in a 13"x9" metal pan on "1-Rack" mode. The top was more crusty than usual and did crack a little.

 

[passatdoc]

@appnut

No wonder the Breville Smart Oven is the #1 seller (though highest priced) among convection ovens at Amazon. I've had mine about 3-4 years now and, as you wrote, I use the big range oven once a month at most. My only concern is reliability, if the electronic controls ever go out, it would likely be an expensive repair, assuming it could be repaired. Your five year track record is a good indicator of reliability. When reading reviews on AMazon (the Breville has 2000+ reviews), you can sort the list to view Oldest First, but you don't know if people who reviewed the oven in 2008 or 2009 still own the same working oven....and new reviews are usually written by new owners. So it's not so easy to find a review from a five year owner like you.

 

[chachp]

Breville Products

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I have a couple of Breville products and I am very pleased with them.  As a matter of fact two of them (Bread maker and Coffee Grinder) had issues and they replaced them free of charge within what I think was a three year warranty.  I didn't have to do all that nonsense of sending it in for repair and waiting for it to come back, etc.  They sent me a new one.  I put the old one in the box and sent it back.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I remember the women telling me if it was out of warranty I could buy the newer version of whatever it is at a fraction of the retail price.  </span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I don't think you can beat service like that. </span>

 

[paulg]

AHA ! I am seeing the light

Thanks for all your posts!
Baking multiple items, or many racks of items is something that is rarely done in this household... unfortunately. That is the first thing I overlooked.
Now it makes sense to use convection in those instances, as well as the other times as everyone shared.
It should have dawned on me though. I have a bunch of extra racks sitting in the basement for this oven, which are never used. Should I have an event to fill this oven to the brim, I'll pop on the convection mode.
Thanks too for the tips regarding increase of speed, especially for turkeys!
Timing of turkeys is usually a critical item for the host. It can be unnerving to have the fowl done early so it is a good thing to be aware of differences in convection timing.
Much obliged to all!

 

[appnut]

@jim

Jim, Fortunately/unfortunately when it does bite the dust, I'll just recycle it when the times around her allow for stuff like this to be "dumped'.  I find that if I don't use it every day or so, the display begins to get dimmer.  I don't leave it plugged in in between uses, as manual suggests.  So the initial plug-in display can be dim.  There was a time where I didn't use it for a couple of weeks and it took 4 or 5 days of usual use before the display got back to normal.  I don't make toast every day and cooking/freezing in volume, sometimes all I need is a microwave to defrost and reheat what's in the freezer.  I chose this simply because I wanted/needed a 2nd oven and this was the closest I'd get to having one without buying a new range. 

 

[super32]

One other use of convection

I like many others here do use our convection functions. I have to side with the few that stick with the same temp and usually the same time, maybe a little less time. The other big use we have found is for reheating certain leftovers. Foods that are crisp, often get soggy in the micro. We found using the convection to be a great way to reheat those foods and maintain their crispness.

 

[passatdoc]

@super 32: agree re: crispy reheating

@appnut: I leave mine plugged in all the time. Is this against manual advise? On Amazon, there are a few negative reviews about ovens that broke down soon after purchase, but > 90% of reviews are five stars. This appliance is so useful that even if it lasted only five years, I'd replace it with another.

Choice of retailer was sort of slam dunk for me, since I found a long-lost gift card for W-S in a drawer, and luckily they were having a rare price reduction, down to $225. Also, I knew that if it broke within warranty, W-S would take it back at the store (no postage) and give me a new one.

Given the Miele-like price control that Breville seems to enjoy, it wouldn't matter where one purchased it. They all charge $250, and though Amazon would bring it to my door postage-free, everyone would charge California sales tax on it (over $20). At the time I purchased (I think four years ago but I don't know for sure since I bought in-store and did not save receipt), Amazon did not yet charge sales tax, and they would have shipped it free of charge using slow Super Saver shipping (no Prime back then). However, it was still less expensive using the $150 gift card, plus no shipping since I bought it at the local mall.

 

[mayguy]

I have a Maytag gas convention, fan only, and love it for the mosts part. Overall, I use it all the time on open cooking.

I brought myself a half rack, so nice to have a 3rd rack, and have a half of one when needed. Did a ham for one Christmas, and mom couldn't get over how perfect it was.

The only thing I am not happy abotu it, when I use my large baking sheets (almost covers the whole rack) to bake cookies, the cookies on the corner ends of the pan gets too done, so I have to spin the pan.

 

[passatdoc]

The problem with uneven cookie baking would be far worse without convection. I used to have to use crust protectors on my pies, but with convection it's a thing of the past. Plus now I can bake four at once rather than one at a time as I did with the old, non-convection model.

Several people here have mentioned they DON'T use convection if cooking with a covered pan. I agree, except that my oven heats up faster if I turn the convection on, and I don't have the extra heating element (obviously a third-element oven would heat faster). I suppose the fan is distributing the heat more evenly. In any event, sometimes I've used convection bake to preheat rapidly, and then turn convection off (example: baking French bread at 425 F) for the actual baking. It's a bit cumbersome in my model, which has an "on" button for the fan, but no "off" button---you turn off the fan by turning off the "Bake" function button. So to preheat rapidly with convection to 425 F, I turn on "Bake" and the fan button, wait until preheating is complete, turn the oven button to "off" (which cuts off fan) and then turn oven function back to "On". This takes a few steps (default temp is 350, so you have to up temp back up to 425) but is worth it for the time saved.

 

[yogitunes]

you will be amazed at the offerings of doing a Turkey with a convection oven.....

granted it wont be a stuffed bird, but that doesn't mean you can't flavor enhance your bird with spices tucked inside.....

several things I have tried...

always sprinkle the skin with olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic and onion powder....

I have poured in 2 cups red wine, no other water added.....

or stuffed it with onions and garlic cloves.....

or stab 4 navel oranges, and stuffed inside....

the ideas are endless......and using convection makes it quick.....

if your not sure about timing to have everything ready at the same time......take a day and do a test bird, maybe a 15lb, and adjust your timing from there......enjoy dinner and leftovers....

you can also do an adjusted temp......start out with 450 for the first hour, and reduce it to 350 to extend cooking time, and a slower cooking...

 

[countryguy]

Martin,

Why do you not do a stuffed turkey when using convection? I also use convection with a stuffed turkey without problems.

Gary

 

[brib68]

We had a GE range (purchased new, mid 2000's) at our old house with a convection oven. We didn't use it a lot because we were unsure how to make time/temp adjustments to recipes. The times we did use it were typically when doing multi-rack baking--especially when doing multiple pizzas and that sort. Without the air circulation, we'd have one with a burnt crust and cold cheese, and the other would have burnt toppings and a soggy crust. The convection helped with that quite a bit.

I have no idea what sort of element set up that oven featured--at the time I was unaware of the differences.

 

[whirlcool]

If you notice on Martha Stewart's show "Martha's Baking School" she always uses a commercial convection oven when baking. She never mentions it, but you can easily see the fan turning back there when she puts items in or takes them out of the oven.

As for preheating, when convection is selected our fan will not turn on until the proper oven temp has been reached.

 

[ronhic]

An Australian angle

Our oven is a 34 year old Australian made Westinghouse double oven. Both ovens are roughly the same capacity, though different in operation.

 

The top oven is a pure fan-forced oven. That is, the element is around the outside of the fan and fully concealed. There is one key difference compared to most similar ovens though and that is that my fan is a dual speed fan with a 'slow' and 'fast' option. Slow is perfect for biscuits (cookies), scones (biscuits) and cakes. High is ideal for roasting meats.

 

The bottom oven has a top element that is used for grilling (Broiling) or when the rotisserie is usedy and a bottom one that comes on with the conventional oven aspect is used.

 

It's a fabulous bit of kit that would have been VERY expensive when new and would probably cost close to $2500-3000 to replace with a similar model today.

 

The pic is of a later model, though the layout is the same.

 

[passatdoc]

@brib68: When I replaced my gas range (builder special, supplied with the house when new) in 2001, I was not remodelling, as cabinets and counters were only 12 years old. Rather, I was upgrading appliances: over-range microwave, new gas range, new dishwasher. I had to work with a gas pipe and a 110V outlet behind the range. Most convection ranges at that time were electric, but there were four non-commercial brands with gas convection then: GE, Jenn-Air, Kitchen-Aid, and Frigidaire. All of them were priced $1400-1800 and had an additional heating element around the fan, except for Frigidaire, which offered the no-element, fan-only "Speed Bake" model at $800 and a model with additional heating element around the fan ("True Convection") for about $1000. To the best of my knowledge, all GE convection gas ranges included the additional element, without a fan-only model in their lineup.

I've owned the Speed Bake model since October 2001 with no service or performance issues whatsoever, other than having to calibrate oven temperature once in thirteen years. The only buyer's remorse I have is that I wish I'd ponied up the extra $200 for the upgraded model, no so much because of the heating element, but because that model had grids that extend across the cooktop surface, whereas my model has grids only over each burner. The updated model from Frigidaire today has all-across grids and a central fifth burner: http://www.frigidaire.com/Kitchen-Appliances/Ranges/Gas-Range/FGGF3054MW/ and looks like it can be had for under $1000 with discounts. Frigidaire makes higher end models with double ovens and a similar feature set, with self-clean in both ovens and convection in the lower (larger) oven, but not in the upper (smaller) oven.

My only other beef with the range is that the "high output" burner is a whopping 12,000 BTU, way less than what today passes for high output, but back then 12K was state of the art. On the plus side, the grates are porcelain-coated cast iron and are described by the manufacturer as DISHWASHER SAFE. I think they're right, they are washed monthly in the DW and look brand new 13 years later. A big plus vs bare cast iron in terms of reduced maintenance.

@Allen/Whirlcool: I believe the fan in my oven activates only above 300 F, similar to yours. If I turn on the oven and hit the Speed Bake (fan) button when I start the oven, I hear the gentle whrrrrrr of the fan several minutes later, before it reaches set temperature.

ps if you look up the specs on the range link I posted, it appears that the convection system (fan plus presumably the element) consumes 350 W when in use.