Convection.

Hi. This is going to be a really, really naive question but here goes: My stove has convection settings, and I don't have the first clue as to when/why/what I would do with them.

I've got the manual, so I can push the buttons to make it go... but what sort of things will benefit from it?

Thanks.

It circulates hot air around your food, so cooks it quicker, and you need to learn how to adjust whatever recs you're using to the cooking time as convection will cook it at a lower temp. There are lots of books on what to change temps to and in lieu of that if you're gonna try it, do it with something simple and lower the temp at least 25 degrees. Hope this is of some help.

Once I went to convection, I've never gone back to conventional.

In my view, it cooks more evenly.

I have found some baked goods brown more richly and evenly using convection. But I have no actual evidence or even definite ideas as to which things it really improves, as it has been hit and miss when baking at other people's home. I don't have one.

The range we recently got is convection only. We've been adjusting to it, but it's taking time. We have to remember to drop the temp and to check on how things are cooking a lot more often than before.

OTOH, we really like the results with everything we've cooked so far.

It's my conviction that convection of any concoction - and I would spout this at any convocation - is superior to plain old conduction. (It cooks faster and more evenly). Of course a concordance of the two is best.

It's my conviction that convection of any concoction - and I would spout this at any convocation - is superior to plain old conduction. (It cooks faster and more evenly). Of course a concordance of the two is best.

Chef, that is a lot of "C" words! Now lets see if you can solve this. "Railroad crossing, without and cars, can you spell that without any "r" s?

That

That

<smile>

The oven manual says, for baking, to lower temp by 25F, but for roasting to leave temp as-is and reduce time by 25%-30%. As several of you speak well of it, I'll have to give it a try.

Both my Dacor ovens have convection and I tried it several times. Once with roasting tomatoes to make tomato sauce and the fan blew the juices all over the oven and made an even bigger mess. Tried it with something baked and did not care for it. I never gave it a fair chance. I'm used to conduction heat, the times it takes to cook, etc. It was not worth my time to get used to convection. Just like metric....I said, "forgetaboutit"

It's my conviction that convection of any concoction - and I would spout this at any convocation - is superior to plain old conduction. (It cooks faster and more evenly). Of course a concordance of the two is best.

How convenient.

The oven manual says, for baking, to lower temp by 25F, but for roasting to leave temp as-is and reduce time by 25%-30%. As several of you speak well of it, I'll have to give it a try.

Jeff,
Convection does reduce cooking time/temperature for the reasons cited above. I don't use convection for things like souffles and cassoulet, where I am concerned about disturbing the cooking surface, but it's great for things that you want browned. Our 4 year old loves the tater tots that I cook by convection, for instance, and roasting anything is great in convection. I would be interested to hear from our baking contingent how breads do in convection ovens. I'd suspect that it'd improve the crust, but they may not rise quite as much?

Mark Lipton

Jeff,
Convection does reduce cooking time/temperature for the reasons cited above. I don't use convection for things like souffles and cassoulet, where I am concerned about disturbing the cooking surface, but it's great for things that you want browned. Our 4 year old loves the tater tots that I cook by convection, for instance, and roasting anything is great in convection. I would be interested to hear from our baking contingent how breads do in convection ovens. I'd suspect that it'd improve the crust, but they may not rise quite as much?

Mark Lipton

Haven't done bread yet, but it's on the list.