How to Make Use of a Gas Cooker Oven

Use a gas cooker oven to make a variety of one-dish meals and baked goods. Gas ovens heat up quickly by igniting one or more burners surrounding the cooking chamber. Quality gas ovens surround the raw food product in dry heat to cook it evenly from every angle. Older gas cooker ovens and those without convection fans tend to have hotter and colder zones. Get to know the capabilities and performance features of your gas oven to get the best possible results for baking items.

Things You'll Need

• Owner's manual
• Oven thermometer
• Timer (optional)
• Oven mitts

Instructions

1. Review the owner's manual of your gas cooker oven for information on your model's temperature range and features. Newer digital models have on-board computers with programmable timers and thermostats. More basic analog models are simply controlled using manual dials and knobs.

2. Place an oven thermometer in the center of the middle rack of your gas cooker oven and set the oven for 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Check the temperature on the thermometer after 30 minutes to see if it is registering near 300 degrees.

3. Raise the oven temperature in 25-degree increments every 30 minutes until you reach 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Take a reading of the internal thermometer before each adjustment. Many gas cooker ovens run hotter or colder than they are set and will need their thermostat adjusted up or down to compensate.

4. Move the thermometer to various positions throughout the oven and check on the reading after a 20-minute wait. This will help you find the hot and cold zones in the oven chamber.

5. Relocate the internal thermometer to the position you plan to place your food and adjust the gas cooker oven until you achieve the temperature necessary for your recipe.

6. Move the thermometer out of the way and slide your food item into the gas cooker oven. Close the door and set the oven's timer or an external timer for the time needed to cook the food.

7. Check on the food when the timer goes off and remove it from the oven with heat-resistant mitts when it is fully baked to your satisfaction.

Tips & Warnings

• A clean oven chamber conducts and reflects heat better than a soiled one. Use the self-cleaning feature on your gas cooker oven or purchase an oven-cleaning product to remove cooked-on residue and improve your oven's performance.

• Temperature variances in oven positions more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit may be due to a gas burner malfunction or broken seal in the oven chamber. If your inner chamber heat is highly uneven, seek a repair estimate and the advice of an appliance service professional.

References

• Appliance Express: Electric & Gas Oven / Range Troubleshooting
• What's Cooking America: Basic Rules of Baking