Convection Oven Vs. Plain Oven
Purchasing an oven with convection capabilities can be difficult if you've never used a convection oven before. Yet convection ovens and conventional or plain ovens are similar in several ways. They both have insulated cooking environments, and they both cook food with radiant heat. However, a convection oven, or turbo oven, has one or more internal fans that circulate the hot air which creates a significantly different cooking environment than the conventional oven. Does this Spark an idea?
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Even Heat
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Both the convection oven and the conventional oven use radiant heat to cook food. In the conventional oven, that heat moves naturally but slowly and inconsistently throughout the oven. However, the circulating air created by the internal fan of the convection oven distributes heat throughout the oven quickly, creating an evenly heated cooking environment without the hot and cold spots found in a conventional oven.
Time
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Most recipe cooking times are based on conventional ovens and will be too long for cooking in a convection oven. The increased circulation of hot air around the food in the convection oven improves heat transfer to the food, which cooks the food more rapidly than in a conventional oven. The convection oven can cook up to 30-percent faster than the conventional oven, and recipes will need to be adjusted accordingly.
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Temperature
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Both the conventional oven and the convection oven can cook food at the temperatures indicated in most recipes. However, because the convection oven provides an evenly heated cooking environment and more efficient heat transfer, it can cook the same recipe as a conventional oven at a 25-degree lower temperature. When cooking in the convection oven at the lower temperature, do not adjust the cooking time. This feature is beneficial for recipes with short cooking times where adjusting the cooking time for convection oven cooking would only reduce the time by a minute or two.
Energy
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Because the convection oven cooks more efficiently than the conventional oven, cooking with the convection oven can save time and energy. Besides cooking food faster and at lower temperatures than the conventional oven, the convection oven's even heating allows you to cook more food at one time. Three pans of cookies can be baked all at once in a convection oven, and all of the cookies will come out the same golden brown. In a conventional oven, the rack nearest the heating element will bake too quickly while the rack farthest away from the element will bake too slowly.
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References
- Photo Credit stuffed dumplings in oven image by ewa kubicka from Fotolia.com
