Ever made a family meal with your oven?
You will find that cooking with the oven (be it baking, roasting or grilling) is one of the best ways to prepare a meal. Not only does it enhance food flavour, but it also minimizes cooking time.

Cooking with dry heat in an enclosed compartment like an oven makes the food healthier because of the little fat it requires, and how much fat in the food is left over. The reason why this happens is that the enclosed environment helps store up heat which allows for the fat to be released from the food.

How well do You know your Oven?

The Oven is an enclosed chamber mainly used for cooking. It has the ability to not only roast and bake your food, but also it broils, braises, grills and dehydrates food. It is very versatile as you can set it to get different results from your food, from crisp to tender, depending on what you want.

Here are some helpful tips to help get the best results from your oven, without burning your food.

Heat at the Right Temperature:

Before you get started, try getting a thermometer, so you can check if your oven is running at the right temperature and it will also help you be extra sure that your oven is not faulty.

Also, it is important to note that the top of your oven burns hotter than the bottom. So depending on what you want you want to make, you have to be careful where to place your food. where you place your food. For an even consistency in temperature, place your cooked food in the middle. For crispy food, you can place your food at the top. Once all these precautions have been put in place, you can adjust the temperature of your oven depending on what you are making. All these will reduce your chances of ending up with burned food.

Know Your Hot Spots (the Oven Trick)

As mentioned earlier, every oven has spots that are hotter than others, and it takes time to figure those hot and cold spots out. A great hack that helps is to preheat your oven at 350° F, and then toast some bread slices on the rack, both on the top and bottom rack.

Once they are toasted, look at how they have browned and you should be able to tell your hot and cold spots by how spotting the undercooked, well toasted and burned pieces of toast.

Once your hot and cold spots have been discovered, you can adjust accordingly to ensure you have a well-cooked meal. It might be as simple as rotating your pans or switching your racks during the cooking period or changing your cookware.

Use the Right Pans

Using the right pans for your oven can help prevent your food from burning. This is often determined by the type of oven you are using.
A popular recommendation is the ceramic pan, as it provides great heat distribution and can withstand a high amount of heat, thus prevents burning.
Cast iron pans and sheet pans are some other great alternatives to the regular pans; as they are made of thick metal which provide great heat distribution, making sure some parts of the pan don’t end up hotter than others, is this might eventually cause your food to burn.

Space Your Food

When baking or roasting more than one food, you have to create space for them to cook. If your oven is too packed, some parts of the food will be left uncooked while some other parts will burn.
Hence, it is best to avoid overcrowding your pan with a lot of food.

The secret of getting your oven to cook the best is by understanding your oven. Its benefits are countless once you learn to master how it works.