This week’s how to Friday is about a subject that is quite close to my heart – how not to burn things in a multifunction oven.
Multifunction ovens are electric ovens that come with a built in fan and multiple heating elements. This makes them very versatile but if you’re not used to them the results can be disastrous.
Common wisdom dictates that fan assisted cooking should be done at 20 degrees cooler than normal and that it takes 10 minutes less per hour. For a roast turkey or something that takes an afternoon to cook this is good advice, but what about pizzas? They’re only in for 15 minutes. Or if you want to use the grill element to help speed things up?
The answers are in the handbook. Recommended timings for ovens vary by manufacturer so it’s important that you check the documentation that comes with the appliance. The best example of this is probably Neff.
A Neff oven with CircoTherm© (Neff’s version of fan assistance) that has been set to 140oC will cook at the same rate as a conventional oven set at 150oC but if you turn the Neff oven up by 60oC it has the same effect as turning a regular oven up by 100oC. This just goes to show that you should always read the manual.
If you just want a rough guide on how not to burn everything then here are notes on the two most commonly misused functions of a multifunction oven.
Fan assistance– The fan blows hot air from an element straight onto your food. This means it needs hardly any time to get very hot so most recipes won’t need preheating.
If the recommended cooking time is less than 30 minutes expect to take about 20% off the cooking time but be prepared for it to be even quicker. If a pizza takes 15 minutes to cook normally you should expect it to be finished after 12 minutes – so best to check it at 10 minutes because it’s probably nearly ready.
If the recipe says to cook for between thirty minutes and an hour you can comfortably lose 5 -10 minutes.
For cooking times of over an hour the rule is 10 minutes less for each hour if it is a covered item (a chicken cooked in a lidded roasting dish or baked potatoes wrapped in tin foil) but if it is uncovered don’t be surprised if it cooks even quicker.
Grill – The trick to using a grill element when oven cooking is restraint. If you want to brown something off using the grill then do it at the end of the process almost like you would with a separate grill or blowtorch. If you leave the grill on for the duration of the cycle then you will end up with roast potatoes that are incinerated on one side.
If you’ve got a story about a multifunction oven or would like a share a pearl of wisdom then please leave a comment.