When do YOU turn on the oven?

[Judy]

bigmike&nan :

I'm glad most well written recipes state oven temp and the Mis en Place (have in place) at the start. I write my recipes so what goes into it is listed in the order it is used in, in their appropriate groups, I hate finding at the end of a recipe "add this and that" only to discover I don't have those things. GRRRRR

As for preheating an oven, of course knowing when to fire up the oven is key, obviously starting the oven when you first make bread dough is silly, but there are recipes that don't take that much prep time and having an oven that is "ready" is so important for many items, especially baked goods where the reaction to the correct high heat is what makes the recipe work properly.

Happy New Year everyone.

Right!

I often rewrite a new recipe before making it; nothing is more annoying than a poorly written recipe. Why would they not list things in the order used? Why throw in a new ingredient in the last paragraph? In some cases I will group ingredients then bracket them and note, "mix together" or "saute 5 min" or whatever. I want the recipe to HELP me, not distract me. Main use of my computer printer is recipes.​

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
I live in the deep South....the summers here are long and hot. Winter only lasts for a few days when a cool front comes through and then it warms back up to the mid to high 70's. For that reason I have a gas stove in my garage that I bake in so as not to heat up my house. It's an old model that I picked up at a garage sale for $50.00 about 25 years ago. It takes a full 30 to 40 minutes to preheat and get up to temperature. The old stoves like mine are made out of heavy gauge metals with lots of insulation that the newer ovens don't have. There is a lot more mass to preheat in the old ovens than the newer one and there is no fancy preheat setting...but OMG does it bake like a dream. And you can open the door almost as much as you want to baste a roast or a ham and it looses almost no heat. If it were an electric stove I might worry about using up a lot of electricity but here where I live natural gas is cheap so I don't mind the extra use to preheat my oven. And since it's out in the garage I don't worry about it heating up my house.

 

[bigmike&nan]

Most restaurants fire up their stoves first thing, maybe the dishwasher has that as part of his when he opens daily duties. In a line situation the stove is used to finish cook a lot of dishes: say a steak, it's seared on one side in a skillet, flipped over and into the hot oven to finish cook (a great way to do a steak by the way)... And in old world bakeries they would have a graveyard shift baking because over there gas was cheaper at night - at the end of the work day they would shut off the ovens and then use the residual heat to make such items as meringues, which required a lower temp.

 

[maizey]

Mise en place..i was pronouncing better than I was spelling.. I feel really stupid.. I only write it on the board once a week.. At least I spell it correctly then...sheeesh