Finding just the right cooking appliance is a task of mammoth proportions these days. It is not uncommon to wonder what the latest fixtures in your newly renovated kitchen are.
With the ever-growing kitchen appliance industry, when looking at ovens, most of us finds themselves at loss when faced with questions like: What is the difference between convection and conduction or toaster oven vs. convectional oven.
What Are Convection Ovens?
When looking at baking appliances you must have looked at some of the common convection oven reviews wondering what the best convection ovens are.
Convection ovens can be used to cater to a variety of kitchen cooking needs such as – baking cakes or roasting and browning meats.
This presence of a fan has some major advantages, some of which are:
Benefits of Convection Ovens:
- Evenly cooked Dishes: When we tend to put dishes into toaster convection ovens there is a blanket of cold air on the dish. Convection ovens maintain an even temperature through the interior of the oven, this is turn, provides a blanket of hot air around the dish. This blanket of hot air prevents hot spots inside the oven that lead to unevenly cooked meat.
- Lesser Cooking Time: The fan and exhaust work together to maintain not only the even temperature throughput the oven but also circulates and push hot hair around that leads to faster cooking.
- Lower Power Consumption: Lesser cooking time also means lower electricity bills. Due to faster cooking time, convection ovens consume lesser energy because the food tends to cook at lower temperature. Therefore, these convection baking ovens are more cost effective in terms of power consumption.
- Better For Slow Cooking Meals: Meals that need to be cooked on a low heat with a cover are best cooked in convection covers for the cooking environment it provides.
- Multi-Purpose: Most convection ovens also have traditional oven settings. So for those who prefer to use conventional ovens for certain dishes, there is also the option to switch to a convention oven setting.
Buyer’s Guide: Guidelines, FAQs And Features
It is not often you come across articles that seek to answer all the questions you have pertaining to your kitchen appliance buying decisions. What we have sought to do is compile a list of all the most common concerns and questions people have when looking to switch from conduction oven to convection ovens. Some of which are:
Guidelines
- Keep An Eye On The Food: Like any other small oven for baking, it is best to familiarize yourself with the basic functions of the oven. Convection ovens tend to heat up faster, hence, reducing the cooking time. For this reason it is recommended to keep a close check on your dish in addition to other measures such as:
- Reducing the temperature required by 25 degrees
- Checking up on food after the first half of required cooking time
- Use your instinct, experience and the overall smell and look of the dish to gauge how well it is cooked
- Avoid Overstuffing The Oven: For best result and to get the most out of your oven it is best not to overcrowd the oven.
- Use Water Containers For Additional Hydration: It is not recommended to bake cakes or breads in convections ovens; simply because the constant circulation of air can leave such goods unfinished.
Common Questions And Concerns
Can I use my convection oven for caramelization?
Countertop convection oven recipes that call for caramelization of vegetables require oven with steady and consistent heat. Convections ovens are perfect for caramelization of veggies, and rarely skin when making slow cooked roasts.
What is cooking vs. baking?
Extremely similar and commonly confused; coking is a more general term that can be used for any kind of dish. Whereas, baking is used when referring to cooking of flour based foods.
What is broiling?
Most people wonder what the difference between bake and broil is. When broil is used in reference to convection ovens and cooking in general, it is used to refer to cooking by direct, concentrated heat. Ovens usually do have a broil option; what you can do is refer to an Oster roaster oven manual to see if your built in toaster oven has a broil function.
Boiling on the other hand is used when liquids heat up to the point of changing their form i.e. liquid to gas.
What temperature is broil?
A high heat of about 500 F is considered broiling temperature. Baking Vs broiling is done at lower and more controlled temperatures depending on the turbo oven recipes you intend on making.
Convection Oven Properties:
Convection oven Vs. Toaster oven Vs. Conduction Oven
| Oven Types | Speed of Cooking | Value for Money | Perfect For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convection oven | Faster due and more efficiently | High value for money because of cooking options | Cooking roasts, baking etc. |
| Toaster oven | No fan-assistance, longer cooking time | Lower price but not good for cooking and baking efficiently | Smaller spaces, good portability and perfect for warming food |
| Conduction Oven | Linger cooking ties because of limited heating elements | Lower price but not good for cooking and baking efficiently | Breads and loaves that might end up unevenly cooked in convection ovens |
Conclusion
When looking to use convection ovens for baking, it is important to familiarize yourself with the functions and general terms used.
Convection ovens are perfect for making large batches of cookies, or when baking pies etc, but like any other kitchen appliance there are slight limitations to this oven. That said, the presence of an option that lets you use the traditional oven settings, makes it an extremely smart investment.
It’s great that convection ovens can be used to caramelize vegetables. My wife and I would like to get more into cooking, and we want to make sure that we can make some delicious meals. We’ll be sure to look further into our options for convection ovens to help us with this in the future.