Why the Convection Setting on Your Oven is a Great Choice
Before we had convection ovens, the only option for oven cooking was radiant heat. That is to say the heat came from a heating element in the floor of the oven, either exposed or concealed and the top heating element (which is also the broil element) would cycle on and off at moderate intensity to provide browning.
Radiant Heat vs Convection
The downside of cooking with radiant heat is that it tends to have a drying effect on food. This dry heat can be beneficial when baking; however, when roasting meats, frequent basting or brining the meat in liquid prior to cooking is necessary in order to prevent the meat from drying out. The other issue was having to rotate pans to achieve even baking and cooking results.
In a convection oven there is a fan on the back wall of the oven encircled by heating elements. When you engage a convection mode the fan circulates the heated air around the oven cooking food from the edge to the center. So now the food is being cooked by heated air instead of direct heat from the heating elements.
Benefits of Cooking with Convection
Foods cooked in convection have better moisture retention, meats do not require basting or turning and you can cook on multiple racks at one time. Using convection will turn your oven into one of the most useful tools in your kitchen. Not only can you bake multiple racks of cookies at one time, you can cook a complete oven meal and there will be no mingling of flavors, imagine cooking dinner without having to be in the kitchen!
Resources for Learning About Convection
This video provides tips for getting you started using convection; however, these videos on our YouTube channel provide a practical guide with great visuals to help you understand the convection modes. You will also find a selection of recipes here that will guide you to success with your convection cooking.
Because recipes writers don’t reference convection it’s up to us to understand the tools we are cooking with so we can benefit from cooking in convection and achieve success with every recipe. Adapting recipes to cooking in convection is not difficult, follow the guidelines you will find here at Convection Kitchen and pay attention to the results. The more you understand the tools you are cooking with the better those results will be.
Larissa, Your Convection Enthusiast
