New Cook Seeks Oven Help

[sk8grl]

I moved to a new home recently, inheriting an oven that I think has seen better days. Any time I use it for a recipe I'm making, the food is never done in the amount of time the recipe says. (And yes, I did double check to make sure the oven was ON!)Since I am a VERY inexperienced cook, I have only been able to get food cooked properly by trial and (lots of) error! I have tried cooking things longer, but I'm a bad judge of how long things take to cook so I either burn it or settle for overbaked.

My question is this: is it better to cook the food longer at the "correct" (according to the oven gauge anyway) temperature, or should I crank the temperature up a few notches and cook it for the amount of time called for by the recipe? And is there any way to know how much longer/higher to cook food at? Can any of you brilliant cuisine enthusiasts give me your opinion? TIA for your wisdom and expertise!!!

[Gail]

Since you're pleading ignorance, I'm going to suggest a few things:

1. Is your oven preheated long enough? If it's old, it may take as much as 15 minutes to reach the desired temperature.
2. Is the dial broken? I learned this one from my repairman. Something inside the dial had been stripped, so even though the dial was turning, the internal gear wasn't corresponding with what was on the dial.
3. Some ovens are quirky and need to be turned all the way to maximum temp, then back to get a proper reading.
4. Are you placing your food or rack too high or too low?
5. Is the thermostat out of whack?

Following up on this last one, you might want to invest a few dollars in an oven thermometer. They're pretty inexpensive and invaluable when it comes to telling just how far off your oven really is. (If you have a choice, look for one which will tolerate the highest heat, so you don't accidentally fry it like I did with my first one! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif )

Assuming your oven temperature is really out of whack, is it out of the question to consider having it fixed? If it is-- and you just want to live with the thing-- I'd suggest cooking with the thermometer in there, so that you can correct the temperature as needed (i.e. if you've set the dial to 375, but after twenty minutes of heating, your thermometer says 325, you know to kick your dial upward a bit till the thermometer says 375.)

Did that help at all? Hope so. Good luck!

[JLS]

What you can do is buy a thermometer that you can hang in your oven. That way you will know what the temp is.

I think you can find them in the kitchen sections of general stores.

[sneezles]

sk8grl
I agree with all that Gail wrote but just wanted to share my recent experience. We moved and I also inherited this oven and it runs on propane. You have to light a burner to light the oven...been here two years and finally complained to my propane guy that my oven doesn't heat properly so they came to take a look. Sure enough the striker was out on the oven, it would light without it but would take 20-30 minutes to preheat. They replaced it last week but I woke up yesterday and discovered not only is the oven striker out again but so are all the burners!!! I can still light the burners with a lighter manually but I'm not getting on my hand and knees to light that oven-I much prefer to use an electric oven. So it doen't matter how experienced you are with baking-what matters is how good your oven is---I want a new one!

[sk8grl]

Thank you, Gail and JLS, for your input! As far as the dial/preheating issues, the panel is all digital (one of those seemingly cutting-edge and futuristic features at the time it was manufactured), so all I can do is set it to an exact setting. It also beeps when it's done preheating, and I usually wait a bit longer to put food in just in case! The racks I usually keep in the middle--would it be better to lower them?

We will replace the oven when we redo our kitchen, but that may be a ways off yet.
So it sounds like the oven thermometer may be the way to go for now--I would never have thought of that, but it makes perfect sense! I may also try turning the temp up high first and then let it settle down to the correct temp. Thank you again for your great ideas! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[sk8grl]

Sneezles-

Just saw your post. I think that's the kind of oven I have, too--I've also noticed recently that once it decides it's finished preheating, I hear a kind of "poof" sound as if maybe the flame is going out. Is it supposed to do that? Maybe the oven is just not retaining the heat while it cooks? Regardless, I'm with you, I want a new oven!! (Santa, are you listening???)

[sneezles]

I hear that same noise but I always thought it was finally paying attention to the fact that I had turned it on and it was actually heating! Of course, I've been w/o an oven for 3 days now-had the repair guys fix it on Monday and it broke on Tuesday and thy've not shown up as yet to "re-fix"!

[sk8grl]

Quick follow-up report... thanks to your advice, I picked up an oven thermometer at Williams Sonoma this weekend (I could spend my whole paycheck at that store, but that's another story!), and it solved my problem! I discovered that my oven is off by about 25' AND is not even CLOSE to preheated when it "beeps" that it is! I made brownies on Saturday, and set the oven to 350' to preheat. When it beeped, the thermometer was only at 200'! It took another 15 minutes for the thermometer to register a consistent 325', so I simply adjusted till it read 350' (the oven had to be set to 370'). No WONDER I've been having such problems! But now that it's fixed, I plan to proudly use my "new & improved" oven all week long. Thanks again!

[Ralph]

Just a time-saving suggestion (perhaps):
The oven CAN be adjusted by a serviceman/woman so that the temperature reads correctly. For service, we've been pleased w/Sears Home Central. They service ALL brands whether you bought it there or not. The number is 1-800-4-Y-HOME.

[JLS]

That is great...now you don't have to worry about buying a new oven anytime soon!

Happy Baking!