Did You Know – Oven Door
How many times are you baking something and you feel the need to open the oven door to see how it is doing? I know I have been guilty of that. Check out how the oven door can change what you are baking.
- Closing the oven door too hard or causing it to slam can disturb the cake inside, which may result in a sunken center.
- When you’re putting the cake into the oven, don’t leave the door open and let all the heat out. Put the cake in and close the door immediately.
- It can be tempting to open the oven door during the baking process to peek in on your food. However, this can affect the oven’s internal temperature and may lead to poor heat distribution.
- Opening the oven door can cause the temperature to drop by as much as 100°F, which can lead to uneven cooking and deflated baked goods.
- If you do open the oven door, the oven needs time to heat back up, which can increase cooking time and potentially undercook your food.
- Keep the oven door shut and use your oven’s internal light and window to check your food’s baking progress.
- Opening the oven door is a mistake and can cause your cake to collapse because the rush of cold air stops your caking from rising.
- Leave the oven door closed for at least 3/4 of the cooking time if you feel the need to check on your baked food.
- You can also test for doneness with a toothpick in the final minutes of cooking instead of opening the door too early.
- If you need to check on your cake, you should wait until it’s almost cooked before checking. If your baked food never seems to turn out right, this could be the reason why.
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
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Categories: Did You Know
Excellent advice! I really need to remember to shut the door gently when I’m baking cakes. A hip bump/thoughtless slam could lead to so much heartache.
Oh yes I’ve been there! Thank you Beth🥰
Good advice
Thank you Derrick
Wise words Diane
Thank you Sheree
I’m one of those open the door checkers during the baking process! Thanks for the tips. 😊
I totally understand! You just can’t see as well through the door. Lol
thanks for this reminder, it’s always so tempting. having the interior light on helps, can just peek through the front glass
You’re welcome Beth!
Is this is in your NEW oven??? I haven’t been able to keep up… I excited to see this new kitchen! I know that’s not what this post is about. But I am lovingly envy about the smells and newest of a brand kitchen!
No this is not my oven but I am so excited to have a gas range. Actually, the range is dual power because I had to have a self cleaning oven. Plus it is a convection oven. I may do a post on this amazing range in the future.
All true. As for preheating oven, I always preheat 20-30 minutes before I start baking or roasting. Doing so, not only heats the inside of the oven but as the walls start to heat, heat is transferred to the outer wall of the oven and the out wall of the stove. There is a gap between the oven wall and stove wall. By allowing time for this space to heat, you can maintain the temperature better. If you must open door and close it, the recovery time for heat loss is minimal, up to 90% faster than if the outer gap were not allow to heat up as well.
The gap when given time to heat, acts as an insulation against massive heat loss when door is open.
But again, as you stated, the door cannot be opened to long, otherwise the heat loss would be great and no room for recovery time.
This information can be found in the book – The Science Of Cooking (print 2017) – by Dr. Stuart Farrimond – page 213 under “How Important Is It To Preheat The Oven.”
It states that if you heat your oven in such a way (the inner and outer walls of the gay) that if you open the door during the crucial rising stage of a cake, drop in air temperature is short-lived – provided you close the door promptly as the recover of heat is fast.
Thank you I didn’t know that but if I preheated my oven that long my propane tank would run out! 🤣
You must have small tanks. I lived in Mexico for 5 years and I had a 40 kilo tank that lasted me about 3 months. Cooking, heater (winter months) and hot water.
This is the first time I have had a gas range, all electric in the past. I have no idea how much propane we will use with all the cooking I do but without the range I pre-buy 1,000 gallons a year.
I red that propane burns hotter than natural gas. Meaning you use less propane to cook a steak in the oven or stove top than with natural gas. I found this article you might be interested in. If explains very well the difference between propane and natural gas.
I worked 20 years as a service person for the gas company so that I know about, but propane I just know there is a different orfice size for the difference pressure of the gas.
Oh I’ve been tempted often…. Thanks for a great post with important info to remember.
You’re welcome Ruth, thanks for stopping by. 🥰
Thank you for reposting 🥰
Interesting … I know if you take the crockpot lid off you have to add cooking time. I forgot how much as I read it in the manual when I got it and I always leave it on while cooking, so I Googled it: 20 minutes longer cooking time for one peek!
I always add 15 minutes if I need to take the lid off. Luckily with the crock pot you can see in and rarely need to take the lid off.
Good to know and yes, that’s true … I always smash everything down so it doesn’t splatter the lid (on top of using liners to make clean-up easier).
I’m definitely guilty of that. I often rotate a pan half-way through the baking time because I think our oven racks aren’t completely straight but I might need to give up that practice.
I rotate my cookies and I have heard the chefs on cooking shows say to do that with some of their food too. But I do it really quick, not that that makes a difference. Lol
We aren’t the only ones!
Will definitely keep all this in mind. Thanks, Diane!
You are very welcome, thanks for stopping by!
I’ve now learned an important thing: Don’t bake a cake when you’re in a bad mood, because if you slam the oven door too hard, your cake is going to flop 🤣. When we were just married, we didn’t have money for a heater for the cold winter. Our solution was to leave the oven door open after we had finished cooking so the kitchen (and us) could heat up!
Haha and I bet you are rarely in a bad mood! When the A/C isn’t on I always let the oven cool down with the oven door open after I finish baking. Not only do you get the heat but the amazing aroma too.
I do get my moments … you know, menopause!
Oh yes – I follow the rule that once the oven door is closed, it generally stays closed until baking is done 🙂
You have good willpower Tierney! It cracks me up that they suggest looking through the window. I have been baking for over 45 years and I have never been able to see the food clearly.
The oven door window looks like a portal to another dimension – I’ve never been able to see in there clearly either. I just hope the distorted/warped view I see means things are coming along in their baking nicely – ha!
Same here Tierney, I can never see in there, but I don’t usually look until 5 minutes are left to bake.