Did You Know – Oven Bake Or Convection Bake
It’s been a little over a year since we remodeled our kitchen and bought all new Bosch appliances. The gas range was the first gas range I have ever owned, I used electric my entire adult life.
My new range has a convection oven included with the regular oven. After all these years of baking in an electric oven only, I find it intimidating to use the convection oven. I guess I am afraid of ruining whatever food I cook in the convection oven when I know it always cooks perfectly in the regular oven.
I remember somebody asking about the convection oven but I hadn’t used it yet. Well I still haven’t used it because I am so happy with the way it cooks with the regular gas oven. I didn’t know when to use the convection oven and at what settings until now.
Looking back at the manual for my gas range/convection oven was an instruction book with these charts, go figure.
These charts tell the best way to bake. Maybe now I will be brave enough to use the convection oven, maybe!
Have you used a convection oven before? What advice can you give us for success?
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I have a convection oven. Took me awhile as well to learn how to use it properly.
Do you prefer it over a regular oven? From looking at the charts it seems baking sweets is best with convection.
What I learned about convection oven is to only use the convection method (uses fan) when baking or roasting items that do not rise. But things like Soufflés, cakes, cheese cakes among others should use only the Bake method (no fan).
The explanation is that when the heat turns off and the fan comes on it will be blowing on that cake or Soufflé and interfere with the rise.
I also seen that convection ovens are more efficient and can roast and bake 25 degrees less than the recipe calls for. Most recipes we use today were created with the old style ovens.
Actually what the fan is for, is so there are no hot spots or cold spots while baking or roasting (when using convection method only – the fan isn’t used on baking mode).
The convection method is: the heat goes on and off when using the convection method. When the heat goes off the fan comes on to blow heat around to prevent those cold or hot spots.
I have an electric oven and I see that you have a gas range. Gas heats faster, so I would recommend checking again your oven manual.
Here’s a link to an article I wrote on the subject: Understanding Convection Ovens: Usage Tips and Best Practices – https://cookplatefork.com/2025/03/02/understanding-convection-ovens-usage-tips-and-best-practices
Thank you so much, the link really helped to understand the process. I’m still not wanting to use it. When I bought it, the convection oven came with the range, I didn’t have a choice.
That’s what you want.
The convection oven was invented by the restaurant industry. Just like the computer was first invented by scientists in the 60’s and later made available to the public in the 90’s due to being able to shrink the computer to desk top size.
The convection oven when invented was large. Later they found away to make it smaller.
You still have your range or stove to cook things that don’t require the oven.
Such as a frittata for example, you start in a pan on the stove and finish off under the broiler. Also there are some recipes you start on the stove, such as chicken thighs or even a pot roast. They are first sired in the cast iron and finished off roasting or baking in your convection oven on the baking convection mode.
Thanks so much Randy, we never can learn it all. I enjoy learning knew things.
We don’t have gas in the house. I’m no good at charts. All I can say is that our electric fan method generally cooks quicker and at a lower temperature
Which saves on electricity. My range is both gas and electric, I insisted on a self cleaning oven and it came with the convection oven too.
I have no idea. But I would try if you decide to bake some cookies. Do one batch in the convection oven and the other batch in the regular oven. And then compare. 🙂
What a great idea Nancy, thank you! We have the grandkids 7 days a week so I’m sure I can find someone to eat them and be the judge. Lol
I can’t believe it’s already been a year since you’ve done the renovations in your kitchen, Diane – it feels like just the other day! I can’t give you advice on a convection oven, because I’ve never baked in one either … but I can tell you this: With those instructions/charts, it feels to me like I should have studied Math at the highest level 😂.
I know! Where has the time gone? Haha good one about the math.
Your kitchen looks just beautiful, Diane! 💕 And what an upgrade to a gas stove. I can also understand the hesitate to use the gas oven. Those charts sure look intimidating but I bet and know you’ll figure it out!
Thank you Ab
Once you bake cookies, or roast a chicken in the convection oven, you’ll never go back!
Stop teasing me! 🤣
Diane, it may have been me that asked you about the convection oven. Our travel trailer came with a combination microwave/convection oven. This was the travel trailer we bought about 2 years ago. This new travel trailer didn’t have the regular RV oven – which is worthless in my book. We use the convection oven most every day when we are out traveling. I love it! Everything cooks so tender and moist. I just use the same temperature and cooking times as a regular oven. My only issue is that the convection oven is small. I could only bake 5 cookies at a time. Given how my husband loves chocolate chip cookies, this means I’d be baking these cookies for hours and hours! I make a large amount of cookies before we leave home. After that, we support the grocery stores. I hope you enjoy your new convection oven and continue to enjoy that beautiful kitchen!
I thought it was you! Does the convection oven automatically change? So if you usually cook at 350º, does the convection adjust the temperature to the convection temperature? Five cookies at a time, I had a good laugh at that one Betty.
All I know is that I select 350 degrees. I have never adjusted a recipe. And I can’t figure out how to preheat, so I just add a bit of time. Ha ha! I am an okay cook, but not in your league. This is why I like your easy recipes!
That’s what I will do when I decide to use it only I would preheat. There is nothing I hate more than to put all the effort into a meal and it’s over cooked or tastes bad. I have so many recipes that I have perfected to our taste over 35 years and at the price of food I hate to chance making a bad meal.
Thank you for sharing Ned!
I have baked with convection for years – you will love it!
I don’t know why I am so resistant to using this oven. Our range is both gas and electric and I love the way the gas cooks. Do you lower the temperature when you cooked on yours or just follow a recipe temperature and time? I am told you should lower the temperature and cook less time.
Yes, I reduce the temperature and cooking time. Check you manual for best results!
We love our electric convection oven. Sometimes you need to put a small bowl of water in the oven, to get a crispier result. We use what we call ‘traditional’ when making crème brûlée or custard.
Thank you, I may be too old to change my ways and it sounds so different than how I cook now. Lol I will give it a try eventually.
Our new range has a convection oven. I’ve used it once and it was fine. Based on the cooking instructions, I lowered the temperature a little from what I would have used in a non-convection oven.
From what I have read and the comments shared with me, it sounds like baking sweets and bread is great with the convection.
My grandmother has a gas stove – she would put it on to warm up the kitchen sometimes (kind of a no-no) … also when the four of us (grandmother, aunt, mom and me) sat at the kitchen table, I always ended up sitting by the stove and it seemed the kettle was perpetually on, so the flame was there … I would always worry about my hair catching fire. Same syndrome as going to a Greek restaurant and ordering flaming cheese or a fancy restaurant with cherries jubilee.
There is electric ignition to light the pilot light now so no open flame. I can remember people used to use the oven pilot light for the perfect temperature to rise dough in the oven.
That’s nice, so you don’t have to worry about flames catching fire on anything. That’s interesting. Speaking of bread, do you still have your sourdough starter and making bread?
I still do and I just made cinnamon bread for the grandkids a couple of days ago for when they got off the bus. My grandson informed me I need to put less cinnamon and sugar on top and it would taste better. 😂
Well that was nice of you – hot cinnamon bread is a wonderful treat after a long day at school. Well that wasn’t nice of your grandson … the cinnamon and sugar is what makes it taste (and smell) so good. Did you used to eat buttered hot toast and sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar on it – mmm. I really liked that treat.
Oh absolutely, brought my daughter up on it too. I still have the small shaker that you bought years ago with cinnamon sugar already in it. When it was gone I filled it with my own mixture and my daughter would shake it on her buttered toast herself.
I had that shaker for the longest time – it may still be on the top shelf in the back. It was made by Dominos Sugar and was yellow – maybe in the shape of a lion? My mom did the same thing – we emptied it and she just filled it so it was handy for toast. Otherwise, you had to drag out the brown sugar (hope it wasn’t rock hard – we had a gizmo, an earthenware bear to keep it soft, but it didn’t always work) and the cinnamon. A little walk down Memory Lane here.
I have the bear in my brown sugar too. It works really well as long as you rewet it occasionally.
Really – I think I still have one. They came in packages of two I think from “Taste of Home” – I think you said you subscribed to that or “Taste of County”. Do you put it in the brown sugar wet or just wet it and let it dry and put it in – like it revives it or something?
You soak it for about 1/2 hour, quickly pat the excess water off and drop it in the sugar, love mine. I subscribed to Taste of Home magazine for years. I still have the magazines.
Okay, I’m going to try it – thank you! I stopped buying brown sugar as it got so hard all the time. My mom subscribed as well – there were two of the Taste of Home that came on alternate months and we had Taste of Country as well. I know you couldn’t buy it in the store at the time we subscribed. I just Googled and it is still available, but just four times a year, but they said they have a website with free recipes.
Was Taste of Country affiliated with Taste of Home? I don’t remember that one.
I just Googled to see the name of the magazine because I remember there were two other cooking magazines. I know my mom had them coming every month, but not the same title. The country one was called “Country Magazine” it was the original magazine, and “Taste of Home” began publishing in 1993 as a spin-off of “Country Magazine”. It has subsequently spun off two other publications — “Quick Cooking” and “Light & Tasty”. (WHAT DID WE DO BEFORE GOOGLE?) I found my brown sugar gadget today – I don’t know where the bear is, but this one is a rooster. I also found the razor blade scraper my mom bought to clean spills on the glass-top range. I also found a “pot minder” … I bought it in a specialty store Downtown, but it is unopened. It keeps your pots from bubbling over. (My mom probably thought “does Linda think I’m dumb?”
I subscribed about 1995 to Taste of Homes. I’m glad you found the clay rooster for your brown sugar. I wondered what a pot minder was, I use one every time I boil pasta. Mine is an aluminum disk that rattles and keeps the water from boiling over and it got its new name today, pot minder. Lol Did you know if you lay a wooden spoon on top of the water that is supposed to keep your liquid from boiling over too?
We did subscribe for years – in fact, after my mom passed away, I let a lot of magazines subscriptions lapse, unless they had a great subscription rate … like Good Housekeeping, then I eventually quit it as well. Reader’s Digest gave me it for $12.00 a year. This was before blogging and so I kept getting the magazine, would get plastic shoeboxes and put them under the bed – one year fit into a plastic shoebox “for when I am retired” … but, remember when I crawled under the bed and couldn’t move for several days, while looking for the shoebox of photos? It’s dark under the bed as it is carpeted, wall-to-wall carpeting. So there are new jigsaw puzzles under there too and I used to have a pull-out underbed box that held all my belts for dresses, skirts and pants (none which I wear now). There is lots of stuff under there and I threw away all the Reader’s Digests magazines.
Likewise, I have been an AARP member since I was 50 and I am almost 70 … 12 issues a year, never read them, thinking “I’ll read them when I’m retired” … so got rid of them. But a year ago, I e-mailed them and said “I’ve never read any of the magazines – I would probably read them if they were digitized. Why don’t you digitize the magazines to save the trees, save postage – most people are online now?” No response. About six months ago, I got an e-mail “we are digitizing the AARP publications!” I still haven’t read them, but I signed up for a daily e-mail that condenses info for seniors.
That’s funny about the pot minder. So that’s what it is for … 🙂 You are such a source of info Diane. I did look at it, but didn’t open the package. I bought it downtown in Gail’s Hallmark store – it still had the sticker on it: $3.25 – has to be over 20 years old as my boss and I moved from out of downtown in 2003 and I never went to the store again – they went out of business. I didn’t know about the spoon, but what about if the wooden spoon falls onto the burner by accident? (Something that would happen to me of course.)
Yay nice job getting rid of the magazines Linda, you are surely getting there. I need to get rid of some of my magazines too. I have a lot of cooking and crafting magazines. I used them when I was working with my mentally disabled adults, they loved the crafts. As for the wooden spoon, I let the spoon float and then place the lid on the pot just enough to hold the spoon handle in the pot.
My mom and I both did a lot of reading back in the day, yet had time to watch TV shows … how did we do it and I did more around the house and outside the house. We taped shows a lot during the TV season … had two TVs (just 19 inches for each, one downstairs and still have them) with two VCRs, to tape all the 10:00 p.m. shows as there were multiple shows on at the same time, sometimes three and also movies, mini-series, back when everything was network TV and free!
You did it by being young and with lots of energy! I doubt you can even use your TV’s anymore. If they are the old bulky ones you can still use them if you buy adapters and converter box that will function with modern digital signals and devices. You might as well throw the old ones away and buy what is sold today, the price of TV’s have come way down. I just looked on Amazon and they have 19” below $200.00. The only thing is figuring out how to do everything as it is confusing for me.
They are heavy those TVs Diane! And a few years ago, a fellow blogger retired and no longer used his home office and he was mentioning getting rid of a lot of clutter in his home, among them an old TV. He lives in Indiana and said he had to dispose of it properly, not just put it out in the trash. Ugh! I saw an ad for a junk hauler recently – that might be what I end up doing eventually. I have no clue how the new TVs are set up or work. I only stream on the laptop. I have never used a tablet either. I am a dinosaur!
You could check with the garbage people. I know with ours if we call them and tell them we have items not allowed, they will charge the cost of the dump fee and we leave the items by the garbage can for them to take.
That is good to know Diane – I need help to carry them out. I should have asked Jim, my former handyman who was built like a middle linebacker. 🙂
Yes definitely get help! I hope you are feeling better.
My knee looks a lot better, except I cracked the one side that is still bruised a few days ago. Not too bright on my part. Finally, the gash on the top of my foot from the plastic garbage can lid that flipped in the air and came down on my foot (when I was wearing loafers) is almost ready to go without a bandage. The wound was where I tie my walking shoes – sigh.
Oh no, of course it had to be where you tie your shoes! Thank God for band-aids.
Yes and believe it or not I still have a large band-aid on it because the scab is still there and it’s where I tie my shoes. Meanwhile, my knee – I have hit it a few more times, like getting in/out of the car and hitting it under the steering wheel. I have long legs. It is still bruised and it is two weeks ago today since I fell. I am using a clear Tegaderm bandage on it as the other bandages would just peel off. So I can see it is still swollen and green. Stupid me!
I hope they don’t get infected. If the skin bruised it should be OK if you didn’t break open the skin. Keep a close eye on the foot scab. I don’t know how you can put your shoe on. I hope they both get better real soon Linda!
Thanks Diane – I am keeping the band-aid on to cover the scab so I doesn’t fall off too soon. I was worried as the garbage lid (it was brand new when I put it on the A/C unit in the Fall of 2024) after I took it off, I put it on the patio floor, but I have no idea what walks around on the patio floor when I’m not out there … I imagined the worst and used so many alcohol wipes, I may have burned it initially. Then tons of Neosporin as I worried about an infection. Stupid me for that. Now my pants press against my knee, so I did a real number there too … no sympathy for me Diane as both were stupidity on my part.
Not stupid just human Linda, we have all been there.
Well, the scrape part is gone, but it is swollen now that the bruises are gone. I notice it more now that I’m in sweatpants, not shorts or lightweight pants. I’m not going to go to the doctor for it and hopefully it goes away on its own. The scab finally fell off the gash on the top of my foot – I was laughing as it was the day I put the A/C cover on.
I hope it goes away soon. It always takes so much longer to heal at our age.
Yes, good thing I don’t put anything in the back of my kitchen cupboards. I had to kneel on the floor, but in the Summer it’s too hot in the cupboards and in the Winter it’s too cold, so I only put paper items in there now. I think I wasted my money on the whole-house insulation. The kitchen is the only room that feels like nothing was done.
That’s a shame!
Yes, I’m not happy about it – it’s only been 8 years and it’s been like this from the beginning and they made a huge mess on top of it.
Yes, craft books and things, patterns, etc. for me too. My mom was a knitter until she got carpal tunnel syndrome after making two afghans for my grandmother for Christmas, then making one for her and one for me for our chairs we sat on to watch TV. Four in a row was too many. I did Pretty Punch embroidery for a while and finally got rid of my spools of wool when Marge had a yard sale. All the accessories for that hobby!
I loved the punch embroidery! When I was in high school I loved designing and making the latch hook rugs too.
I’ve never known anyone else that did Pretty Punch Diane – you are the first! I did a couple of designs for sweatshirts which I have. One was for Mickey Mouse, which I drew to look like him and enlarged the drawing on the xerox machine at work. The other one is a sweatshirt I made for the holidays, of all Hershey’s Kisses (one large and two or three smaller ones) and I used the metallic thread for it. The main reason I started doing Pretty Punch was because the further into the week we would get (before VCRs were available), I would be watching TV and shut my eyes and miss most of the show, so this way it kept me busy while watching TV. My mom tried to teach me how to knit, but I kept messing up and dropping stitches.
I was probably around 12 years old and my mom was doing it on a sweatshirt too! I thought it looked fun and bought my own.
When I went into the cupboard to get the scanner over Labor Day weekend, I had to go through the cardboard boxes of photo albums. They are long and flat like under-the-bed boxes and I found an envelope I forgot about and it was some patterns I created for sweatshirts. I still have one heavy black sweatshirt downstairs that I bought to put the design on. It was fun!
The Christmas pattern I ordered was too thick and it bothered me to wear it. I don’t keep any crafts I make anymore, it’s just fun doing them. I miss doing crafts with my clients.
My Mickey Mouse sweatshirt was too heavy too – it felt like I had a rug on the front of me when I tried it on after I finished gluing it. I did the design by tracing a Mickey Mouse, then enlarging it on the xerox machine at work in pieces. I should have known better as it sagged as it was so heavy. I have just kept it, but not worn it.
When I realized how it felt, same as you, I never made anymore. They needed to use it for something other than clothes. My favorite was still the latch hook rugs. I was so obsessed with them. I made my own patterns and cut the yarn myself, so much fun!
I never made a latch hook rug, so you are a step ahead of me on that one! I think the very first item I made was a tote bag – not really large and at Lee Wards you could buy these plain fabric tote bags and do things with them, like paint them, or Pretty Punch. They were not all that sturdy though. I put a bear on it and it is somewhere in the house (where??) and I made it but didn’t want to get it dirty, so I didn’t use it – story of my life and my mom used to get on me about doing that with clothing too … keeping it for good.
Awe, I think we all do that! I bought a basket weaving kit like 15 years ago and I still want to make it. Lol
I have a little needlepoint kit in my sewing basket. I forgot all about it until I had to fix Joe the monkey’s tail for my post a few years ago and saw it. It is still in the hoop, thread attached where I stopped working on it probably more than a half-century ago! LOL!
I forgot to mention that, at that time, the only place you could buy Pretty Punch supplies was at Lee Ward. Did you have a Lee Ward in Ohio Diane? They were like a Michael’s Craft Store. We had Frank’s Nursery and Crafts that was popular too but they didn’t carry Pretty Punch materials.
My mom ordered from a catalog. I just looked and Amazon sells them. If I ever get the basement totally cleaned up, I may order some, they are so fun to do.
You should do them again. You said you miss doing them with your clients. I know you enjoyed your clients and took them for lunch or dinner as well.
My local grandkids, 11 & 14, always loved crafts too, now they don’t because all they do is play on their phone or tablet. My other grandsons, 2 & 7, love crafts but due to their distance we don’t have the opportunity as much.
I’ll bet crafts for kids and teens will one day be obsolete since kids are on their phones/tablets now instead. Probably even more than watching TV.
Right! Just like us doing puzzles on line instead of a table. This winter I hope I have time to put some together on a table.
Funny you say that Diane because my mom did puzzles for years and I have some she did already and I liked, plus some under the bed that she didn’t get too. So, I would like to get into doing them. I do jigsaw puzzles online and yesterday when I went shopping, I bought an advent calendar jigsaw puzzle – it’s very cute and is 24 different boxes to do a separate puzzle each day. Each puzzle is 50 pieces and all funny pics of dogs. First time I’ve done a puzzle in many years. My mom and I did a few at the table, holiday puzzles, through the years. I want to step away from the computer sometimes and I also want to get back to drawing – once the weather got better, I got outside again.
I have never seen an advent calendar, how clever!
I liked this one as it is 24 mini puzzles – not really so mini as they each have 50 pieces to them. You start on December 1st – 24 funny dog picture puzzles. They also have the same puzzle only funny cat picture puzzles.
Sounds like fun!
Yes, I’m thinking I hopefully can handle one puzzle a day to get them done for Christmas. (Hopefully not Christmas 2026!) 🙂
If you get behind just do two a day. 🤣
Yes – whatever works right? 🙂
Definitely!
I bought a new Maytag oven in May but I hate the convection oven part. I’ve only used it a couple of times but it dries out the food. Someone explained to me that it works more like an air fryer but I don’t know if that is true as I don’t have an air fryer? The problem is the regular oven bake option does not work as well as my old stove and seems to take a lot longer. I discusses this with the store a month after I bought it and they talked me into keeping it but now I wish I had returned it when I could. I still have my old stove sitting in the garage and am tempted to put it back in and sell this one. It was on sale so it’s not like I paid a fortune for it but it was a discontinued model and I wonder why. The oven is an extra large sized oven so that might be part of the problem.
What I know of the convection oven (thanks to Randy) is the blower makes it so there isn’t any part of the oven that is hotter or cooler than another. Certain food doesn’t bake properly with the blower on so that’s when you use the conventional oven. I would be devastated if I had to use the convection all the time, it’s seems like a whole new learning experience all over again and after 66 years I won’t change. Lol I wonder if it’s standard to have them both when you buy a new range now.
My cousin told me she bakes on convection all the time and she doesn’t burn stuff now. True, but I found baked stuff didn’t brown on top, like if I made date nut loaf or a pie. I think there might have been some bottom of the price range basic models without convection but I can’t really remember, as I bought a floor d/c model, mostly for the big oven which I had visions of cooking a big turkey in….I am majorly disappointed in my oven. Thankfully I’m told new appliances only last a couple of years now, so it will eventually be replaced, or when I move to downsize I won’t be taking it with me. The old oven is still in the garage for now.
It took us many years to perfect the way we cook. At 66 years old why should I start learning all over again. When I have company they expect it to taste good since I have a food blog. It would be so embarrassing to burn or undercook the dinner because I used the convection oven.lol I would be moving the one in the garage back if it was me.
I’m tempted. I had called the Restore (donation) store to take it away but then cancelled….
You’ll know when the time is right.
It sounds like a big learning curve, but is greatly helped with the chart. It is one of those things that you have to jump in and give it a try, I guess.
Maybe someday, with food so expensive I would hate to ruin a good meal.
Oh look at that gorgeous kitchen! I can’t believe it’s been over a year since it was completed and I remember reading about the journey! I bet you’ve made many wonderful meals in there since completion 🙂
Thanks for more cooking education, convention ovens are always a mystery to me!
I really love the kitchen. There is so many cabinets and I do love the Bosch appliances.
We have the convection option too but I didn’t care for it. It didn’t seem to cook the same way, maybe the temperature or timing was a bit off, I don’t know. I just use the regular oven
Thank you! I know you are supposed to lower the temperature by 25 degrees and I think it is a shorter cook time. The convection oven just doesn’t interest me to use it. When my meals turn out 99% of the time, why change and I am too old to start over figuring things out. I didn’t order it with the range, they all came with it so I’m thinking eventually it will be a staple with every range.
I agree. I didn’t want it either and I like my plain old Bake mode!