Convection Ovens

[Sue]

Help appreciated...
On Sunday my gas cooker went into overheat mode and wouldn't switch off, had to call out the emergency service in the end - the thermostat has broken and it's been disconnected. This left me without any means to heat water, cook etc so on monday had to race round the shops to get kettle, hot plate and an emergency cooker.

(my flat is so small that getting a new gas cooker in and the old one out will mean moving huge amounts of books- havent' got the time or energy to organise it all at the moment or afford the new gas cooker)
Anyway the only tabletop oven I could find was an electric convection oven and now I've got used to it think it's rather good,

Does anyone else cook with one - gas or electric - and what are your views?
I only have space for a "normal size" cooker not one of those range types, so recommendations and thoughts would be most useful.
best wishes
sue

[Alice]

Sue, I've got a little electric oven / grill which sits on top of a work surface. I use it when I just want to cook something in a small dish, or heat something up, and it's not necessary to put the big oven on. I find it great and wouldn't be without it.
My main oven is electric fan assisted and claims the temp is the same on all shelves. Rubbish. Dishes in the bottom of the oven would take a week to cook and would never brown. Does anybody find fan assisted makes any difference.

[Flummery]

No - I use the same times, temps (and swapping shelves about) methods I used with my old one.

[moggssue]

Me too - fan assisted or not the bottom shelf is only good for keeping things warm, if you want to cook use the top! Does seem faster than my old oven though once it gets going. Sorry Sue, dont know anything about the small table top ones but good luck!

[Hazel at the Hill]

My sister in laws fan oven worked 'properly' - all shelves the same temp. Used to drive her barmy - how can you cook a Sunday roast dinner with the oven all at the same temp?

[Alice]

No - I use the same times, temps (and swapping shelves about) methods I used with my old one.

Thanks Flummery. Glad it's not just me.

[Sue]

Alice
I've been having that trouble of things never cooking or going brown, I found that switching the cooking method from bottom and top electric bars on at once to just the top half way through cooking seems to work. But if I had a big one like this don't think I'd like to do this, as it's on the table top I can look in and see how things are doing, more of a faff with a big oven - all that bending down...
Electricity seems a pain after the speed of gas, perhaps I'll go back to the tried and tested.
Sue

[Alice]

Sue, I don't have a problem with the big oven. What I'm saying is the manufacturers say with a fan assisted oven the temp is the same whether dishes are in the bottom or the top. I don't find that works and the top of the oven is still the hottest part. Dishes in the bottom only keep hot and would never cook.
In my small work surface oven I find if I switch it to oven mode, as opposed to grill only, and set the temp where I want it, it cooks fine.

[JazzDuke]

I use fan assisted (I didn't pick it but I've got it) and it is true about the even and more stable heat. You have to get used to cooking everything for 10 minutes less at 10 degrees lower. Generally I'd say it's a good thing but I am not quite convinced that the fan doesn't knock down some things that need raising e.g. yorkshire puds are not impossible but seem much more difficult.

[mcsee]

Sue - We got one (11lt) in Aldi this morning, so will pass on how we find it over the next few days. We'll try a chicken in it first and see how it cooks as far as time goes. Wife's sister has had one for years and swears by hers, but we'll see.

[Nicos]

Sue - We got one (11lt) in Aldi this morning, so will pass on how we find it over the next few days. We'll try a chicken in it first and see how it cooks as far as time goes. Wife's sister has had one for years and swears by hers, but we'll see.

You have Aldi in Australia????

Well I never!!

[mcsee]

Yes, we have Aldi here. They're popping up all over the country now, but don't have the gardening items here that you get there. (They had Ferns a few weeks ago)

[Pootle]

Our microwave has a convection oven too - use it when heating main oven would be too wasteful...love it as its quicker to heat up and more accurate temp too. Other oven is an electric fan one and not only are different shelves different temps, but so are opposite sides of the same shelf - makes for interesting baking sometimes, but you soon get used to it!

[BarleySugar]

I find my combination microwave oven great. Using the steamer and the combination oven I can cook a whole roast dinner for 5, although I do the meat first then wrap in foil and let it stand for the 45 minutes it takes to do the roast veg, stuffing and yorkshires. I only use the hotplate to do the gravy. If it was just the 2 of us I wouldn't bother with the large cooker at all. I only use it really for doing large items like fruit birthday cakes, or batch baking cakes, which I won't be doing once the kids aren't around, (but they've threatened to come back to live here again once they finish uni!).

[mcsee]

Well, I can now say that our new Convection Oven works very well and all the cooking in it so far has been terrific - as good as the main oven.

Thumbs up from us here.