Preheating
I’ve always been a bit perturbed with having to pre-heat the oven.
I took 3 terms of physics, but I don’t claim to be an expert here. However, it seems to me that the idea of pre-heating the oven is just a waste of energy. If you stick food in an oven that is already at temperature, it will still take time to heat up. It seems as thought if you put the food in as the oven is heating, the food will cook faster and reach its target temperature faster.
Now, I realize that the rate of change of temperature is based on the difference between the oven temp and the food temp. That is, if you stick the food in when the oven is 400 degrees vs. when it’s cold, the temperature will rise at a faster rate.
However, that seems negligible considering the fact that if you had put the food in the oven 10 minutes ago when you turned it on, you’d be further along.
Who’s with me. Who defies the preheat cycle?
July 21st, 2006 at 7:38 pm
with some stuff, putting it in at a colder temp can have detrimental outcome on said item, making it soggy or not cooking evenly
July 22nd, 2006 at 10:26 pm
I never pre-heat. More about being too lazy than anything else.
July 23rd, 2006 at 9:23 pm
I am anti-preheating. bigtim.
BIG TIM.
July 24th, 2006 at 9:45 am
anti-preheating here
plus it takes our lp oven about 23 minutes to preheat to 350, and who has that kind of tim?
July 24th, 2006 at 10:17 am
I almost never bake, and I never preheat. That said, crobine is right. Preheating is required for properly baking (as opposed to just heating) certain items.
July 24th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
pre-heating sux. i avoid it at all costs. but i think another problem with not pre-heating is that the heating coil is actually at a higher temperature during the pre-heating state in an effort to heat the chamber. so your special brownies get scorched.
July 24th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
oops, didn’t mean to be unanimous.