- This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 19 years, 10 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Just a general question. Is it safe to place a roasting tin on the base of an oven with a base element?
Many oven user guides state that nothing should be placed on the floor of the oven. Does this actually cause any problems?
Bob
Re: Cooking on the oven base
It causes serious problems due to overheating of the vitrious oven lining coating with a conventional oven. With a fan oven however it is perfectly acceptable to place roasting dishes, baking trays or skillets directly on the base lining with no ill effects 😉
Re: Cooking on the oven base
I don’t know about it causing any damage to the enamel as I’ve never seen that happen but I can give you a very good reason why not in a standard convection oven…
You get heat transfer from the base onto the tray/dish and create a massive hotspot at the bottom of the dish. Even a joint of meat will cook very unevenly, being burnt to a cinder at the bottom and partially cooked at the top. Not very nice in other words.
You also get grease trapped (it’s in the air in the oven) under the dish and it makes one godawful mess which is nigh on impossible to move once it’s baked on there.
A fan oven is okay for this as Martin says, but I still wouldn’t do it as you have the same issues, although to a far lesser degree, when cooking and you’ll end up with burnt on cooking residues on the base of the dish that will be a pig to shift. The point of wire shelves is so that the air can circulate around the food and the dish allowing the temperature to equalise as much as possible, even cooking in a dish on a baking tray sat on a wire shelf can cause problems as heat builds up on the baking sheet, although again it sure ain’t as bad as sitting it on the floor of the oven. Baking sheets left in the oven can also hinder airflow in a fan oven causing uneven cooking.
Skillets Martin, do you mean the likes of a French skillet with a base? If so then yes, as that will disperse the heat evenly over the base as they are almost all designed to do that so long as it’s a reasonable quality one that can withstand the temperatures as not all can.
Baking trays you need to watch how you advise there as a lot of the cheaper non-stick ones are just pants, give them a bit of heat and they warp like crazy. Good quality non-stick ones seem to be better, but they are not as attractive as they build a patina on them over time with use, perfectly normal and safe, but not so good to look at. Fantastic to cook on though. 😉
K.
Re: Cooking on the oven base
What about “oven liners” that are available to keep the oven floor clean? Apparently Lakeland Plastics advertise something in their catalogues.
http://www.lakelandlimited.co.uk/product.aspx/!3318
Bob
Re: Cooking on the oven base
I’ve visted many cookers where the customer has been using the conventional oven setting, where a base element is in circuit and the enamel has “flaked off” due to something lying on the base of the cavity, be it a roasting dish or one of these carbon liners.
Re: Cooking on the oven base
From my experience the worst thing is putting foil on the oven base shiny side down to catch the grease…this very effectively reflects the heat back down again causing crazing of the enamel and sometimes premature element failure.
As far as cooking on the oven base goes, you can cook things like meringues but only in a coolish oven and after it’s been turned off so the residual heat gives a gentle cook….more like drying really.
Re: Cooking on the oven base
On ovens with a base element, nothing should be put on the base.
I went to one where the customer had the manufacturers out twice under guarantee. The fault was for a burning smell, the manufacturer could not find anything wrong and charged her a call out both times. At 13 months I was called to it because it was overheating, I pulled it out of the housing to change the oven stat, the chipboard base under the oven had an 18 inch diameter hole burnt through it. I enquired if she used aluminium foil in the bottom of the oven, she did. This directs the heat downwards. When the engineers called she threw the foil out. By the end of the week the manufacturers had supplied and fitted a new oven and housing, refunding the two callout charges and paid my call out. Needless to say the customer did not mention aluminimum foil.
With roasting dishes, the base of the oven buckles upwards, the best one I have seen so far is on an Ariston, a hump in the middle 30mm high.
All the instruction books I have seen state that nothing should be placed on the base. Regards Martin.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.