Is Your Oven Hiding a Dirty Little Secret?
Is Your Oven Hiding a Dirty Little Secret?
'Dear team, Your 'insert any title' recipe didn't cook in the time stated? I had to add at least 20 minutes and it was still weird in the middle. A loyal follower'
Oops. As a recipe website, we pride ourselves on delivering accuracy in all of our recipes. We want and expect you to have only success when making the recipes we produce. So to get feedback from time to time about such things, is distressing initially, but easily fixable!
Tenina worked for an appliance company way before Thermomix entered her kitchen and took over her life! She learnt fairly quickly that all ovens are not born equal! In fact the Australian standard for accuracy in temperatures as stated varies as widely as a range of 60°C, 30°C either side of the temperature is allowable. In a perfect world, the number on the dial would match the internal temperature of the oven. But the reality is that most of the time, there’s a huge discrepancy between the dial and the actual temperature. No problems! Right? WRONG!
Every time you open your oven to check what's happening, the temp in your patiently pre-heated oven plummets rapidly. (This is why, once you put your cakes or bread into the oven, you should pretty much leave them alone.)
The best way to solve this dilemma immediately is pretty cheap and effective. Go and buy yourself an oven thermometer from Kitchen Warehouse and start tracking the temperature of your oven vs the temperature stated on your dial.
This will accomplish more than just getting the temp right for your baking efforts. It will tell you if your oven is slow (cooler than stated) or hot (obviously, 'hotter' than stated). You can adjust all recipes accordingly and never send us an email about incorrect cooking times again!
Being able to accurately heat your oven to the temperature called for in the recipe will mean that the cook times—and the results—are more predictable and more reliable. If we say to roast your chicken for 45 minutes at 220 degrees, but your oven, set to 220, is actually 170, it’s going to take a lot longer to cook, and it might not come out as golden-brown, either!
Now spread this news to your peeps and get them to bake you a cake, just to make sure the advice you are handing out is accurate!
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Tenina Holder
Tenina Holder is a wife, mother of five and grandmother of eight, who started cooking in the olden days before Thermomix was even a thing.
Tenina has become the premium go to source for all Thermomix expertise and of course fresh and easy recipes that work. Her cooking classes and foodie trips are sold out in literally hours, her cookbooks appear on the Australian best seller lists and her social reach is in the millions. Her Insider Club is the most fun you can have with a Thermomix and you really should join her! She believes chocolate, butter and salt are health foods. Her food positivity mantra is, eat everything, just not all at once!
