Oven preheating

superbigal

The_Fat_Controller said:

You cannot roast spuds or make Yorkshire puddings without preheating.

It's horses for courses.

I assume Horse as your meat is another money saver.

MattMattMattUK

QrizB said:

MattMattMattUK said:

QrizB said:

graby said:

What could you do with this wasted heat?

I don't pre-heat my oven.

Things take a bit longer to cook than the recipe / instructions suggest as a result. Once you get used to it, it isn't a problem.

It really depends what you are cooking, some things take longer which is managable, other things do not cook nearly as well. As an extreme example bread cooked in an oven which has not been pre-heated is awful.

I haven't cooked bread the hard way in a while, so I'll defer to you on that!

These days I have a breadmaker

I only make bread once a week, but it is so much nicer than most supermarket bread and usually works out cheaper. I totally get why people use a breadmaker, but for me the bread is never quite as good and I find the making it fits in well on the day I do make it.

wild666

QrizB said:

graby said:

What could you do with this wasted heat?

I don't pre-heat my oven.

Things take a bit longer to cook than the recipe / instructions suggest as a result. Once you get used to it, it isn't a problem.

Same here except I set the timer for 5 minutes longer than it says on the instructions and I turn the oven off with 3 minutes left on the timer then I leave the oven door open after taking the food out and let the heat flow around the room.

disappointed17

Cannot think of a good use of the preheat yet..  I rarely use our oven nowadays, (one of our attempts at energy saving).  We are down to two in our house;  so have fallen in love with the air-fryer, hob and the microwave for many dishes.  (We are not eating unhealthily either:). If I am doing a full-on meal for guests, when I can utilise the whole oven then that is probably the only time it gets used.  Having said that, all our sweet dishes are refined sugar-free nowadays, so baking cakes etc. is probably still the best in the oven.

Zanderman

It isn't wasted. It's heating the house. It's only wasted if you move the oven outside.

RogerBareford

Ant555 said:

 i'll chip in with the fact that at the other end of the cooking cycle,  we now switch the oven off well before the end time as it still says at a really good cooking temp for ages if the door isnt opened too often.

KxMx said:

There are a few things I pre heat for, but general day to day cooking, absolutely not. 

I also usually switch off when food is almost done and use the built up heat to finish cooking.

Please note with IBS & IBD in the household I do not take even the smallest chance with food safety, this method is perfectly safe. 
The food still gets cooked throughly, just with the switch off for last few minutes! 

This is all well and good but the thermostat will only heat the oven as the temp drops so if the oven is hot enough already it won't be heating so turning it off early won't save any energy.

If a lower temperature is fine for cooking at the end then your better off just lowering the temp and it won't heat until it gets to the lower one so atleast you still have some idea of what the temp is.

Astria

RogerBareford said:

Ant555 said:

 i'll chip in with the fact that at the other end of the cooking cycle,  we now switch the oven off well before the end time as it still says at a really good cooking temp for ages if the door isnt opened too often.

KxMx said:

There are a few things I pre heat for, but general day to day cooking, absolutely not. 

I also usually switch off when food is almost done and use the built up heat to finish cooking.

Please note with IBS & IBD in the household I do not take even the smallest chance with food safety, this method is perfectly safe. 
The food still gets cooked throughly, just with the switch off for last few minutes! 

This is all well and good but the thermostat will only heat the oven as the temp drops so if the oven is hot enough already it won't be heating so turning it off early won't save any energy.

That works for an electric oven, but a gas oven doesn't have a thermostat as such and just regulates gas flow, so turning it off early will definitely save energy.