Serious Efforts: Why preheat?
A while back, I read an article that said preheating was unnecessary and a waste of time and energy, but every recipe I've read that concerns an oven always tells me to preheat. I've actually stopped preheating when using the oven and my brownies/cookies/and even the turkey have turned out just fine. What do you guys think? Do you preheat? What are the pros and cons of preheating?
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30 Comments:
I never pre-heat when I use my toaster oven... specially if its baked pastas, mac and cheese, parmegianas, roasting vegetables, toasting nuts, poaching fruit, etc...
I do pre-heat the large oven when baking... I guess because I am afraid cakes will not rise properly otherwise
MadelynRodriguez at 6:54PM on 04/28/09
Did you adjust the cooking time? Surely, one has to preheat the oven to the temperature setting that is recommended before placing the item to be cooked?
I am asking because I just bought a Sears elite oven that I am still trying to figure out (despite the instructional booklet, which I find confusing.) It actually has a Preheat setting - but - I can turn on the "Bake" option and bring the oven up to the cooking temperature I need, so why is there a "Preheat" setting?
Hopefully, there will be some answers from the knowledgeable people who frequent this site.
bareneed at 6:56PM on 04/28/09
@bareneed - Oh. I forgot about that. but I generally only need to extend the cooking time by a couple minutes or so, which is still shorter than the time it takes to preheat my oven in the beginning.
tiffanybite at 7:08PM on 04/28/09
A toaster oven preheat time is like 2 minutes. Not usually enough to make up the average higher temperature being maintained.
A conventional oven has more space to heat up to temperature. You dont need to preheat, but if you dont and the recipe gives you time down to the minute, like with cookies, where a minute means a lot... then you risk undercooked baked goods.
blizcheetah at 7:08PM on 04/28/09
Baking is a science and the temp has to be even. I even preset the temp 25 degrees higher because opening the oven will drop the temp. I don't know about your oven but mine is big, 30 inches, it needs preheating and a lot of it. Consistently good baking requires optimum conditions. Not preheating is just not applying the science correctly. I am not reinventing wheels here.
In the time that your baked goods are sitting in an oven while its adjusting the temp up, they are being baked at the wrong temp.
How could that be any kind of good? Baking changes the ingredients via heat and causes the surfaces to brown, while partially sealing in moisture. Heat at the wrong temp would not affect/interact the ingredients correctly for a desirable finished product. Meaning dry and or undercooked. I don't buy it. Sounds like improper use of technique.
JerzeeTomato at 7:15PM on 04/28/09
I think that in the old days where it was a good idea to preheat the oven because it took a bit to get to the oven to the certain temp was necessary. The newer ovens do not take as long to get to the set temp but it is still wise especially when baking cakes, cookies, bread, ect. As far as savory things like roasts, casseroles and frozen things I don't bother to preheat. This is my guess on this matter.
pjracz10 at 7:17PM on 04/28/09
@JerzeeTomato - Just based off of my experience, preheating my cookies didn't make a big difference in my finished product than when I didn't preheat them at all. Also, saving energy in any situation, especially in these "green" conscious times, would be a major plus to not preheating. And with the newer and more accurate ovens these days, again my question is: how important is preheating?
tiffanybite at 7:32PM on 04/28/09
Well, clearly if you are NOT having issues with baked goods that normally would need the pre-set temp coming out underdone or baked oddly, then you answered your own question.
Other than that, I agree with Jerzee. Baked goods are meant to be started at that pre-set temp for a reason, otherwise you start the baking at too low a temp, which can cause texture, color and rise issues, among other things.
For a casserole, slow-cooking roast or a re-heating type of situation, I don't always preheat, but for baked goods? Every time. Even my old oven does not take that long to get to temp and I sure as heck notice a difference if I don't do it on baked goods like cakes, cookies, pie crusts, biscuits etc.
Often what happens is they are "done" long before the rise is fully complete or the browning step is finished, and then they just dry out waiting for that to happen so I can remove them. Also I do think they take more than the called for time, which when you are doing many batches of something can be a pain for the first batch or two while you adjust time for the cooler oven, when it would be nicer to be able to know things will be really done when that timer goes off.
Some baked goods require a cold oven start, but for baked goods that need that set time in an already hot oven I always always preheat.
I am sure newer ovens are much more energy efficient than the one I have, so for any people upset over the energy usage vs. a properly baked cake, just use even less in another area of the house to compensate.
sadiepix at 8:01PM on 04/28/09
I want to know that the oven is at 350 before I put something in it. Recipe times are based on a preheated oven and they will take longer if the oven is not preheated.
I also believe (but don't have a study to cite or scientific evidence to regurgitate) the oven temperature is a contributing factor to "oven spring" which is the burst of growth in any baked good, either chemically (baking powder/soda) or yeast-risen. If the outer shell of any baked good is already set, by the time the oven reaches temp there will be no flexibility for that burst of growth.
therealchiffonade at 8:06PM on 04/28/09
I always preheat, unless i'm reheating something in the oven that is cold, then I bring them up to temp togather. But baking, sorry folks I wont risk it.
huneybumper at 8:13PM on 04/28/09
@tiffy no disrespect intended but balderdash (and other colorful words)
As for greener anything, I could care less, my oven is not running on gasoline ffs. Is my oven accurate? Well I would certainly hope so since when I selected a 36" Wolf gas range I did so with the intention of my baking demands.
So ask yourself this question, how good are your baked goods?
If you think they are good, well you don't need us to confirm or deny your no preheating technique. I would however pose this to you, show me a master baker that does NOT preheat. I double dog dare you.
JerzeeTomato at 8:39PM on 04/28/09
Just to toss something into the fray:
I cook my pizzas outdoors on the Big Green Egg outfitted with a pizza stone. Tonight, I started the egg up at 5:30. I put the first pizza on the stone at 6:15 (dome temp read 650 F). It came out pretty good. However, by the time the 4th pizza was done (it went on the stone almost 45 minutes later) the crust was much crisper...better... than the first three. In this case, pre-heating has a huge impact.
derosa at 8:47PM on 04/28/09
It depends on what you're cooking. For some things, no big deal, for others it makes a big difference.
For example, I recently make a bread recipe that let the bread rest 5 minutes after shaping, then went into a cold oven to start. I also have recipes that call for putting the bread into a really hot oven, then cranking the heat down after a short period of time. In those cases, the temp makes a difference.
dbcurrie at 9:34PM on 04/28/09
@Jerzee - Poppycock and hogwash work nicely too. I don't know any master bakers who don't preheat their ovens, but as I myself am not a master baker, I'm just trying to build up a better background in baking, as my mom isn't too enthusiastic about the work that goes into it (she's the one who introduced me to the concept of no preheating required). Right now, I like to think that my baked goods are not only good enough for me to eat, but also good enough for everyone else? I do make a mean banana bread! I'm new to the scientific, precise world of baking, which is why I asked this question in the first place.
Thank you to everyone who has responded (and so quickly too!). I'm very impressed with these new Serious Efforts threads and I'm learning quite a bit! I actually tried to find the old article I read and I did find it for anyone who is interested: http://www.slashfood.com/2008/10/21/how-important-is-it-to-preheat-your-oven/
tiffanybite at 10:05PM on 04/28/09
Uh, why would ALL kinds of recipes tell you to preheat if it really was not necessary to? Is there some sort of oven/energy conspiracy out there so that if you do preheat somehow it will allow Big Brother into your home for further surveillance??
To be fair...I've never thought of this before...I just did what I was told...to PREHEAT the oven! But seriously...why would you not if it said to??
(Seriously...I'm not being an ass)
arm1970 at 10:54PM on 04/28/09
I have not finished reading the other articles that blog post links to (and that is a blog of personal experience, not an article) but her brownie example is just about the worst one, and it is only one experience. The blogger did not try this with anything else before posting, and only offered her opinion that the brownies would have come out fine even if she had not pre-heated at all, though in fact she DID start the pre-heating but it did not come all the way to temp before she put the brownies in.
She also did not say HOW she determined that the oven was not yet up to temp, or how close to that 325 it was. Does she have an oven light that goes off (like mine) when the oven is at the set temp? Does she have a digital thermometer? She does not say how she could 'tell'.
Brownies have very little rise to them in the first place, and are intentionally very moist and dense. I would like her (the blogger tiff linked to, not the OP here on SE) to repeat this experience a couple of times with some cakes and breads and cookies, from a cold oven, then post again.
One linked article seems to be yet another blog, and the other is an energy-based 'article' and the whole argument seems to be about saving that small amount of energy rather than a quality product from the oven. They even use roasting as one of the big examples, which many of us have already stated is less of an issue than baking.
There is a reason for the preheating obviously. I sure would not be able to get away with not preheating them at work!
sadiepix at 11:06PM on 04/28/09
Banana bread is a quick bread (full of moisture and mostly forgiving) and as for cookies you might like your cookies as they come out and I might see them and chuckle and tell you how to improve them. I may not be a professional baker but I am a damn good one. There is a reason why we preheat ovens. We do it because we want to make the best possible baked goods and give the magic that is baking the right environment to work in. Also out of respect for the ingredients. So in response to tiffy's question, it is not about being green its about being a good baker and respecting the recipe, the ingredients and the final product.
Anyone else find a master baker who does not preheat? Didn't think so!
JerzeeTomato at 11:27PM on 04/28/09
I (heart) Jerzee
Widget at 11:33PM on 04/28/09
@tiffanybite - I have a feeling you've come to your own conclusion regardless of our opinion, so if we say something different, you just disagree:-). But I'm with @Jerzee and everybody else who said that preheating is important for baked goods.
Most recipes ask you to preheat your oven because different ovens take different time to get heated up to the required temperature - one may take 2 minutes, another one - 5 or 6. For a recipe to give consistent results, it needs to work with some kind of a constant, which is why the oven needs to be preheated to a certain temperature. The recipe can't take into account all possible heating up periods, but it can tell you with fair certainty what results you'll get at a certain temperature in an X amount of time.
brooke29 at 11:43PM on 04/28/09
@Jerzee...exactly what you said. I once was manager and chief baker at a bakery. It was set in stone..and I abide by it to this day. I preheat, with an oven thermometer in the oven before I bake anything. It never has been a problem. My best advice is a good oven thermometer, since all ovens deviate a little.
lamora at 1:31AM on 04/29/09
If you've only baked cookies and bar cookies, it doesn't surprise me that you haven't had problems since most people tend to overbake cookies--at least, in my early baking experience (oh, not so many months ago;), if you bake them until they 'look done' they are often hard by the time they cool. So they might taste great, but that is because you baked them at a cooler temperature than you thought. Ditto with the turkey.
A more exact solution would be to preheat, and take them out a bit early.
I don't know what advantage not preheating gives--during that time, I like to lay everything out. I preheat then prepare my ingredients and so forth.
HeartofGlass at 5:49AM on 04/29/09
as a young girl i ALWAYS preheated my easy bake oven. ;)
gastronomeg at 6:18AM on 04/29/09
OMG @gastronomeg I loved my easy bake oven! I used to spend obscene amounts of time "baking" for my brothers. (both older by quite a bit) it got to the point my mom bought me regular mixes and just let me bake those in my easy bake. Did you know you used to be able to get 5 double layer easy bake cakes out of one reg mix? It shames me a bit that I know that ;-)
huneybumper at 7:42AM on 04/29/09
I preheat only because I bake a lot and I find it does make a difference. When I'm making a lot of something like 150 cookies I like to put the trays in and set the timer the same each time. I don't want to go back to find that they need one or two more minutes. When the oven has been on a while it stays at a constant temp.
WSLunch at 8:20AM on 04/29/09
Another reason other than the excellent ones listed above for preheating is that if you put your dish into a cold oven, you do risk scorching or burning in that the oven uses the element on the bottom and the broiler element on top to heat the oven, so your food is subjected to that. A bit of a "run on" sentence, but never mind, I think it is relevant!
bareneed at 11:32AM on 04/29/09
Question WITH baking, why take the gamble, so some of it comes out okay and you save energy yada yadda but if it doesn't come out and you have to toss it then you are wasting money, food AND energy. Better safe then sorry.
pjracz10 at 1:57PM on 04/29/09
....as my mom isn't too enthusiastic about the work that goes into it (she's the one who introduced me to the concept of no preheating required).
why would you take baking advice from someone who isn't a baking enthusiast?
VerasTastyFreeze at 2:17PM on 04/29/09
While I think it is excessive to preheat from the moment you start a recipe, I do like to start the oven about 10 minutes before things go in. My oven is very small, so it doesn't take much longer than that to get up to temp. I also use an oven thermometer.
Another reason I personally like to preheat is to burn off any excess gas. My oven is about 35 years old and needs to be lit with a match, so the base of the oven is pretty much filling with gas until the flame catches, which causes the oven to smell like gas for a few minutes until it burns off. Not sure if placing food in a cloud of gas is harmful, but it seem a little gross.
yayfood at 2:41PM on 04/29/09
I always thought of preheating as making sure your dish is cooking at the same temperature the whole time. It's hard to say you should cook something for 30 minutes when the first 5-10 minutes, the heat might not be at full capacity.
When it comes to pasta though, I don't always wait for my water to boil. I can more easily watch the pasta on the stove to test for doneness than I can watch whatever is in the oven. Does that make sense?
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 5:05PM on 04/29/09
hi again.
to me, it feels like it all kind of got blown a little out of proportion... i think i'll start preheating again for all my baked goods, so thank you for that. this post was just meant to talk about how necessary preheating was... if it came off like i was against it, i didn't do that intentionally, i just had a question and i was just looking for some input. anyway, this wasn't meant to be a who's right, who's wrong kind of a thing. but thanks.
@VerasTastyFreeze- because she's my mom, i can't exactly tell her to bug off.
@sadiepix- i read the article, wasn't satisfied, and that's why i posted here at serious eats but thanks for reading it over
@arm1970- big brother? if a recipe told you to add a whole tbsp. of baking powder to a cup of flour, i would question the recipe
tiffanybite at 2:08AM on 05/01/09