Help with a terrible oven

captain P

Hello!

I am currently renting an apartment and all the appliances are the ones that were fitted when the apartments were built (about 3 years ago).

The oven is awful. I've tried to bake a few cakes (carrot, banana bread, swiss roll, basic sponge) and everything ends up cooked unevenly and burnt .

I've tried all I can think of : using bottom of the oven, top of the oven or middle of the oven (bottom, top or sides get burnt before its cooked). I've tried covering it with tinfoil to avoid the top getting burned. I keep the temperature about 30 degrees below what the recipes suggest.

Its a fan oven, I have tried all the above tactics with the fan on and off.

Has anyone got any suggestions?

Curry Addict

sounds like its going on full temperature regardless of the temperature setting. u can confirm this by putting a thermometer inside and checking the set temperature versus the real thermometer temperature.
if this is the case then u can ask the landlord to get it fixed

Alun

Also, does the indicator light that shows when it's up to temperature ever go out? If not, then it's probably just the thermostat that's gone.

captain P

Alun wrote: »

Also, does the indicator light that shows when it's up to temperature ever go out? If not, then it's probably just the thermostat that's gone.

Yeah, the light does go out, takes about 20+ mins. Still reckon you could be right about the thermostat though, I'll try Curry Addicts idea and see if that's the case. Just need to get a thermometer!

biddywiddy

+1 for an oven thermometer. You should pick one up for a few euro (I got one in Heatons last year). They are a good way to know the real temperature of your oven.

Originally the thermostat in our oven was broken, so the oven would just get hotter and hotter. Fine for cookies that only take 10-12 mins, bit of a disaster for a roast chicken.

Fixed the thermostat, but still use the thermometer as the oven still runs 20C higher than the dial setting. At least it's a constant temperature difference though.

olaola

Oven thermometer, and tin foil 'hats'. I have a gas oven that isn't great for baking - everything burns on top. So I have to construct tin foil hats and edge protectors for cakes and things I put in the oven. Just make sure you take them off near the end, so they brown up.

Acoshla

My oven is dodgy too, have a meat thermometer in it that tells me the real temp

But as well as temperature issues the element at the top is very close to the food, nothing separating it much, so I've put a big tray in as a permanent shelf directly under the element, this means my food doesn't burn half as quick and cooks more evenly than it did before. Also insulate tins/trays when you can, put them sitting in another one or wrap with something to make the heat take longer to get to them.

captain P

Thanks for all the help folks. I'll get the thermometer, and in the meantime I'll keep experimenting with tin foil hats and the like!!

The Sweeper

What make and model is the oven?

Two years ago I moved into a new-built house, with a 900mm Technika range cooker, gas hob, electric oven with a number of settings including fan assist.

For the first year I hated the poxy oven and could get nothing right in it. I was tempted to sell it and buy a different cooker, thinking it was all to do with the kit being a cheap-o solution to the modern desire for 'farmhouse' style range cookers and so on and so forth.

A new oven would have cost me a few grand.

Instead I spent $5.99 on an oven thermometer, and it changed my entire outlook!

I use the oven on three of its six available settings. My oven has heating elements top and bottom and back, plus a gril, plus fan at the back. You can have various combinations of these elements, with or without the fan, on.

I've discovered that the max temperature the oven gets to is about 230 degrees of the advertised 250 degrees listed on the knob. It can also vary in up to 10 degrees from the setting on the knob depending what functions are on.

I've found I can make excellent bread using a pizza stone plus the top and bottom elements and no fan at the highest heat setting. I'll slow cook stews using the top and bottom elements and no fan at about 160 degrees on the knob (which will heat to around 170 degrees in the oven). The fan comes on for roast chicken with top, bottom and back elements on.

Basically the upshot is that the thermometer is invaluable - if it's a big oven, buy more than one and hang them off different shelves to get an idea if the temperature varies in the oven. If you can't switch off the fan assist, use foil to get around hotspots - and even get used to intervening in mid-cook by turning items around so they don't get charred on the side closest to the fan.

When you get a feel for the oven against certain favourite recipes, it becomes really easy to adjust the settings for other things and you find yourself almost unconsciously adjusting for each recipe as you read it.