When not to preheat
- Reheating leftovers from the fridge:Allowing the oven to warm up with the ingredients inside means you can cook the thing more evenly without overcooking it the second time around.
- Root veg: Sticking to the stove-top adage that something that grows from cold cooks best from cold can also work for the oven. That means whacking carrots,parsnips,sweet potato,turnips,swedes and the like onto a tray and into the ovenbeforeturning it on. It’s a revelation,leading to more tender middles,without the frizzled ends.
- Braises: Anything that’s about to spend hours at a low-n-slow doesn’t need forewarming. It’s still worth searing any meat that’s going in here first,asit’ll help with building flavour.
- Frozen pizza (and other freezer foods):Whacking these into a cold oventhen cranking the heat will mean you can get on with your life while the food cooks,and the thawing ice crystals will keep the food from drying out. Just remember that the cooking instructions on the box are based on preheating to account for different oven preheating times,so you’ll need to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
Another reason why recipe writers recommend preheating is for consistency. The typical preheating time allocation is usually around 20 minutes − but modern oven preheating times vary widely. Depending on the make and model,yours will take anywhere from five to 20 minutes to preheat.
Taking the time to get to know your oven will pay dividends because you’ll know how much leeway you have for the recipes when preheating matters less,and how much time you have to prep and potter where it’s still a non-negotiable.
If you’ve got your oven manual handy,the information should be included. Otherwise,next time you’re preheating the oven set a stopwatch to time how long it takes to get to “moderate” − 160C fan-forced (180C conventional).
Alice’s tip: If you need a hot oven fast,try cranking the grill for four minutes,then switching to the regular oven setting. This should halve the amount of time it takes your oven to get to temperature and allay any familial flim-flam when the time comes to cooking dinner.
Send your Ask Alice questions and conundrums toalice@aliceinframes.com