Ovens

Bake first, the delicacy requiring a higher temperature

It’s Saturday night and your friends are coming over to your place for dinner. The beef stew is ready to cook in the oven at 200°C while your apple pie needs a quicker journey at 170°C. Let the beef stew go first!

The oven will be already well heated for your pie, reducing its baking time, this way consuming less energy.

Keep the oven closed while cooking

We know it’s hard to resist the temptation of checking your pie as it cooks in the oven. The smell is already invading the room and you truly cannot wait to have a slice. Yet, there is something you should know.

Each time you open the door, the oven loses heat and requires more energy to get back up to temperature.

Defrost frozen food in the fridge

We know it could be tempting to throw something from the freezer straight in the oven. Those fish burgers you are really craving or that dessert, for your dearest Netflix show. Yet, this will double cooking time, requiring more energy.

Remember to defrost your food overnight. This will halve the cooking time, reducing energy consumption in both the fridge and the oven, while cutting costs.

Make preheating an exception, not a rule

Only preheat the oven if this is specified in the recipe or in the operating instruction tables.

Also, learn how long your oven takes to preheat, so you’re ready to start cooking as soon as it’s up to temperature.

Use the fan-assist cooking option

Should your oven allow, preference using the fan-assist cooking option. This allows to set the oven at a lower temperature, compared to the static cooking option.

Switch off the oven 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time

For longer cooking cycles, you can switch off the oven 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time and use the residual heat to finish cooking.

Always use the right temperature setting

After a long day of work or session at the gym, you just want to get your head straight on the plate. You may be tempted to run your oven at maximum temperature, hoping your meal will be ready ASAP.

What you should know is that higher temperature settings cause higher energy losses, and risk overcooking your food. Make sure to always follow the temperature indications as recommended in the recipe, to save energy and enjoy a perfectly cooked dish.