Cooking and Dining

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Priceless tip

[mac5155]

Also think it may speed up cooking time when baking? Idk. Never really bake that much.

[tifosi77]

Convection effectively raises the cooking temp by as much as 30F. Not actually, but the increased airflow makes the convective heat transfer more efficient ........ 'efficient' probably isn't the right phrase there, but it makes it so stuff heats faster and more evenly. I've heard it described as 'wind chill, but hot'.

Basically, the roast chicken you normally cook for 50 mins will be cooked to the same doneness at the same temp in 35-40 mins.

[shafnutz05]

That's the biggest thing I've noticed. It cooks/heats up food much more thoroughly. It's perfect for reheating stuff like strombolis or something

[robbiestoupe]

I also use the feature all the time. I believe roasting is one of the times when you don't use it, and when baking pies/cookies and those sorts of things. Otherwise, convect.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

So basically its not like I'm going to have to dig into new recipes, just tinker with existing ones to save time? I'm ok with that.

[robbiestoupe]

No need to tinker with recipes. My oven will auto adjust the temperature for me. If I enter 350, it will set it to 325. It doesn't adjust the cooking time for me, but I just keep that the same. If there's a range of times on the recipe, I'll go with the shorter time.

[DigitalGypsy66]

My parents love their convection oven, and I liked the commercial one I used in our bakery for years.

My house is 13 years old, so I should probably look into replacing the default appliances that came with the place, right? And our fridge is 19 years old.

[eddy]

Just got a true convection oven and it's been quite the learning process. I **** up cookies because I put 2 trays side by side rather on top/below and it messed with the airflow. It also seems to take a lot longer to preheat for whatever reason? It has an air fryer mode and I never thought that I would use that as much as I do. It's been an amazing feature coming from a little air fryer that would take forever with a family of 5.

[Nuge]

Just got a true convection oven and it's been quite the learning process. I **** up cookies because I put 2 trays side by side rather on top/below and it messed with the airflow. It also seems to take a lot longer to preheat for whatever reason? It has an air fryer mode and I never thought that I would use that as much as I do. It's been an amazing feature coming from a little air fryer that would take forever with a family of 5.

I use the convection oven for wings. They turn out pretty well. Like an air fryer but much more capacity.

[robbiestoupe]

Speaking of ovens and getting used to them, do not put food in the top portion of a double oven until it is completely reheated. The oven uses the broiler tubes to heat the top, so you'll end up with a crispy meal if you don't heed this advice.

I need to check into this air fryer thingy. I haven't seen a button on my oven for it, but now I'm wondering if I've missed something.

[mac5155]

I've also found when using convection the back side cooks faster than the door side.

[blackjack68]

I know we’re against mono-use devices here, but I just used a rice cooker for the first time ever and holy crap is it a game changer. Absolutely perfect rice from a $20 gadget from Target. Not even a fancy one. $20.

How have I lasted this long without one?!?!

Damn Uncle Roger convinced me.

[dodint]

Hello, I am an idiot and also a victim of circumstance.

Every year I go in on a cow with my siblings and parents. So I have about 100lbs of beef in my freezer, and about a third of that is steak. Because of our move, I no longer have a grill. And due to the layout of our house there isn't really a good way to have any kind of grill unless I put it in the front yard, which just feels trashy to me for some reason. I am also hoping to get at least one deer worth of venison this year so I need to work something out.

What is the next best way to 'grill' or prepare steaks like this? No, I am not boiling it in a bag so just don't. Cooking steak in a pan has never been super appealing. Do the George Foreman type appliances cook real steaks? I had one but only ever used it for brats and burgers.
My wife had a pan that acted as a faux-charbroiler but I don't know if we still have it.

Just looking for ideas. So far we have just been cubing it and using it for slow cooker recipes.

[MR25]

If you have a meat thermometer, I recommend reverse searing it. Put it in the oven til desired internal temp, and then just sear in the pan.

Probably about as close as you can get.

[AuthorTony]

I've been looking at the Ninja Foodi indoor grills. They get good reviews and I feel like it would make more sense than using a full-sized grill to cook for 2 people. I'm just waiting for a good Black Friday deal to pull the trigger.

I have cooked steaks in the oven (broiler) and they turn out pretty darn good too.

[dodint]

Yeah, thought of that too but I don't know anything about it. And our oven is LP; takes forever to heat up so I am not super enthusiastic about using it. That's a me problem, though.

[Nuge]

An air fryer works really well for cooking a steak inside. I run it for 5 mins with nothing in it to preheat it, then x number of minutes on each side depending on how you want it cooked.

[Willie Kool]

https://www.weber.com/US/en/grills/port ... 11001.html

[dodint]

I have a small charcoal grill like that but in my recent experience it won't get hot enough to cook a steak, it took a long time to get it hot enough to finish the burgers I was making. That was with charcoal bought this year and was stored indoors.

[shafnutz05]

I just picked up about 200 pounds of beef from the butcher. We did something similar, went in on a steer. It's an incredible deal. We ended up paying about 4 bucks a pound for freezer-ready, vacu sealed, labeled beef of all cuts. And that includes tenderloin, brisket, numerous porterhouses, etc.

[Willie Kool]

It's all I've used for years. Gotta let the charcoal go for about a half hour before you start, until it's white hot, and use enough that it's no more than about an inch below the grate on one half the grill.

[Willie Kool]

[count2infinity]

My wife's thesis advisor did a year long sabbatical in Finland. When they came back we had a little cookout at our place and had them over. They brought a sweet bread called pulla. Apparently they're very popular in Finland and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, etc.

I made a version over the weekend that were quite good. LOTS of cardamom...

[eddy]

Damn, nice work c2i. How'd you feel about bake off this week?