SC - oven temperatures

[Stefan li Rous]

Olwen commented:
> The funny(?) thing about rare chickens (and other things) is that most of 
> the cooks have one of those handy instant temp thermometers that they pop 
> right into the bird.  Unfortunately, they have no recollection of what DONE 
> temp is for various meats!

This reminded me of something I've been wanting to mention about oven
temperatures.

After some comments and recommendations by Bear and a few others recently,
I've been looking at thermometers. I had bought both a candy thermometer and
one of those you stick into a chunk of meat. But neither of these seemed
appropriate for testing oven temperatures.

I had been wondering if my oven thermostat was set correctly since I
always seemed to need more time to cook items than the length of time
recommended on the directions of various food items. While I did not
find anything labeled for ovens, I did find one the size and shape of
a hockey puck that said it was for measuring grill temperatures.

What I found out is that my oven thermostat is almost right on, within
a few degrees. However, more startling to me, was just how looong it
takes for even a gas oven to reach the set temperature. I was expecting
about five minutes or so. Not so. To reach 350 or 400 degrees F it
was taking more like 15 or 20 minutes.

Hence when I put something in the oven for 35 minutes, it was at below
the requested temperature for about half that time. I was also wondering
at recipes that first said to preheat the oven to X degrees. By the time
I got through with the pre-baking portion, I always felt that the oven 
had been going for a long time and that I should have done some of the 
preperations first, turned on the oven and then did the rest of the prep.
Now it looks like the cookbook/food package directions were right all
along.

So ok, now you experienced cooks may be laughing your heads off, but
I thought some of the other folks new to cooking might find this info
useful.
- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****