The Easy Trick To Speeding Up Your Oven's Preheat
When you're pressed for time — which for many people is just about every day after a hectic day of work or school when trying to get dinner or baked goods on the table — the last thing you want to have to do is wait that extra 15 or 20 minutes for your oven to preheat to whatever temperature the recipe or the directions on the box of frozen food indicate. However, preheating is an important cooking step, and one that should not be skipped in most cases (except for those dishes that don't actually need it), both for quality and texture reasons (such as for biscuits, baguettes, and even pizza crust) and safety reasons (such as dishes with raw meat like chicken).
Luckily there's an easy trick that can speed up the time it takes for your oven to preheat to the right temperature. All you have to is turn your broiler on for 3 to 5 minutes before setting the oven to your target temperature, and that should speed things up.
Read more: 11 Cleaning Tips For Keeping Your Oven Spotless
Does The Trick Work?
USA Today Reviewed was skeptical, and noted that the trick made a minimal difference on an electric oven and while it did cause a gas oven to preheat faster, they discounted the result because most internal thermometers tend to be near the top of the oven, where the broiler tends to be and may not reflect the ambient temperature throughout the oven. However, First For Women reported a different outcome from their test of the trick. According to their reviewer, by running the broiler first for 4 minutes, they were able to preheat their oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit in just 9 minutes compared to its usual 20 minutes, without any impact on how the food (in this case, biscuits) came out.
According to East Coast Appliance, turning on the broiler "can get your oven hot almost immediately, which helps you heat the entire appliance to your desired temperature," supporting the validity of the broiler hack for preheating. To be sure, you can test out the trick on your own oven before cooking or baking anything where precise temperatures are important. And use a separate oven thermometer set away from the broiler to be sure that your oven really has reached the correct temperature for your needs.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.
