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There are a lot of convection ovens on the market today and at first glance they all appear to be the same. Big stainless steel boxes that cook your food much faster than your old conventional oven ever could.
There are a number of things to consider when you are looking for a new convection oven…….but, let’s back up a minute. How do convection ovens work?
- Convection ovens apply heat to food, just like the ovens we have used for years.
- Convection ovens use hot, moving air, to cook your food more quickly.
- Moving air makes heat hotter, much the same as, wind makes a cold day colder. It works like wind chill, only in reverse.
- While foods are cooking they have a layer of cool air all around them, even though they are in a hot oven. This makes sense because they were in the cooler before we put them in the oven.
- In a conventional oven this layer of cold around the product fights with the hot air the oven is producing. The product wants to stay cool and the oven wants to make it hot.
- The moving air produced by the convection oven removes the insulating layer of cool air around the product being cooked. When this layer of cool air is “wicked” away, the product cooks more quickly.
Some of the convection ovens circulate the air from side to side, some from front to back. Many convection ovens on the market do not heat evenly. The fin configuration and placement on the fan is crucial to proper air circulation. All the Cadco Convection ovens cook evenly because of our attention to details such as the fin placement and size. Cadco Convection Ovens also have an automatically reversing fan on many of our ovens, which allows the Cadco ovens to cook evenly throughout the cooking cavity.
To compensate for the shorter cooking time, I have found that reducing the cooking temperature by 25f. to 30f. degrees produces best results with most products.
I suggest preheating the oven to 50f. degrees higher than your actual cooking temperature. This will compensate for the heat lost during loading of the product into your oven.
All Cadco ovens have a “Cool Touch” glass door for safety as well as monitoring the product during the cooking cycle. Even when the oven is being operated at 500f. the glass remains cool to the touch.
You will want your oven to have a stainless steel interior and exterior for easy cleaning and durability.
Some Cadco ovens have a humidity injection feature. The Culinary Institute of America is successfully using Cadco Convection Ovens in some of their bakery instruction labs as standard equipment. The humidity feature helps future chefs and bakers produce the superior quality bakery products demanded by both staff and students at the C.I.A.
There are many convection ovens to choose from. We encourage you to look around, compare features, and find the best value for your needs. The staff at Cadco is just a phone call or mouse click away. Let us help you find the Cadco Convection Oven that best fits your needs.
Thanks for joining us at the “Chefs Table”.
Good food and good health to you,
Loren Lippitt C.E.C.
Executive Chef
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