Advantages of Convection Ovens

Nearly all homes in America, as well as a few restaurants, still use traditional, radiant ovens for the purpose of preparing our foods. Radiant ovens feature a heating element at the bottom of the oven with racks in the middle, and, on occasion, an upper heating element used for broiling. In traditional ovens, the heat remains motionless, which means the food takes quite a bit of time to cook and can have numerous hot or cold spots within the cooked food. These issues can all be avoided with the use of a convection oven.

Convection cooking has been popular in many European countries for quite some time, however America was not introduced to the craze until 1978, when Jenn-Air began offering residential convection ovens. Now, many homeowners stand firm on their belief that convection cooking is the only way to go, and most restaurants rely on convection ovens to create most aesthetically pleasing foods that have intense flavors and great texture. Convection ovens are also well known for reducing cooking times, which is ideal for high-volume restaurants or any application where a high amount of product is needed.

Convection type ovens operate by forcing air to circulate heat evenly throughout the cooking area, which ensures that the possibility of hot or cold spots is nearly eliminated. These ovens generally have three cooking elements, one on top, one on bottom, and one in the rear of the cooking space. These three heating elements mean that food will be cooked evenly, regardless of where the food is placed inside the cooking chamber. These ovens can also hold more food at any one time, and, thanks to the circulated heat from numerous elements, allows them to cook without the worry of burning the contents of any particular rack.

A reduced cooking temperature is yet another benefit of convection ovens over their traditional, radiant counterparts. Convection ovens typically cook foods at a temperature reduction of about 25 degrees when compared to conventional ovens. Foods also cook about 25% faster in these ovens. These two reductions can mean a huge energy savings for your restaurant, which will add up over time to save you a great deal of money in energy and usage costs.

Although convection ovens are a great alternative to the traditional oven, they do take a bit of time to get used to. Make sure that your first cooking experiment with the oven is just that - an experiment. Take a little time to get used to the differences in these oven before you prepare a meal for your friends, family, or guests.