In how much water do I need to put ramekins when cooking au bain marie in the oven?

Question

I have been given four ramekins and a cooking book with 30 recipes for eggs in a ramekin as a present.

Everything is explained very clearly:

• Preheat the water for the bain marie dish in the oven at (I think) 180°C
• Put the eggs in a ramekin
• Add other ingredients
• Place the ramekin in the bain marie dish in the oven
• Get the ramekins out when you see the egg white is starting to coagulate

I have never used ramekins and I have never cooked au bain marie in the oven, but I believe the amount of water you use is pretty important. Unfortunately the book doesn't mention this.

So how high should the water level be for the ramekins?

Asked by Kristof Claes

Answer

Ideally, the water level should be just as, or a bit above, the egg level. So, you fill the ramekin to maybe 1.5 cm below the rim, place it in the dish, and fill the dish until it is 1 cm below the ramekin rim. You can deviate a bit, if you must - if you had a bit too much custard and filled the ramekins more, you shouldn't get the water too high, because you don't want to get water splashed onto the custard if it should start boiling (actually, you want to avoid a roiling boil in your bain marie, but it can happen). Even if the egg is slightly higher than the water, it will still be OK. If you have the water level too low, you risk to overheat the upper portions of your custards.

This assumes the souffle-cup-like ramekins usually sold to home bakers. If you have very flat ones, like crema catalana dishes, it gets more complicated. You have to have the water close to the rim, and bake at lower settings. It can help to put them high in the bain marie, e.g. on a cake cooling rack, so that they are cooled from below rather than the sides.

Answered by rumtscho

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What should I do if power goes out while I am baking cake/cookies?

Question

If I am baking cake or cookies in the oven and I lose power, what should I do?

Does it make to sense to leave the cake/cookies in the oven until the power comes back on, or should I take them out?

When/why would I need to leave them in the oven vs. take them out?

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

Removing things from the oven halfway through is not very friendly to baked goods. In general, they'll collapse as they cool off since the structure isn't cooked and set, and the leavening (baking soda/powder in these cases) will be spent, so there's no way to get what you originally wanted. It might be something like what'd happen if you forgot the leavening in the first place.

The exception is if they'd only just started - not bubbling much yet, just warm. In that case, you could probably get away with yanking them out quickly, and waiting to bake later.

Cookies could probably survive this by leaving them in, though. They don't have very long baking times - somewhere in the 5-15 minute range. Your oven won't cool off all that much in that time without power. So if you leave them in for a little bit longer than the original baking time, they'll probably be fine. If your oven has a window, look in with a flashlight to check on them - you don't want to open it to check them.

A cake is iffier. If it's 15 minutes into a 45 minute baking time, you may just be out of luck. I think I'd still leave it in, hoping that the power comes back within 5-10 minutes, in which case it'd probably make it. As I mentioned earlier, if you lose power early and for long enough, the cake will have spent its leavening and collapsed. You could finish baking it, but it'll still be collapsed - it probably won't have a terribly palatable texture (definitely dense, maybe chewy).

The only time this has actually happened to me was with some cornbread muffins, around 2/3 of the way through their baking time, and the oven didn't have a window. I wildly guessed how much extra time to add, pulled them out then, and they were great. So there is hope!

Answered by Jefromi

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domestic bread steaming -> will my stone be okay?

Question

Trying to maximise the oven rise of my loaf, and think I will try the steaming method, but what is the best way to do this in a domestic electric oven, and will could it damage my bread stone?

Asked by Mild Fuzz

Answer

I would not go ahead and just toss water on the oven floor as this can both damage your oven, as well as lower its temperature.

Instead, I would use a baking pan with some boiling water, put it on the lowest rack. The temperature of the oven will keep the water boiling, and thus releasing steam throughout the baking.

Answered by Magnus Nordlander

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How can I stop my pie from burning?

Question

My oven heats up by putting on the grill. Yesterday I was making pie and the top burned a little bit. This happens almost every time. It happens at the moment the grill goes on for a short moment because the oven has cooled down a bit. So the top of my pie burns, but the middle is not fully cooked jet. I always make sure the oven is fully heated before putting in the pie, and of course keep the oven door open as short as possible. I was wondering, is there a trick so that my pie does not get burned when the oven is re-heating? Right now I turn down the oven a little bit so it won't re-heat which indeed prevent the pie from burning. However, in this way I do not get the optimal result.

Asked by Lotte Laat

Answer

What you need is to deflect the heat from the top of your pie. If you have two racks in your oven, and can position them so that the pie is in the middle with a rack above it, place a piece of aluminum foil directly above the pie. Another option would be to set a piece of foil on top of the pie after it has partially baked. Either way will protect the top from direct heat, allowing the ambient heat to penetrate and bake the whole pie.

Answered by Cos Callis

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cooking time for chicken-pesto in the oven

Question

I love to make chicken stuffed with pesto. I cut the chicken breast in half, and then fill them with pesto and make a roll of it.

I first bake the chicken in a frying pan to give them a nice color, and then put them in the oven to cook until it's done.

However here comes my problem, I want the chicken to be totally done, because I am very afraid to eat raw chicken. However, I now cook them too long to be sure it is not raw anymore. I cook them for at least 20 minutes on 175 degrees Celsius.

I was wondering, can anybody tell me how long I should cook them in the oven on which temperature to be sure it is not raw anymore, but not cook them overdone?

Asked by Lotte Laat

Answer

There is no definitive time or temperature that would 100% guarantee your chicken was done without it having a 99% chance of being over cooked and dry.

It's quite hard to use a meat thermometer with stuffed chicken breasts but if your meat/filling has got up to 74°C in the center and there is no pink in the meat you'll be fine.

Answered by vwiggins

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Why can heating things in a microwave make them soggy?

Question

Why does heating something (like pizza) in an oven make it crisp but heating it in the microwave makes it all soggy?

Asked by Kaushik

Answer

Microwaves specifically heat water molecules in the food. This turns them to steam, and because the air in the microwave is actually cool, the steam then condenses. There is often not proper air circulation to move the steam away from the food. Often times the outside edges of the food will not be soggy, but rather burnt, because they receive more energy and the water can totally vaporize.

For better results when reheating food, do not reheat your food on "high" or the default power. Reheat it at a lower setting for longer time. For pizza specifically, I heat it in the microwave only to room temperature and then finish it in the toaster oven or in a pan.

Answered by smcg

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What are some best practices to cook salmon on a cedar plank in an oven?

Question

I know that cedar plank cooking is normally done on a grill but I want to see what I can do with it indoors.

What are some ways to get more of the wood flavor when cooking salmon with a cedar plank in the oven?

Asked by Jeff the Bear

Answer

The big key is just to soak the plank before using it, that way it won't burn while it's in the oven. The amount of time needed to soak seems to differ among experts, but soaking for an hour should be long enough to cook the salmon without the wood burning.

Answered by MeltedPez

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What to place beneath the vegetables before placing them on the baking tray?

Question

In order to present their surface from burning what should be placed beneath the vegetables before placing them on the baking tray?

I am thinking of applying oil to the tray, not sure if that's enough.

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

I usually put tinfoil down and then lightly oil it. If done carefully, the tray stays clean and doesn't need to be washed and the foil can be thrown out (or used for a second batch of veggies if you have one).

Answered by FrustratedWithFormsDesigner

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Is it normal to see flames inside my self-cleaning oven?

Question

I spilled some sauce, cheese, and pepperoni in the oven last night while trying to transfer some homemade pizza from the pizza peel onto the pizza stone, so I decided to clean it today.

I wiped the bottom and glass door, but the rest of the stuff was crusty and stuck to the bottom of the oven. I started the cycle and went about my business.

About 15 minutes later I hear a loud POP and I run over to find little flames dancing at the bottom of the oven. I freak out, turn off the self-cleaning feature, grab the fire extinguisher and try to open the door, which wouldn't open (which I later found out was a safety feature because the temperature inside was close to 900 degrees, whew!)

Anyway, now my kitchen and living room are filled with light smoke that I'm trying to ventilate, and I am terrified to run the self-clean again for fear of my house bursting into flames unless I watch it (which I don't particularly want to, since the smoke is nasty).

So, were these little dancing flames and the resulting smoke safe and normal in the operation of the self-clean cycle? If not, what can I do before running the cycle again to minimize flames and smoke?

Asked by Mike

Answer

Smoke is normal in an electric oven, but flames are definitely not.

In order to start a fire, you either need a spark, or you need to heat something beyond its autoignition temperature (AKA kindling point). You might have had a short - or you might actually be using a gas oven with spark ignition - but I'm guessing your issue was the latter.

Cooking oil or grease being heated beyond its autoignition point is one of the most common causes of kitchen fires (grease fires). Supposedly, some oils have autoignition points as low as 550° F (or 288° C), though I'm not sure which oils those are. Olive oil would be my guess as the lowest, but pepperoni grease could very well have ignited at self-cleaning temperatures (which, as you noticed, go up to nearly 1000° F).

Fortunately for you, all modern ovens have a mechanical interlock which prevents them from being opened during a self-cleaning cycle. If you'd opened it, you would have made the problem a lot worse by (a) supplying the fire with abundant oxygen, and (b) drawing all the hot air and flames out of the oven and into your kitchen, quite possibly setting your whole home on fire. Heat wants to move to where it's cold; that's why you keep your doors and windows closed in the winter.

There are a multitude of oven cleaners available for self-cleaning ovens - you are supposed to use these before you run a self-cleaning cycle. Yes, I know it's odd, but "self-cleaning" doesn't really actually mean that it cleans itself, it just gives you a little extra help. You need to try to clear out all the grease and big chunks of food first using one of these cleaners, then run the self-cleaning cycle to deal with anything you might have missed.

Answered by Aaronut

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How to decide the baking temperature when recipe doesn't mention it?

Question

On what factors does the temperature setting depend?

Of course if I have to bake a stone, I would need to set the temperature at 900C perhaps :rolleyes: ;), but in normal cakes where you have a banana or an orange as an extra ingredient, how do you decide the temperature?

Example: How much temperature difference can there be in a plain cake and a banana cake?

If you bake a banana cake on 200C instead of 180C, is that going to make a difference somewhere? In which way?

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

Cooking temperature and time are determined by a number of factors. The idea is to get the inside of the product properly cooked before the outside dries out, becomes tough, or becomes unpleasantly dark or even burned. At the same time, you usually want the product to get nicely browned (adds flavor and looks nice) before the inside is overcooked. So it's a balance.

Factors which influence appropriate temperature and time include:

• ingredients: High protein ingredients (like meat or eggs) easily become tough when overcooked. High sugar or starch recipes will tend to brown or burn more easily.

• moisture level: For some products, such as popovers or many kinds of pastry, steam is an important leavening agent, and a high temperature is called for. In other products, like cookies, one of the goals of baking is to drive off excess moisture. And in still others, moisture is absorbed into the other ingredients.

• shape: A fat, round loaf will usually need a longer cooking time and lower temperature than a thin, flat pizza or a long, skinny baguette because it takes longer for the center of the loaf to heat up.

• pH: Changing the pH of the product will change how it browns.

• leavening: Some chemical leavening, like double-acting baking powder, activates at a certain temperature.

• personal preference: At the end of the day, the most important factor is whether you like the way the product turned out. If you like a crispier crust, change the temperature and/or cooking time to suit your taste.

Any baking recipe should specify the temperature and cooking time, unless perhaps it's from a book that specifies those things for a number of recipes at once. If not, find a similar recipe and use the temperature specified there, but keep a close eye on the product during the baking process. Learn how to tell when the product is done. For cakes, you usually go by color for the outside, and by temperature or using a toothpick or wooden skewer for the inside. (Briefly: poke a wooden toothpick into the center of a cake; if it comes out with wet batter, keep cooking; if it comes out clean and dry, it's probably overcooked; if it comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it, it's probably perfect.)

Answered by Caleb

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What does baking time in oven depend on?

Question

Banana bread recipe requires 1 hour, and the banana muffins recipe require 20 minutes.

Both the recipes contain bananas, and flour. Why is the baking time so different among the two?

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

These are the things that popped up in my mind at first glance:

Volume

How bigger the thing, how longer it will take to be fully baked. This is the reason why you find such a difference in the baking times for banana bread and banana muffins.

Surface Area

The volume can be the same (ground surface x height), but the surface exposed to the heat can differ. If something is flatter, the center is more rapidly reached. If you would bake your bread in a normal bread mold, it would take a longer time than if you would flatten out a bread on a baking sheet (but note that the volume is the same).

Oven temperature

Something very obvious. If it's hotter, it won't have to bake as long. However, don't play too much with this. I would advice to use the temperature a recipe has recommended. If you put it too hot, the outer parts can burn, when the inner parts would not be baked fully. This question is related.

Vessel Material

Some materials conduct heat better than others. As a consequence, some things will be faster done in metal than in glass for example. (But I believe this has a less important role than the other factors I've mentioned. I can't say much about it, since I don't know a lot about it.)

Answered by Mien

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What should be the material of the vessels to be used in an electric oven?

Question

What should be the material of the vessels and utensils to be used in an electric oven?

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

The usual materials used in an oven (no matter if electric or gas) are almost all food-safe non-melting materials used for cooking vessels. If you can use it on a stovetop, it should be OK for the oven too (unless it has a handle from a different material).

• Metal. Oven pans are made from non-reactice metals (like stainless steel) or reactive metals with a protective layer (e.g. seasoned cast iron). Don't use metal vessels which have non-metal parts, like wooden or plastic handles (except for oven-rated handles, like the phenolic handles on Le Creuset enameled cast iron, which are rated for up to 200°C). Else, all metalic pans and pots meant for stovetop are good for the oven. Also, pay attention to temperature: PTFE (non-stick) coated vessels shouldn't be heated above 250°C.

• Ceramics. If glazed, you should make sure that the glaze does not suffer under high temperature or does not leach dangerous chemicals into the food under high temperatures. There are many glazed ceramic pans meant for the oven, such as lasagna pans, quiche pans, tagines, gyveches, etc, and you can be sure that these are oven-safe. You can also use table porcelain for some limited scenarios, e.g. poaching an egg in an individual serving of soup, but don't risk your finest porcelain, and don't do it if the plates are decorated with adhesive designs. If unglazed, you should make sure it is intended for the oven, some types of earthenware may be damaged by the heat. The ones meant for the oven (like römertopf) should be fine.

• Glass. If it is borosilicate glass (sometimes called Jena glass), you can use it in the oven. Don't subject it to temperature shocks, use room-temperature glass pans (don't layer a lasagne the day before in a glass vessel and then bake it straight from the fridge), and don't put them in too hot an oven (up to 200°C should be OK). You can't determine if it is borosilicate glass or soda lime glass from its looks, so here you have to be sure that the manufacturer markets the vessel as oven safe.

• Silicone. Food-grade silicone is great for baking and practically indestructible (unless you cut it). If the manufacturer gave a temperature range, go by it, I'm not sure it will hold up at above 250°C, but it is no problem in the normal cake and pastry baking range.

• Plastics. Some plastics may be able to withstand heat, but you can't usually recognize that from their looks, and you don't know if there may be other problems (such as melamine, which releases toxic chemicals when heated). In theory, I would trust a big manufacturer who markets a plastic pan explicitely as oven-safe, but in practice, I haven't seen such pans. So don't use plastic vessels in an oven.

• Wood. Don't use wood in an oven. It shouldn't be able to catch fire at normal oven temperatures, so it is not a hazard, but the heat will damage your vessel. While it will still be usable (especially if you take care to wet it beforehand), it will lose its smooth surface, and it will probably warp. Glued wood can also split along the glue lines. If you have a cheap bowl you don't mind damaging, you can use it in the oven, but I don't see why, when other materials are much better suited.

Answered by rumtscho

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Can microwave safe glass vessels be used in an electric oven?

Question

Can microwave safe glass vessels be used in an electric oven?

EDIT:

I just checked and found the following written on the manual of the glass ware:

SUITABLE FOR CONVENTIONAL OVEN
SUITABLE FOR USE OVER FLAME
SUITABLE FOR MICROWAVE OVEN

Can it be considered safe (as it says)?

I have this oven: http://www.bajajelectricals.com/Majesty-OTG-2800TMC-pc-391-66.aspx

and this glass ware: http://www.borosil.com/products/consumer/storage/

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

Sometimes. Basically, this is the same as asking if glass is oven safe:

Generally, glass is oven-safe if taken from room temperature and put in a moderate-temperature, preheated oven. The key thing is to avoid temperature shocks (which will cause the glass to shatter). Some glass is specifically designed for oven use (either by being tempered or made of borosilicate glass). Often glassware will say if it is safe for oven use or not, and under what conditions—check the packaging or instructions it came with.

You also need to take precautions when removing glass from the oven. Do not set it on something that'll conduct heat away rapidly, such as a wet countertop.

Before heating glassware, inspect it for damage. Scratches, chips, etc. make failure much more likely. This applies to the microwave as well.

Note that non-glass parts of microwave-safe glassware may not be oven safe. For example, if it has a plastic lid, that should generally not be used in the oven (even though its OK in the microwave).

edit:

In response to your update, that oven is what would often be called a toaster or countertop oven. Those change temperature much more rapidly than a larger oven (which can be electric as well). So, generally, you'd avoid glass in them.

But, your glass says it can be used over a flame, from the freezer. So it's clearly one of the very shock-resistant ones, possibly borosilicate. I wouldn't expect it to be a problem. Just make sure to preheat the oven.

Also, since you know who made it, you can of course contact the manufacturer to confirm.

Answered by derobert

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Is the Tortilla de Patatas modification to include carrots reasonable and can you cook inside a casserole dish to make it taller?

Question

I want to make Tortilla de Patatas but I have extra carrots that I would like to use somewhere. Can I include them in the frying phase? And can the dish be cooked in a casserole dish in the oven instead to make a very tall 'omelet'?

Answer

If you would like to add carrots, make sure you cut them small enough (since it takes quite a while to get them soft). I'm not 100% sure it would be a good fit, but that's up to you.

You certainly can make a tortilla in the oven, I've done so in a spring form. I think I did it for about 45 min in an oven of 180°C/350°F. But this depends of course on how much food you use and how big your form is. Just keep an eye on it, the egg should be fully cooked and the potatoes soft.

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Why do you slice whole ducks in half when roasting but not for other poultry?

Question

Last time I made a roast, I used a recipe from BBC good food. Since I have had luck with those recipes, I decided to go for their roast duck recipe.

That recipe involves cutting the whole duck in half and roasting the halves with the skin pointing up. I have never roasted a bird like that before, and I am wondering why someone would do it. Does it have to do with the flavor of the meat? Proportion of fat? I don't think I'd ever do that to a chicken because I'd be afraid the meat would go dry. But obviously the flavor of duck is different, and maybe if I know why people do that, I can use it intelligently in my cooking.

Answer

The main reason why you want to cut the duck in half and roast them with the skin side pointing upwards is so the skin of the duck is nice and crispy. Unlike most roasted poultry where you don't eat the skin, the duck's skin is considered a huge delicacy if it is crispy.

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Why do some whole roast duck recipes slice the duck in half, and not others?

Question

Last time I made a roast, I used a recipe from BBC good food. Since I have had luck with those recipes, I decided to go for their roast duck recipe.

That recipe involves cutting the whole duck in half and roasting the halves with the skin pointing up. I have never roasted a bird like that before, and I am wondering why someone would do it. Does it have to do with the flavor of the meat? Proportion of fat? I don't think I'd ever do that to a chicken because I'd be afraid the meat would go dry. But obviously the flavor of duck is different, and maybe if I know why people do that, I can use it intelligently in my cooking.

Answer

The main reason why you want to cut the duck in half and roast them with the skin side pointing upwards is so the skin of the duck is nice and crispy. Unlike most roasted poultry where you don't eat the skin, the duck's skin is considered a huge delicacy if it is crispy.

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How to adjust an oven to accommodate two items with different cook times and temperatures?

Question

For dinner this evening we are cooking a roast beef and intend to serve a baked brie appetizer. Unfortunately, we only have one oven. To reach medium rare the roast needs 3 hours at 325° while the brie needs to be cooked at 400° for 20 minutes.

Is there a way to cook both of these items in the oven at the same time? Is it a matter of adjusting the length of time the brie needs to be in the oven?

Answer

I would cook the Brie at that same temperature for 30-35 minutes and it should be okay.

Alternatively, you could cook the roast fully, remove it from the oven, tent it with foil and then cook the Brie. The meat can rest while the Brie is cooking and being eaten. Prior to slicing the roast, heat up the pan drippings to a sizzling temp and baste to ensure a crispy crust. But if the appetizer course happens to last for 20-30 minutes, then the roast will have been resting for 40-50 minutes and could lose too much internal heat.

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Convection microwaves

Question

Are convection microwave ovens a useful item to have? Or are they not good as a microwave and not good as a convection oven either?

I understand that a regular convection oven helps to cook things faster. But a microwave cooks things pretty darn fast already so why would you want a convection feature?

Answer

It is a combination of a regular convection oven with a microwave, so you have both hot air and microwaves cooking your food. So the advantage is you get the quick interior heating of the microwaves combined with the surface browning from the hot air; convection just makes that hot air cooking faster and more even.

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Fan bake vs bake

Question

Are there any general rules to follow when choosing between bake and fan bake to cook something in the oven? What effect does each have and what are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

Answer

To clarify: forced-air (a/k/a "convection", a/k/a "fan bake") ovens rely on a fan to circulate the air in the oven. The fast-moving air substantially enhances the rate at which heat is transferred to the food. It is particularly good where you want the surface to brown, such as roasts and breads; it is not as good for more delicate items, such as custards and cakes, which can set too quickly or get dried out. For cookies, it depends on what effect you want, but many standard types do well in forced-air ovens because the fan helps ensure that the whole oven stays at a uniform temperature despite the presence of several trays. (Of course, the tray closest to the heating element will still cook faster than the one farthest away, so you will still have to swap them partway through.)

The general rule for using the fan is to set the oven temperature 25 degrees F (15 C) lower than what the recipe calls for using in a regular oven. Even then, don't go strictly by cooking time, as ovens vary; rather, be sure to check on your food regularly to see how fast it is cooking. You may need to cover your food to prevent over-browning, or perhaps adjust the oven temperature.

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How can I clean my oven window?

Question

My oven has a convenient window on it. It is very old and covered in soot. I tried what many recommendations say and used water and baking soda together, but it did not cut through the grime. Does anyone know how to get rid of this mess?

Answer

Oven cleaner will take that right off. If you're sensitive to nasty harmful fumes you can get the fume free kind.

Make sure you follow the manufacturer's instructions to the letter, and make sure no kids or pets are around.

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