Cooking with Convection
This article was borrowed from a Tiffin seminar by Judy Talley on "Cooking in your RV."
IT'S A MICROWAVE - IT'S A CONVECTION -
Convection cooking is just a regular oven with a fan to circulate heated air throughout the oven cavity to brown and crisp foods quickly and evenly, with having a turntable to eliminate turning during cooking. Most foods not on a turntable will cook best if rotated once about 1/3 way through the cooking time. With 110w power, which is what we have in our motorcoaches, you may need to reduce the time or temperature in most recipes. The main difference between the convection and regular oven is that you must nave a time set for the convection oven to start.
When using straight convection, you may use any pan you use in your regular oven. You will need to spray or oil these pans as usual. Remember the rack may be very hot!
To cook with convection you will touch the preheat pad, wait for a signal that the oven is preheated, then touch the CONVEC pad, number pad to select temperature, enter the cooking time (example: 5:00 min)touch the start button. Most of the time it is better to preheat while you are preparing your dish for cooking. If the door is not opened the oven will hold at preheat for approximately 30 minutes. Both preheat and convection temps can be set at the same time.
IT COMBINATION COOKS - The combination feature is what makes it unique and a real timesaver. The oven combines the browning and crispness of convection heat with a samll amount of microwave energy, for moist and flavorful results in about half the cooking time. Only use pans and utensils that are microwave safe when using combination feature and microwave only feature.
Most ovens on combination modes use 30% microwave on High-Mix and 10% on Low-Mix. In these settings the temperature can be changed, but the microwave power cannot. To change the temp, touch high mix or low mix, touch the same pad again. When the displ;ay says SELECT TEMP touch the desired temp pad. The mix temp will change to 375 automatically.
The High-Mix is best for larger cuts of meat and denser foods. Low-Mix is beter for smaller quantities and more delicate foods (eggs, cheese or cakes and breads).
Generally, convection-only heat will work best for most foods that require less than 20 minutes to cook.
If you are cooking at 400 degrees or higner, you will probably need to use the generator, since some parks power may not be adequate for high-temp cooking, especially if the park is full and everone is running the air conditioners or cooking at about the same time.
Most of the time you will use convection-only for regular cookies (10-12 min), regular muffins (15 min), regular biscuits (11-12 min) or thin pizza (15-18 min). You will use combination for frozen cookies (12-15 min), large muffins (15 min), frozen biscuits (13-15 min) or thick crust pizza (15 min).
USING AUTO SETTINGS - Auto settings use the internal cooking timetable set by the manufacturer and oven computer. It will automatically set the oven with the temperature and time after you specify the food and quantity. You might use these settings when you do not have a recipe with a temperature and time designed for that recipe.
USING SENSOR SETTINGS - This setting detects the vapor (moisture and humidity) emitted from the food as it heats. The sensor adjusts the cooking times and power levels for various foods and quantities. Be sure the outside of the cooking vessel and the interior of the microwave are dry. The sensor works with foods at normal temperature, for example, food for dinner plate reheat would be at refrigerator temperature and popcorn at room temperature.
Food weigning less than 3 ounces should be reheated by time and variable power.
