It’s probably hard for you to think about tossing a tray of frozen chicken in the oven or never cleaning the oven knobs—but we’re here to tell you why you should pay attention to what you do with your oven. oven than you think.
1.Leaves a mess for days (or months)
Your daily kitchen cleaning might focus on the dishes rather than on the oven itself, but a few tweaks will go a long way. Not only does it make months of buildup harder to clean up, but it can also lead to smoke. Failure to clean up spills after each use of the oven can quickly build up and may smoke during preheating the next time. “If you use a drip tray, don’t forget to remove it and remove grease and drips after each use.”
2. Leave messy food on the oven floor
To make those everyday spills easier to clean up, it’s a good idea to catch crumbs and splatters before they reach the bottom of your oven. An empty drip tray or cookie sheet should be placed on the bottom for easier cleaning, or just add a disposable oven liner.
3. Put in frozen food that needs to be defrosted
You might think it would save time to let frozen chicken breasts warm up in the oven before they’re completely defrosted, but unless you adjust the cooking time, you could be putting your family at risk of food poisoning. food poisoning. “If you put frozen or partially frozen food in the oven, the time will be turned off because it will need to be defrosted before cooking.” Ensure safety by letting food defrost completely before cooking.
4. Assuming the temperature is correct
Your oven measures the temperature at one point – where it’s intentionally off-limits, where your food will never fly away. Because your oven is hotter in some spots than it is in others, your food may not be cooking to the temperature you think it is. “An oven thermometer will help you make sure your oven is properly preheated and cook your food at the temperature you need it to. “It’s the best kitchen investment you’ll ever make.” This is why most recipes call for you to bake at 350°F.
5.Using the convection setting on the wrong foods
In addition to the standard grill setting, which heats the oven from one point, some models have a convection setting that uses a fan to distribute heat evenly. It doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but that circulating air makes food cook much faster, so your dish could be overcooked if you’re following a recipe. Unless a certain recipe says otherwise, stick with the grill setting. “If you’re making a single layer of cake and baking multiple layers at once, direct air circulation and heat removal is needed, so you want to choose convection baking,” she says. “This will help achieve even doneness and baking on all your layers.”
6. Leave the shelves in while self-cleaning
If the insanely high heat can remove grease and grime from your oven, leaving the racks in the self-cleaning treatment seems to make sense. But unless the manufacturer specifies that they’re designed for this feature, you’ll want to take them out. Most holders will discolor during the self-cleaning feature, and the coating that makes them easy to slide out can also be damaged. Sorry, but you’ll have to scrub them by hand instead.
7. Skip cleaning the nooks and crannies
You don’t even want to think about what’s hiding in the space between your oven and your cabinets. To help keep debris and spillage from attracting pests, wrap the butter knife with a damp towel, then rub it against the wall inside the crack. Hold the knife at an angle to prevent debris from falling to the floor, and shake debris in the sink or trash can out after each pass. When it looks clean, replace the cloth with a cloth moistened with vinegar and wipe the walls again.
8. Leave the buttons dirty
When you touch the oven knobs after handling food, you can bet you’ve left some germs behind. To make sure you’re touching every corner of the knobs, pop them off the stove before scrubbing. Cohen suggests soaking them in a bucket of warm water mixed with 1/4 cup of all-purpose cleaner to disinfect.
9. Cooking with wax paper
Wax paper and parchment may look almost the same, but that waxy substance makes a huge difference. While wax helps remove moisture, it’s not too hard on heat. Put it in a hot oven and it will melt—or worse, the paper could catch on fire.
10. Place items straight on the heating element
Your oven is hot, but not as hot as the heating element itself. While it’s rare that anything in your oven catches on fire, keeping those high-heat parts well ventilated can prevent any accidents.