Making a holiday meal requires planning and strategy, along with excellent time management skills.
Before convection ovens, it took even longer to figure out how and when to place each item in the oven for those perfect golden-brown results.
Most ovens now can cook with convection, and for the holidays, it’s a no-brainer.
In this article, you will learn how convection works and why it’s ideal for multi-rack cooking, especially if you plan to cook multiple items to finish cooking around the same time.
First, let’s cover what convection is and how it works in your oven.
[inlineCTA]
Convection cooking uses a third heating element, fan system, and exhaust to circulate hot air throughout the oven.
Convection ovens cook your food faster and more evenly than a traditional oven. It will also brown your food all around instead of just on the bottom of your dish.
Convection helps to mitigate hot and cold spots that could occur and makes the oven a dryer cooking environment. This reduces the cooking time and ensures the interior of your roasts and vegetables stays nice and juicy.
Additionally, because of the exhaust and air circulation, there is no concern about flavor transfer. You can bake a pie and make all your savory sides at the same time.
Pro Tip: If your recipe doesn’t specify using convection, the general rule of thumb when using convection mode is the 25/25 rule. You should set your oven 25 degrees Fahrenheit less than the initially requested temperature, and it should cook in 25% less time.
Read More: Gas Vs. Electric True Convection
To have the best results while cooking multiple dishes at the same time in your oven, you’ll want to choose food items that generally cook around the same temperature.
Next, you should consider what type of convection oven you have and what convection mode you’re planning on using.
All convection ovens and modes are not equal. Some are better for savory cooking, some are more precise for delicate pastries, and some are great at both.
That being said, the convection modes will vary from oven to oven and between brands as well.
Next, you want to make sure your oven racks are spaced apart evenly.
There should be enough room in between each rack to fit your food dish. If you expect your food to rise or pile high, provide more space between your oven racks.
Lastly, have cooking times listed for each food item. Your food items may need to be staggered when you put them into the oven or pull them out from the oven as they finish cooking.
Some dishes may take longer than others.
To show you how to cook multiple items in your oven simultaneously, I made three savory items, stuffing, delicata squash, and green bean casserole, along with one sweet dish, a pumpkin pie.x
First, I placed the pie on the bottom rack, the green bean casserole and stuffing in the middle, and my honey-glazed delicata squash on the top.
Everything went into the oven at the same time.
When trying to factor in temperature for multi-rack cooking, the food items should generally cook at the same temperature.
For the items listed above, I chose convection roast 375 F. The Delicata squash cooked the quickest in about 20 minutes.
Next was the green bean casserole and stuffing at around the 30-minute mark.
I left the pie in a little longer, around 45 minutes total.
Pumpkin Pie Made at Yale Appliance
As you can see, everything is cooked beautifully with no flavor transfer between dishes.
Read More: 10 Best Holiday Side Dishes Using a Convection Range
Multi-rack cooking in a convection oven is most beneficial around the holidays. With a convection oven, it’s easy to utilize and great for cooking your food faster.
Just remember to space out your oven racks and be prepared to stagger your cooking times for the best results.
Additional Resources
Confused about Wall Ovens? Get the Yale Wall Oven Buying Guide with updated features, specs, and detailed profiles of the best brands like Miele, Wolf, Viking, Bosch, Thermador, and more. Over 1 million people have read a Yale Guide.
Related Articles: