# Preheat electric ovens?



## sausage lips (Aug 2, 2006)

I am currently in disgreement with someone else about the nessesity of preheating an electric oven.

He says that it is not nessisary to preheat an electric oven because it takes such a short time to heat up.

I believe that it depends on what you are cooking. If you are cooking a frozen food and you put it in the oven while it is heating up it will affect the qualtiy because while the oven is heating the food will be thawing. If the food is supposed to be put into the fully heated oven while frozen then you should comply with the directions.

Does it really matter?


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## Michael in FtW (Aug 2, 2006)

Your friend is wrong - follow the directions - preheat!

The directions (if they say a preheated oven) are based on how the recipe was developed and tested ... in this instance for example - cooking in an oven that is x-degrees for y-minutes. If you start with a cold oven - the time will be off. This is really crucial in baking ... but that's another story.

Not all ovens heat at the same rate (that's why you pre-heat them - kind of like bringing somethig to a boil and then reducing to a simmer before you start the timer) .... so you can't count on that. My old gas oven heated up faster than my new electric oven - my daughter's oven has a bigger element than mine and heats up faster. Without going in to test and time it - 350-450 (F) takes 10-15 minutes or longer for my oven.

So, in this round ....

Sausage Lips - 1 .... "clueless guy" - 0


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## urmaniac13 (Aug 2, 2006)

There are certain things that preheating doesn't matter that much, also things that it WILL matter very much.  

As you said, many of the frozen foods are best cooked directly from their frozen state without thawing themselves, also if you are baking something that needs to rise, the proper temperature is absolutely crucial.

If I am baking something like lasagne, I would just put it in after a while, maybe 5 minutes or so after I turned it on, even if the temperature hasn't reached 180°C yet, but I wouldn't put anything in from the starting point (while oven is not at all heated), unless the recipe states so.


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## skilletlicker (Aug 2, 2006)

Sausage lips, I agree that it depends on what you are cooking but if preheating is important I like to preheat much longer than the 10 or 15 min. it takes to attain the temperature the thermostat is set at.  My oven will get to 350F in slightly under 10 minutes but if I open the door then it will drop 50 or 60 degrees quicker than I can put anything in and close the door.  How long it takes to recover the temp.  becomes critical with things like biscuits, cookies or bread.

I preheat for 30 or 45 minutes because I want the walls and ceiling of the oven to heat as much as possible in order to not depend exclusively on the heating element to return the air temp to max. as soon as possible.  I also keep a pizza stone in the oven all the time which, I believe, prolongs the optimum preheating time but hastens the temp. recovery.

My oven takes a couple minutes to switch the oven element on after the door is opened and the temperature drops below the the temp. on the dial.  I wait until the element has cycled to on before opening the door which lops 2 minutes off the recovery time.


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## VegasDramaQueen (Aug 2, 2006)

_When I set the temperature of the recipe to my electric oven, it preheats in a matter of 3 to 5 minutes depending on the temp. The readout and bell signal tells me when the oven is at the right temp. I always preheat - maybe just a habit._


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## TATTRAT (Aug 2, 2006)

I am a preheater. Most directions will state place in preheated oven, though some things,admitadly, don't matter...but I do preheat.


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## GB (Aug 2, 2006)

I am another who will say it depends on what you are cooking.

I have an electric oven, but I rarely preheat. If I am just cooking a frozen meal (prepackaged stuff from the freezer isle in the supermarket) I never preheat. At most I might add 5 minutes or so to the cooking time, but I usually find that is not necessary. 

I have also found that the longer something needs to cook (things like frozen meals that is) the less the need to preheat. If something is only supposed to be in the oven for 10 minutes or so then I will preheat, but not for very long. If it is in for 30 minutes then I do not bother.

Why don't you do a test? Cook a couple of the same meals. Preheat for one and not for the other and see what you think.


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## vagriller (Aug 2, 2006)

sausage lips said:
			
		

> I am currently in disgreement with someone else about the nessesity of preheating an electric oven.
> 
> He says that it is not nessisary to preheat an electric oven because it takes such a short time to heat up.
> 
> ...



Are you my wife? I have the same disagreement with my wife. She thinks it's crucial to preheat the over all the way to the temp on the box when baking a frozen pizza. I don't put the pizza in cold, just when it is convenient. The over may be between 250-300.


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## GB (Aug 2, 2006)

vagriller, my wife and I have the same arguem...um discussions. When making a frozen chicken pot pie she will preheat the oven for 30 minutes before cooking the thing for 45 minutes. I just pop it into a cold oven and cook for 45 minutes. They both come out exactly the same IMO.


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## Half Baked (Aug 2, 2006)

Well this is interesting.  I will certainly try not preheating frozen and other types of food.

My oven is so cheap (I guess) that it seems to take forever to preheat.  It doen't ever heat up in 4-5 minutes.


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## vagriller (Aug 2, 2006)

It's a waste of electricity to preheat in some cases. Lets all conserve people. To preheat is selfish...energy hogs!


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## licia (Aug 2, 2006)

Most things that I cook in the oven says "preheat". In what instance would you not do so? except maybe toast?


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## GB (Aug 2, 2006)

MMMMM energy hogs. Those are so tasty, but only if cooked in a preheated oven


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## GB (Aug 2, 2006)

licia said:
			
		

> Most things that I cook in the oven says "preheat". In what instance would you not do so? except maybe toast?


In a lot of those cases I find that preheating is not needed. Give us an example of some of the things you are cooking where the package says to preheat and I will tell you if I follow those instructions or not.

For instance, I made my daughter some fish sticks the other day. The package said to preheat, but I did not.

I do make sure the food is under the heating element though and not super far away from it so it gets a lot of direct heat.


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## BreezyCooking (Aug 2, 2006)

I have an electric oven & ALWAYS preheat it - whether baking or broiling.  And I don't think the extra 3 to 10 minutes spent doing so makes anyone an "energy hog" (good grief!!) - just a good cook!!  Rarely do you NOT see the phrase "preheat oven" or "preheated oven" in any recipe, & starting in a cold oven just increases your overall cooking time, sometimes adversely I would imagine.  

When baking anything (& that includes anything that's frozen), I set the oven temp & my oven "beeps" when it's reached that temp, in just a few minutes.  When broiling, I preheat the oven for 10 minutes so that the elements are super-hot to do what "broiling" is supposed to do - BROIL - not slowly dry out the exterior while the interior remains raw.


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## GB (Aug 2, 2006)

BreezyCooking said:
			
		

> Rarely do you NOT see the phrase "preheat oven" or "preheated oven" in any recipe


Breezy, you more than anyone should know that a recipe is just a guide. Just because every recipe says to preheat does not mean that you absolutely must.

Again it all depends on what you are cooking. Somethings do require the oven to be up to temp first, but other things it really doesn't matter and does not increase cooking times at all (usually).


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## BreezyCooking (Aug 2, 2006)

GB - yes, I know full well that recipes are really just a guide, & I adapt them more to my liking than not.  BUT - I don't feel that adapting a recipe has anything at all to do with whether or not one preheats their oven.  Whether I change a recipe or not, I still preheat, & don't see why/how adapting a recipe has anything at all to do with that.  You're talking about apples vs. oranges.

I think this is going to be one of those subjects where folks are going to just have to agree to disagree.  The non-preheaters & the preheaters are never going to change their positions.


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## GB (Aug 2, 2006)

All that I ask, Breezy, is that you give it a shot. I do not think this has to be one of those things were we have to agree to disagree. It is not something subjective like what type of apple is the best or something like that.

Just try it once. Take something from your freezer that says preheat and try cooking it without preheating. You may find that you are absolutely right and that it was much better when you did preheat, OR you may find that manufactures print that on the packaging more out of habit than anything else.


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## BreezyCooking (Aug 2, 2006)

Agreed GB.

While I will never not preheat my oven for anything that isn't frozen, the next time I make something that's frozen, I promise to not preheat, & will report back. In fact, I just made myself a sticky note & stuck it on my fridge to that effect.


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## GB (Aug 2, 2006)

Very cool Breezy  and I will do the same thing, but in opposite.

That is why I love ths place so much. We are both going to try something new that we otherwise would not have. No matter what the outcome, we will have learned something.


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## licia (Aug 2, 2006)

All baking goods (except one of those dense cakes that says start in a cold oven) I do preheat.  Many casseroles say preheat. But many of them I've found I can do mostly in the microwave and finish in the oven in just a few minutes and you can't tell the difference. It really depends on what I'm cooking, but most I do preheat.  Many things I cook in the toaster oven rather than heat up the kitchen with the oven.


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## bjcotton (Aug 2, 2006)

I preheat when I'm baking something like a cake/pie/bread [scratch stuff], but if I'm going to do something like refrigerator biscuits [commercial type] I don't.  The main reason I preheat, when I do, is that you can never tell what temp my oven will preheat to.  One day 350 will be 325, the next it'll be 400.


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## auntdot (Aug 2, 2006)

I do appreciate Michael's point that the frozen food companies expend millions of dollars to get one item on the shelves, and they have test kitchens that work to optimize the heating of the dish.

And their labs have banks of ovens.

Unfortunately, there are ovens, and then again there are ovens.  Right now we have a Viking oven fueled with propane (would never buy another for home cooking).  For two years of our early marriage we had a very old, inespensive gas oven.  For the rest of the time, 22 years, our stoves were electric.

All of them behaved differently.

Can only imagine the food company labs fire up their stoves, probably electic since that is what most people cook with, in the morning and keep them humming until quitting time.

So, already being hot, they willl retain their heat longer and better, when opened and a frozen dish put in, than an oven rapidly brought to the proscribed temperature will.

When to toss in the frozen dish?

I don't think there is an answer to this question.

We are still learning to deal with our oven and would never put a cold or frozen dish in it at the beginning because we know our stove a bit.

But y'all are cooks and know what you are doing.

Sometimes make dishes for others, and we do not know what their stoves are like.

But we try to muddle through somehow.

It is your stove and your food, and do what you like and it is fine with us.

Take care and God bless.


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## sausage lips (Aug 2, 2006)

vagriller said:
			
		

> Are you my wife? I have the same disagreement with my wife. She thinks it's crucial to preheat the over all the way to the temp on the box when baking a frozen pizza. I don't put the pizza in cold, just when it is convenient. The over may be between 250-300.



lol that is our exact disagreement.

see i just hate when the middle comes out all doughy, somtimes it'll be liek hal;f my slice and i have to put it in the microwave for it to be tolerable.......he says it's because his oven is old and screwy, i like soft crust pizza but not when it's like yeasty tasting and icky.....the crust will cooked right, the cheese thats on it will be almost burning....>( grrr i just want my pizza to be yummy


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## sausage lips (Aug 2, 2006)

GB said:
			
		

> Why don't you do a test? Cook a couple of the same meals. Preheat for one and not for the other and see what you think.



i had the same idea, but we're mainly cook pizzas, the both of us can finish a digorno when we're bother hungry enough, which* I* usually am.

also he likes soft crust, i do too but idk if it's his oven like he says or what but the middle comes out all doughy, no matter if the crust is about to burn or not. i kind of wanted to try the directions for crisper crust to see if that would solve that. but you can't _easily _cut a frozen pizza in half.


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## sausage lips (Aug 2, 2006)

Just tell me what to do with my digorno pizzas. please.

i should have been more specific, but so i could easily find my post back i bookmarked it and knew he would read it and didn't want it to seem like i dunno......

i do love how the first post is like
sausage lips....1  "cluelessguy:...0
cuz i know he read that one at least lol ^_^


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## Andy M. (Aug 2, 2006)

Just follow the package directions.


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## Caine (Aug 2, 2006)

GB said:
			
		

> If I am just cooking a frozen meal (prepackaged stuff from the freezer isle in the supermarket) I never preheat.


Only Sandra Lee would consider that cooking.

That said, some rising crust frozen pizzas require you to pre-heat the oven and some specifically tell you NOT to pre-heat the oven. Seeing I have a pizza stone, I always pre-heat, whether it says to or says not to, and adjust the cooking time accordingly.


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## Half Baked (Aug 7, 2006)

Well, I did the test with 2 frozen pizzas.  Each time they were baked on a pizza stone.

The first frozen pizza called for preheating and then cook for 12 minutes.  So that worked.
The second frozen pizza took an hour to heat up and it wasn't as crispy as the preheated one.  I was just hungry by then so I took it out.  Even Mr Half Baked commented on it and I didn't mention the experiment. 

I think I could cook casseroles w/o preheating, when the dinner time wasn't important but I think I'll stick with preheating.


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## GB (Aug 7, 2006)

I bet the results would have been different without the pizza stone. If the pizza what on the rack instead then the heat would have surrounded the pizza differently. The cold pizza stone probably sucked some of the heat away from the bottom of the pizza.


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## thegrova (Sep 30, 2006)

Howdy all.  I absolutely pre-heat.  I have two ovens - one electric and one is a 1920's woodfired treasure!  Most of the cooking that I do is from scratch - very rarely will I heat anything from frozen.  For me, preheating is essential.  Putting freshly rolled pastry into a warm oven will cause it to 'melt' rather than cook, and getting the temperature right for roasting, a chicken for example is also crucial if you want the heat from the oven to seal the roast and keep it moist.  Having said all that I can understand why someone might not preheat if they are heating frozen oven fries!


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## kyles (Sep 30, 2006)

I always preheat my electric fanforced oven. Although I have heard it said you don't need to preheat fan forced ovens, I have not, in my experience, found that you get good results putting food in cold ovens, for the reasons thegrova stated. I cook in an oven because I want my food baked, or roasted. If I wanted it steamed I'd use the microwave or the steamer!


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## Andy M. (Sep 30, 2006)

The FF companies call for preheating because every oven is different.  Some heat up in 5 minutes and some in 20.  However, once they are at temperature, they all behave more predictably.  That predictability is why preheating is called for.  They develop their recipes to work in a preheated oven for the sake of producing uniform results.  

GB, you said you place the food under the heating element.  Does that mean you are broiling?  Oven elements for roasting/baking are typically on or under the floor of the oven.  Since broiling is a direct heat method, I would guess preheating is less important to good results.


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## RPCookin (Oct 1, 2006)

Well, about preheating I can definitely say that I do for some things, and not for others.  Most frozen foods I don't worry about it, just add a couple of minutes to the recommended cooking time.  I also don't bother for cut up chicken (i.e. thighs or drumsticks that I buy lots of when they are on sale).  Whole chickens I usually "roast" on my Weber grill, and I always preheat that.

I rarely do any baked goods ( I do make bread occasionally), but when I do so, I always preheat, as the constant temperature is an absolute necessity for that.  I also preheat for frozen pizza (usually DiGiorno's), I place it directly on the rack without a pan or sheet, and I also at least partially thaw it, then reduce the time I cook it.

When I do preheat, I do it just until it beeps at me, I think that any more than that is just a waste of electricity.


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## Barb L. (Oct 1, 2006)

I always preheat- also like using two oven thermometers!  Lol - don't trust one of them !!!


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## thecactuswill (Oct 1, 2006)

Ummmm.... Gas is faster than electric, so why would you not have to pre-heat electric?


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## Snoop Puss (Oct 1, 2006)

It would never occur to me to put frozen food in an un-preheated oven. I like to be sure that food is properly cooked and hot inside. None of you who do it have died of food poisoning (obviously), so I guess it must be safe but I'll stick to preheating.

The only things I'll put in when the oven is not quite up to temperature are vegetarian dishes that I'm making myself. Even then, by the time I'm done doing the preparation, the oven is usually good and hot.

I wouldn't bake cakes or anything with pastry in a non-preheated oven.

Sorry GB.


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## Hades (Oct 1, 2006)

When I use the oven function on my microwave for things like frozen foods or bake to finish bread dough, I never pre-heat.  The oven is pre-heated in say 3-4 minutes (175C) and I found that not pre-heating (and lowering the cooking times on the packages) cooks the ingredients more evenly and a lot faster.  If I use my conventional electric oven (which takes about 10-15 mins to get to 180C) I always pre-heat.  
I suppose it's basicly just a matter of getting a feel for the tools you're using


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## GB (Oct 1, 2006)

Snoop Puss I would not bake cakes or pastry or anything like that in a non pre heated oven either. Like I said earlier, it depends on what I am making.

If I am heating a frozed chicken pot pie and it calls for the oven to be preheated and then cook the pie for 45 minutes then I skip the preheating. I promise no one would be able to tell the difference if we did a side by side comparison.

Now if I were roasting a chicken I would preheat.


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## BreezyCooking (Oct 9, 2006)

*Non-PreHeating Test*

GB - I promised to test the non-preheating theory next time I had something frozen to cook, & I did.

Had a package of frozen baked clams that I've made before in a preheated oven.  The instructions say to place in a preheated 450-degree oven for 25 minutes or until heated through.  (I've made these before, & normally in a preheated oven they take 30 minutes.)

I placed them into a cold oven & set it for 450-degrees & the timer for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes they were still cool in the center; still just "warm" after 35 minutes.  They were hot through at 40 minutes.

So, to be perfectly honest, it took the same amount of time whether I preheated the oven for 10 minutes & put the frozen clams in, or if I stuck them into a cold oven & had to cook them for 10 minutes more for them to be heated through.

Now, of course, something like frozen fish sticks or other less dense frozen foods might have turned out differently.  Next time I do those, I'll retest.


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## Half Baked (Oct 9, 2006)

Somewhere on here I posted a recipe for a cake and the directions said to put it in a cold oven and then bake.  It was great.


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## GB (Oct 10, 2006)

Breezy I am so glad you tested it out. I look forward to hearing about your next test on a less dense food


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## Claire (Oct 10, 2006)

I'm in the "it depends" camp.  I do NOT bake much, so when I do I follow instructions to the letter.  However, I'm an experienced enough cook that when it comes to, say, roasting a bird, I don't find preheating the oven makes that big a difference.  It certainly doesn't for casseroles.  I DO use a meat thermometer with a probe and timer.  Works every time.


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