Do you Preheat????

[Spade Fox]

Yeah, I follow what the package of things I put in the oven tells me. When it says it don’t need it, then I don’t do it (but even this I don’t trust all the time… last time I trusted this… the thing was still frozen inside !)

And it makes me highly anxious to not follow instructions that are so clear, thanks autism I would say xD

[KamekGem]

Yeah my evenings are pretty regimented when it comes to dinners, oven goes on at 4pm while I do the prep.

[NerdiestOfLords]

preheating the oven is a scam

I agree I have yet to run into a situation where preheating changes anything, If you have cooked before you know what things look like when they are done. You can just put it in there and eyeball it, or at least thats what I do.

[P.J.]

I preheat the actual oven because it heats up slower but I never preheat our toaster oven

[See_Air_Ruhh_]

Depends on the oven. 🤷🏼‍♀️ When cooking with an electric oven I preheat when cooking with gas I don't. I'm not sure why really. 😂

[sweetpepper]

i always do cause im scared of not following directions + i think it makes for a more level heat when u put ur food in :3

[Sashtato]

I genuinely didn't realize NOT preheating was an option LOL. I only ever put food in right away ONCE and it was because I was really hungry and didn't want to wait.... it was chicken nuggets xD I felt really wrong doing it though lol.

I just would assume food wouldn't cook properly if you included the warm up time.

Toaster ovens though? I always thought the opposite and assumed they didn't need it lol

[idkpiza]

if it's something finnicky like baking or something that's prepackaged, i tend to preheat, but if i'm just cooking something myself it doesn't really matter to me whether the oven is hot already or not. Just add a couple mins to the timer for heating up time and it turns out just fine!

[.Vellichor.]

Baked goods, yes - anything else, nah, I just toss it in there while it preheats and check on it periodically. I don't bother with pre-heating or timers for anything that isn't a pastry/etc and it hasn't been an issue yet, haha.

[Lemon Bark]

I preheat the oven and do something else while it heats up. It feels a bit like boiling water, if you watch it, it'll never heat up
It's a great time to rinse bowls from baking or put away clean dishes/fold towels

But my oven runs cold, so there might be a difference to yall with hot ovens that actually behave lol