Do you Preheat????

[obsessivehoarder]

help settle the current debate in my house.
Do you preheat the oven before putting food in????

why or why not?

[LavenderRain]

So I think it really depends on what you're putting in it.

If you are doing something like baking, putting the, for example, loaf of bread dough in the oven while it's still heating up could through the timing completely off. You have no way of knowing how much extra or less time it should go for. I'm not a scientic, but I think a slow heat can also affect the way ingredients react (or don't react), so it might cause trouble with that too.

On the other hand, if you're just using the oven to say, reheat a slice of pizza, I don't think it really matters too much. Again like with baking, it may affect the ingredients of the food differently, but in general, I don't think it matters all that much for leftovers anyways xD

[SunstonePhoenix]

Yes, for everything except toast and leftovers that I want warm, not hot.

To both agree with and paraphrase the above poster: if it has a cook time, preheat. If not, user choice.

[obsessivehoarder]

For me it depends on a few things
but i dont put it in while the oven is still cold. i wait until it feels really hot just not quite at the right temperature. and anything thats a safety issue (raw meat) i take the temp anyway before its done so i know its cooked all the way. i just dont like standing there waiting for it to preheat.

[obsessivehoarder]

added a poll

[Bellarocks123a]

I love that I stumbled across this xD

Sometimes.

Random examples I can think of:
Reheating food, nah. Turn the oven on, put the foil and food on the pan, then pop it in.
Toasting? I mean the broil setting works quick enough so it's basically already preheated by the time I get the bread in the oven.
Frozen foods, ie bagel bites, pizza, potato based foods, or fully cooked but frozen meats, nope, same as reheat rules apply.
Things like nachos/loaded fries, nope. Putting it in before it preheats actually gives you a better melty gooey cheese (if you're like me and add on a second layer after you check it and realize the cheese disappeared as it melted and that giant mountain you started with shrunk worse than cooking spinach).

Baking:
Pre-prepared items like the little frozen sugar cookies with the holiday designs, no. Put it in and just eyeball when the edges start looking the right color.
Mixed from a box/scratch, let it preheat just a little and add on maybe 3 minutes to the cook time. I do this a lot with the red lobster box cheddar biscuit mix, as long as you know what to look for along the edges and keep adding 2 minutes at a time if it's still not done yet.
If it's your first time making it and it's some sort of homemade thing you can't visually refer to, then preheat and watch so you know for next time. Second go around, refer to above.

Cooking food that's raw and not frozen:
Ribs, roast, whole turkey, things like that, nope just throw it in. The longer it's in the better anyways (except for whole turkey that you gotta just keep temping and don't let it get dry).
Chicken cutlets/steak, yeah let it preheat all the way. Set the oven first then start cutting and seasoning, it's preheated by the time you go to put it in. Temp check it until it's done/safe.

The important thing is anything raw that's not a slow cook for multiple hours, you need to temp. And stick it all over the food too, not just one spot. Find the thickest part of the meat, then from a side angle, then as far across length wise as you can get. If it passes those tests, then you're safe to eat it.

[obsessivehoarder]

The important thing is anything raw that's not a slow cook for multiple hours, you need to temp. And stick it all over the food too, not just one spot. Find the thickest part of the meat, then from a side angle, then as far across length wise as you can get. If it passes those tests, then you're safe to eat it.

Exaclty! as long as you temp check its fine

[*42]

i do, unless im cooking something like raw frozen chicken. If im cooking raw frozen chicken i will season then put the frozen chicken in the oven as it heats up. That way the heat will defrost the chicken enough so that when the set temperature is reached it will start to cook

[~sundae~]

help settle the current debate in my house.
Do you preheat the oven before putting food in????

why or why not?

….yeah??
Is that….is that not how ovens work 😭

[lavenderlava]

preheating the oven is a scam