FAQ: What is a convection oven?
Question: I’ve heard a lot about convection this and convection that… and now, here you guys are with an entire site that reviews convection ovens. Can you tell me, in a way that is easy to understand, what is a convection oven?
Answer: The word convection in scientific terms usually implies the natural circulation of hot and cold currents in air or liquid.
For example, hot air tends to rise and cold air tends to sink… so, if the sun heats the earth and the earth warms the air, then that hot air will attempt to rise and push against the cold air above it. As this same air cools, it naturally tries to move downward again.
This naturally occurring process is happening all over the world at the same time, and although we can predict the movement of the air to a large degree, it can still make for some pretty unpredictable weather patterns. Convection in our atmosphere can cause anything from a light breeze to hurricane-force winds, depending on the level of convection.
As stated before, however, this is typically a natural process. Convection as it applies to a convection oven, on the other hand, is an assisted process.
Traditional ovens will have a heating element at the bottom of the oven and another at the top of the oven. Usually, only the bottom heating element is used because heat tends to rise. The process of heat rising from the top of the oven to the bottom tends to equalize the heat within the oven to a certain degree, but there are still hot-spots within the oven that can cause problems in cooking.
Also, when trying to use the entire oven for cooking (as in using multiple wire shelves at the same time), the lower wire shelf tends to get the hottest and therefore has the tendency to burn before the food on the top shelf even gets done.
A convection oven solves these problems by forcing the air to circulate. Typically one or more fans circulate air within the oven which equalizes the temperature in the oven, eliminates hot-spots within the oven and actually speeds up the cooking process.
Typically, when switching over from a conventional oven to a convection oven for the first time, you should monitor the contents of your oven very closely. Because convection features will greatly reduce cooking times, there is a tendency to burn food if not monitored.
However, this doesn’t take much time to get used to, and the benefits far outweigh the initial learning curve. Hint: The use of a simple meat thermometer will go a long way in making sure you don’t burn your meats, such as turkey, chicken, roasts, or even meatloaf (170 degrees F for beef and 185 degrees F for pork).
Some convection ovens have gone the extra mile and added even more additional features (as if cooking food faster wasn’t awesome enough), such as pizza bumps or rotisserie options.
Needless to say, we are big fans of convection around here… and now that you know what “convection” means (where it applies to ovens), we hope that you will be too.
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