Ready meals - why pre-heat the oven?

[DixieGal]

LOL! My mom was a terrible cook. (I learned to cook in order to survive!) My dad used to say that the smoke alarm was her kitchen timer. Mom's solution to blazing pans was the back door... I'd be playing on the swing set or something and see these cookpot infernos go flying off the back porch! Then she would squirt 'em with the hose and say they needed to "soak." LOL!

[kacir]

Where to begin ...
Ok.
1. people have very different models of ovens. Some ovens take 5 minutes to reach 180°C, others more than 20 minutes.
2. Person that is more likely to use "TV diner" needs VERY specific instructions regarding preparing the meal, so "Preheat the oven to 180°C, put in tray, cook for 5 minutes" is much better than complicated instruction asking user to take into account the time the oven needs for preheating. Note that if your oven takes 5 minutes to preheat, you will need 5:00 + 4:30 mins, if your oven takes 20 minutes to preheat, you will need 20:00 + 2:00 min (this is just example, real values would need complicated mathematical model of oven, you need to take into account the consistency and thermal capacity of the meal.)

3. make a small experiment. Even a person that only ever cooks Ready made meals should be able to do that one.
Put cold oil into the pan. Put some frozen potato chips (french fries for Americans) (I do not dare to ask you to peel and cut up the potatoes) into cold oil. Slowly heat the oil up until chips are cooked.
Now put oil into pan, preheat to 190°C, put in frozen potato chips, fry until done.
Now compare resulting meal. Quite a difference, isn't it?

If you use ready made meals often, you do NOT want to know how to make the best chips (French fries for Americans) in the world. (Recipe invented by Heston Blumenthal - google him up, if you dare )
The preparation involves:
- slowly cooking raw potato chips in water
- draining cooked potatoes
- putting them (while still hot) into vacuum desiccator, so you remove as much as possible moisture from outer layers as possible
- putting them into friting pot with oil at 140°C and frying then until almost done
- putting them again into vacuum desiccator
- fritting them at 190°C until golden.
Yes. I have personally tried this recipe. It does not even take that long. (but you still need vacuum desiccator that I replaced by a laboratory oil based vacuum pump). The resulting chips are unbelievably crisp. Almost as it they were made of glass.
There is more simple recipe where you just dry up cooked potatoes in a refrigerator (the driest environment in an ordinary household)

This is only humble deep fried potatoes. Do not let me get started on the topic of meat preparation. Look up, for example Maillard Reaction

Try some recipes here http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/food/r...ian&oper_10=eq

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

LOL! My mom was a terrible cook. (I learned to cook in order to survive!) My dad used to say that the smoke alarm was her kitchen timer. Mom's solution to blazing pans was the back door... I'd be playing on the swing set or something and see these cookpot infernos go flying off the back porch! Then she would squirt 'em with the hose and say they needed to "soak." LOL!

[wodin]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

so the heat is hotter

The heat is hotter???

Excuse me but heat is neither hotter nor colder, is only heat measured in BTUs or calories. Temperature is the measure hotter or colder, in degrees C or degrees F or degrees K.

If you mean that both elements operate during the “preheat” cycle, that may or may not be true. In my gas oven there is no upper element, only the burner in the bottom. In my convection oven, the elements are controlled by the setting I select; bake, or broil, or convection.

[DixieGal]

No really, the heat is hotter. Like when a gas oven is off and you stick your head in it to see if the light bulb is blown, then fall asleep because the pilot light is out but the gas is on......

The cold is colder in one spot in my freezer also. :messingwithyourhead:

[Lady Blue]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

LOL! My mom was a terrible cook. (I learned to cook in order to survive!) My dad used to say that the smoke alarm was her kitchen timer. Mom's solution to blazing pans was the back door... I'd be playing on the swing set or something and see these cookpot infernos go flying off the back porch! Then she would squirt 'em with the hose and say they needed to "soak." LOL!

[DixieGal]

She was liberated, tall, elegant, slender, and graceful. Mom didn't have to be a good cook!

(I take after my dad's side of the family: short, fat, and bald)

[Lady Blue]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

No really, the heat is hotter. Like when a gas oven is off and you stick your head in it to see if the light bulb is blown, then fall asleep because the pilot light is out but the gas is on......

The cold is colder in one spot in my freezer also. :messingwithyourhead:

[ahammer]

if you want the speed of a microwave and the taste of a oven why not get a convection microwave.

can be set up use heat vs microwave and because of the way they generate the heat no preheat time. base on some of the same tech use to burn a cd rom.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Preheat? No no no, that's what microwaves are for.

There's this really handy thing right now from Hormel. It is "Compleats" and isn't frozen. Slide it out of the cardboard sleeve, nuke it 90 seconds, and it's very good. Not enough to fill you up, but it makes an easy lunch on the go because you can carry it in a purse.

I eat these on break at night when I work - it's the only thing I can get that's both hot and won't take my whole break to cook.

I was always told to preheat the oven with ready-meals because while the oven is preheating, the temperature is rising very quickly. This can cause problems with the container the food is in (assuming it isn't aluminum, and I think most aren't these days), possibly resulting in your food ending up all over your oven.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by ahammer

if you want the speed of a microwave and the taste of a oven why not get a convection microwave.

can be set up use heat vs microwave and because of the way they generate the heat no preheat time. base on some of the same tech use to burn a cd rom.

Still trying to wrap my head around this, but the old joke about the CD tray being a cup holder keeps getting in my way.

Originally Posted by phenomshel

I eat these on break at night when I work - it's the only thing I can get that's both hot and won't take my whole break to cook.

I was always told to preheat the oven with ready-meals because while the oven is preheating, the temperature is rising very quickly. This can cause problems with the container the food is in (assuming it isn't aluminum, and I think most aren't these days), possibly resulting in your food ending up all over your oven.

I hate when that happens.

[ahammer]

from wikipeda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven

certain manufacturers have added a high power quartz halogen bulb to their convection microwave models while marketing them under names such as "Speedcook", "Advantium" and "Optimawave" to emphasize their ability to cook food rapidly and with the same browning results typically expected of a conventional oven. This is achieved using the high intensity halogen lights at the top of the microwave to deposit large amounts of infrared radiation to the surface of the food. The food browns while also being heated internally by the microwave radiation and heated through conduction and convection by contact with heated air - produced by the conventional convection portion of the unit. The IR energy which is rapidly delivered to the outer surface of food by the lamps is sufficient to initiate browning caramelization in foods primarily made up of sugars (carbohydrates), and Maillard reactions of those foods primarily made up of protein. These reactions in food produce a texture and taste much more similar to that typically expected of conventional oven cooking rather than the bland boiled and steamed taste that microwave-only cooking tends to create.

[DixieGal]

Big light bulb! Why didn't you say it was an Easy Bake Oven in the first place?

Actually, it sounds like soemthing I want now. Saddle up the credit card, 'cuz we are going shopping!

[Donnageddon]

Originally Posted by dreams

I have learned to love my microwave because I can avoid the whole preheat thing and read more...

You mean you don't need to preheat a microwave oven??



I feel so foolish now...

[jinlo]

A long, long, time ago, Betty Crocker, Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, the Keebler Elves, Chef Boyardee, and the Jolly Green Giant all met to discuss matters of cooking. Not unlike the great disarmament talks between the makers of Nerf Rocket Launchers and Super Soaker Water Blasters, there was great debate and even greater disagreement. The issue of preheating the oven was of course a hot topic. After the giant mistakenly (or so he insists) stepped on one of the elves, a quick compromise was reached. Preheating the oven became a standard requirement for cooking directions. Whether or not it is really necessary has become a debatable topic in history.

Also, it is important to note that the meeting took place before the invention of Microwave ovens. A second conference was scheduled to deal with the new technology, but threats of "Baking the Doughboy!" caused a cancellation for security reasons. A new meeting was never arranged.