The oven is not just an oven for baking cakes, potato roasting, and cheese-grilling powerhouse. Unlock the door, play with the temperature, and you’ll find an ice cream chamber as well as a sterilizing cabinet for your kitchen. If an air fryer or dehydrator has tempted you, don’t give yourself a headache because your oven can perform similar things. From common household tasks to longer-form cooking ideas, These are some of the less-known possibilities you can make with your grill and oven.
1. Cook bacon in batches and sausages
If you’re cooking breakfast to feed many people and wish to stay clear of the fires of long-range artillery that emanate from bacon grease from a frying pan, an oven will be the ideal Choice. Place your sausages or bacon on a baking tray and then bake them in a 200-220C oven for anywhere between fifteen to twenty-five minutes with bacon and 25-30 to 30 minutes with sausages.
In the case of bacon, US food critic J. Kenji Lopez Alt offers a couple of different strategies to help you get to your desired point in the continuum of chewy-crispy. If the bacon you’re cooking is intended to be used in sandwiches, the author suggests placing another baking tray over the bacon in order to keep it in place while it cooks. This will leave it ready to be served in a BLT-like state.
2. Crisp up any leftover food from fried.
Air fryers are often marketed as the most effective method to cook food that has been cooked. However, don’t let The Big Air Fryer deceive you. According to Choice’s expert on home economics, Fiona Mair, “If you’ve got a fan-forced oven, you’ve got an air fryer.”
Fried food like chicken, chips, and hash browns loses its crunch due to the fact that it absorbs moisture, and baking it for a short time at around 200C can eliminate the excess. To get the best results, put the leftovers on a rack that is placed on the tray to ensure that your food isn’t soaking in the oil it’s in.
3. Plan your grill
Kitchen cartography? It’s not quite that simple. However, you can determine which hot and cold areas are beneath the grill. In this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, you cover the surface of baking pans with slices of white bread and then place the bread under the grill to cook.
After the slices have been cooked and the tray is empty, remove them. The darker areas are obviously areas where the grill is more hot. Cook’s Illustrated recommends taking a photograph of the map for future reference, but if it’s similar to mine, you’ll need to keep in mind that the heating is concentrated in the middle. After you’ve identified your grill, you’ll be ready to prepare cinnamon toast according to the correct method.
4. Dehydrate fruit
Dehydrated food that is properly prepared is a great choice for storage, and the options are infinite, such as kale chips, ef jerky, and even fruit leather. However, if you’re looking to purchase an electronic dehydrator (like those featured on Food Dehydrator video clips on TikTok), Don’t let it deceive you.
“[Dehydrators] take up so much room,” Mair says. Mair. “It’s an enormous device, and they make quite a bit of noise. It’s also interesting that it appears to dehydrate food faster.
“You do have to run it for hours, but not 14 hours, overnight like a dehydrator.”
The amount of time will depend on the size of the food item. Sliced apples thinly should take three hours, according to Mair. It is important to keep the temperature between 50C and 90C in order not to overcook the food.
In electric ovens, Mair suggests that the fan-forced setting will be the most effective since the air that circulates is drier and carries moisture from the food more quickly. But it is feasible with a conventional oven, she adds. While your food items may not appear dry at first, when they are cool, they’ll firm up and then become dehydrated.
5. Get your homemade yogurt on the right track
Ovens are made to store heat, which is why electric ovens make excellent incubation chambers for the production of ever-expanding yogurt or tatto (it’s simpler than you believe!). They are able to maintain a steady temperature of 40C, which is the temperature at which microorganisms responsible for the fermentation of the natto and yogurt are at their most efficient.
It is simpler with the latest ovens that tend to feature better temperature control. Certain models can keep temperatures as low as 30C (perfect for making a dough that is sluggish in the event of weather that is too cold). However, you are able to MacGyver your method. Bring the oven up to the lowest temperature, then shut it off and add your yogurt to it. You can also put a pot of hot water into the oven alongside your ferment and track the temperature using the oven’s thermometer.
6. Sterilise jars
If you’re planning to make jams or pickles (or homemade yogurt using your oven), it is necessary to sterilize glass jars. After washing the containers with soap and water, put them on a tray when they’re still moist. Then, please place them in the oven that is preheated to 110-120C and leave them there until they are dry. Here’s an instruction on how to do it for Cornersmith.
This is distinct from heating processing, which can create jams or pickles. Shelf-stable food items stored in sterilized containers that are not canned should be stored in the refrigerator.
