Zanussi Electrolux Built-in oven Instruction Book - page 5
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Hints and tips for using the oven
Always cook with the oven door
closed.
Conventional cooking
Heat comes from the top and from the
bottom, therefore it is preferable to use the
central runners. If cooking requires more
heat from the top or from the bottom use
the top or the bottom runners.
Some hints
For baking cakes
Cakes require a moderate temperature
(normally between 150 and 200°C). In
addition, the oven must be heated up
beforehand - for about 10 minutes.
The oven door should not be opened before
at least 3/4 of the set cooking time is up.
Normal short pastry dough should be cooked
in a mould or tin for 2/3 of total cooking time
required and then garnished as desired
before being cooked completely.
Clearly, the remaining cooking time depends
on the type of garnish used (jam, fruit, etc.).
Care should be taken to ensure that any
dough and cake mixes are of the right
consistency since an unduly moist mix
lengthens cooking time unnecessarily. The
raw dough or mix should therefore be fairly
difficult to detach from the spoon or beater.
For cooking meat and fish
Meat cooked in the oven should weigh at
least 1 kg to prevent it from becoming too
dry during cooking. Very tender red meat to
be cooked rare, i.e. well cooked on the
outside but extremely juicy inside, requires
high-temperature cooking (200-250°C).
White meat, poultry and fish instead require
low-temperature cooking (150-175°C).
The ingredients for the accompanying sauce
or gravy should be put in the baking pan at
the very beginning only when cooking times
are short.Otherwise they should be added
during the last half hour. A simple way of
checking whether meat is done or not is to
press it with a spoon; if the meat does not
yield under this pressure it means that it is
done to a turn. In the case of roast beef and
fillet steaks, the inside of which should
remain fairly pink in color, cooking times
must be short. The meat can be cooked in
a baking pan or else directly on the shelf -
in this case a dripping pan must obviously
be placed underneath the shelf to collect
the juice. Once the meat is cooked, it is
advisable to let it rest for at least 15 minutes
before carving so that the juice does not seep
out. To prevent the formation of too much
smoke in the oven during roasting, it is a
good idea to pour a little water into the
dripping pan andto prevent steamto add
a little bit more during cooking if the original
amount dries up too much.
Before serving, the various courses can be
kept hot in the oven which should be turned
down to the minimum temperature.
Attention! - Do not place pans,
dripping pans, biscuit pans or
aluminium foil on the oven bottom.
This could cause a heat build-up
which would affect the baking results
and damage the oven enamel.
Cooking times
Cooking times vary according to the type of
food to be cooked, its consistency, and
volume.We suggest that you take particular
note of your first cooking experiments with
the oven, since operating in the same
conditions for the same dishes you will of
course obtain similar results.
Only experience will enable you to make
the appropriate changes to values given on
charts.