The oven offers a wide range of alternatives which allow you to cook any type of food in the best possible way. With time you will learn to make the best use of this versatile cooking appliance and the following directions are only a guideline which may be varied according to your own personal experience.
Baking cakes
The oven should always be warm before putting in cakes wait till the end of preheating (about 15 min.). Cake-baking temperatures are normally around 160°C. Do not open the oven door during the baking process as this could cause the cake to sink. Beaten cake mixtures should not be too soft as this could considerably lengthen cooking times. In general:
Pastry is too dry : Increase the temperature by 10°C and reduce the cooking time.
Pastry dropped : Use less liquid or lower the temperature by 10°C.
Pastry is too dark on top : Place it on a lower rack, lower the temperature, and increase the cooking time.
Cooked well on the inside but sticky on the outside : Use less liquid, lower the temperature, and increase the cooking time.
The pastry stick to the pan : Grease the pan well and sprinkle it with a dusting of flour.
Cooking fish and meat
Meat must weigh at least one Kg. to stop it becoming too dry. When cooking white meat, fowl and fish use low temperatures. (150°C-175°C). When red meat must be superficially well-cooked but succulent inside, it is advisable to start with a high temperature (200-220°C) for a short time, and then to reduce it at a later point. Generally speaking, the more meat there is, the lower the temperature and the longer the cooking time should be.Place the meat in the centre of the grid and put a spilltray underneath to catch grease drips. Insert the grid so that it is in the middle of the oven. If more heat from below is required, use the 1° bottom shelf. For tastier roasts, wrap the meat with bacon rashers or dot the meat with lard and place it in the upper part of the oven. When some types of food are cooked in the ventilated oven (duck, rabbit, large fowl) they become too dry; in these cases, better results are obtained using the combined oven.