Top-and-bottom heat
The most versatile mode: heat comes from both sides. Good for bread, pies, cakes and bakes, especially when you're baking a single tray.
Techniques
Cooking techniques
Almost every oven failure comes down to three things: it wasn't hot enough, the tray was on the wrong shelf or the dish came out too early. This page covers the basic techniques that help you avoid all three.
Oven modes aren't a hundred buttons, just a few ways of bringing heat to the food: from above, from below or from all sides at once.
This page covers techniques that are needed in several of the guide's recipes and work the same way in gas and electric ovens.
Modes and preparation
Mode names vary, but the principle is the same in every oven.
Fan (convection)
A fan circulates hot air, so food browns faster and more evenly. The temperature is usually set slightly lower than a recipe gives for the conventional mode, and the dish is checked sooner.
Bottom heat
Helps bake the base of an open pie or pizza. It's usually switched on towards the end of baking, when the top is done but the base is still pale.
Grill
Strong heat from above for a golden cheese crust. Food goes under the grill for just a few minutes, and you stay by the oven the whole time.
Preheating
Switch the oven on before you start putting the dish together. Dough that goes into a cold oven spreads and bakes unevenly.
Baking paper and tins
Baking paper stops the bottom from burning and makes washing up easier. Dark metal tins heat up faster than light-coloured or glass ones, so the base browns more in them.
Which shelf to put the tray on
| Dish | Shelf | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pizza | Bottom | The base needs the strongest heat from below |
| Bread and open pies | Middle | Heat reaches the top and bottom evenly |
| Cakes and bakes | Middle | The centre has time to cook before the top darkens |
| Browning cheese on top | Top | Closer to the top element and the grill |
How to check that food is done
Look at the crust
Baking is done when the crust is evenly golden and the edges have pulled away slightly from the sides of the tin. A pale top usually means the dish needs more time.
Use a skewer
Push a wooden skewer into the very centre of a cake or bake. If it comes out dry, with no raw batter sticking to it, the dish can come out.
Take the meat's temperature
For meat, a kitchen thermometer in the thickest part is the most reliable test. Dishes made with minced beef or pork are cooked to at least 71 °C in the centre, and minced poultry to at least 74 °C.
Let it rest
Pies and meatloaves are left for a few minutes on a rack or board: in that time the juices settle and the filling firms up, so it slices neatly.
See also
- Recipes
An open apple pie, herb-roasted vegetables and a simple homemade loaf, with weights and timings.
- Ingredients
Wheat flour, yeast, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, butter, eggs and cheese: choosing, storing, using.
- Tips
Short, practical tips on the oven, dough and baking trays, plus our catalogue of articles.
- Meatloaf (in Russian)
Meatloaf with egg and herbs: shaping, baking to a safe temperature in the centre, slicing and storing.
- Seafood pizza (in Russian)
Seafood pizza in an ordinary oven: thawing, a really hot preheat and a juicy topping that doesn't dry out.
- Questions
Answers to common questions about dough, oven modes, cooking meat through and kitchen safety.
What we draw on
- food safety guidance
- cookery reference books and home recipes
- the guide's own editorial material
Times and temperatures in our recipes are a guide, not a rule: every oven heats in its own way, and flour and other ingredients behave a little differently each time. Go by the colour of the crust, the smell and the signs of doneness, not just the timer.