After spending ages in the kitchen lovingly preparing a meal, it can be incredibly frustrating when the food comes out of the oven unevenly cooked. Is this human error, or is the oven to blame?
More often than not, it's just a quirk of your oven. Unfortunately, even the best electric ranges will sometimes suffer this inconsistency. Fortunately, there's a very easy hack that can expose any uneven cooking in your oven, so you can learn how to tackle it.
It only takes a loaf of bread and 10 minutes of your time. So let me explain exactly how to figure out how your oven likes to cook — believe me, you'll save yourself a lot of time and effort.
The toast test
I recently learned about a simple trick to figure out how your oven likes to cook — and it's called the "toast test." To prepare, all you'll need is a wire rack and a loaf of bread. Then, preheat your oven to 350°F and, while you wait, line the wire rack with slices of bread, until it's completely covered.
Once your oven is hot, simply place the wire rack full of bread onto the middle shelf and leave it for 8 to 10 minutes. When you pull the wire rack out, you'll notice that the bread acts like a heat map.
Each slice of bread will now have a colour to it which will vary depending on where the heat in your oven is.
Each slice of bread will now have a colour to it, which will vary depending on where the heat in your oven is.
This will highlight where your oven circulates heat and where any hot spots have been found as more well-cooked toast will be found in those places.
You'll also notice different trends depending on what your oven does, including lighter or darker spots in certain areas. When flipping over the bread, it becomes even more apparent how the heat spreads.
Why it works
The toast test works simply because it reveals uneven heat in your oven. When I carried out the toast test, I noticed the front right corner of my oven was substantially hotter than the rest of it because the toast was incredibly well-cooked here in comparison to the other slices.
When I carried out the toast test, I noticed the front right corner of my oven was substantially hotter than the rest of it.
I've always had a feeling this was the case, so in order to counteract this and provide a more even cook, I'll remove the food halfway through my cooking time and spin it round.
Once you've completed the toast test, you'll be able to establish what works best for you from the results. Genius!
You can also look into recalibrating your oven to ensure the internal temperature lines up with what your oven is supposed to be set to. For this, you'll need to refer to your oven's manual to determine the best and safest way to do this.
Alternatively, you may want to consider buying one of the best electric ranges, like the Bosch 800 Series HEI8056U Slide-in unit above, for more even results.
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