Gas oven

valedevento

valedevento

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Joined
15 Jan 2016
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Location
Belgium
The rental house where we live at the moment has a gas oven, I had always used electric and find this one rather difficult to handle. No matter if I put it on high, low or medium, the bottom part of my dish, cake, ... always seems to burn while the top isn't cooked yet. A friend recommended putting a bowl with water in the oven, to distribute the heat better. This has improved the burning a little bit, but I still find black and burnt dishes in the oven. Any suggestions?
 
Odd, Gas is usually very controllable. You don't say how old the oven is - are you sure the thermostat is ok ? Also are the burners working cleanly ? Even my mother's oven [far too many years ago when gas ovens were very basic] never had such problems
 
Our gas range has an oven and griller. Whenever we would use the oven, it is fine but when use the griller a peculiar smell pervades the kitchen and later on there seemed to fumes that hurts the eye. When we had it checked, the technician said that the insulator was an old material which causes the fumes. For $50, the insulation was overhauled and replaced with a new kind of foam. Maybe he was right because the insulation looked burnt. I don't know why.
 
Maybe try raising the oven rack if its too low? The only other thing I can think of is maybe the pan you are using is very thin? I've always had gas oven and stove tops and never had any problems.
 
Mains or bottled gas?
If the latter, are the jets the correct size for the gas being used? May also be a problem if on mains if the oven was meant for bottled gas.
Check the burner for soot, caused by unburnt gas.

Check the oven is heating correctly, also there's a simple way of drawing heat to the bottom of the oven.

"First, Potter suggests placing a thick, heavy pizza stone at the very bottom rack of your oven to even out the heat and improve the oven's recovery time. When you're baking, for example, and open the door to put cookies in, the pizza stone acts as a thermal mass to recover faster for the hot air lost from opening the door.

Second, check your oven thermometer's accuracy using sugar. Potter writes:

Pour a spoonful of sugar into an oven-safe glass bowl or onto some foil on a cookie sheet and place in your oven, set to 350°F / 177°C. Even after an hour, it should still be powdered. It might turn slightly brown due to decomposition, but it shouldn't melt. If it does, your oven is too hot. Next, turn your oven up to 375°F / 190°C. The sugar should completely melt within 15 minutes or so. If it doesn't, your oven is calibrated too cold. Check to see if your oven has either an adjustment knob or a calibration offset setting; otherwise, just keep in mind the offset when setting the temperature. Note that your oven will cycle a bit above and below the target temperature: the oven will overshoot its target "

http://lifehacker.com/5812121/calib...mperature-steady-with-sugar-and-a-pizza-stone
 
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I don't have a gas oven. I have a gas stove where I cook most of my food. I useelectric oven for baking. Recently, I was in a supermarket and spotted a gas oven that also could be used a barbecue stove. I could not buy gas oven because it was beyond my budget.
 
It does sound like the temperature gage is off and will need to be fixed to avoid destroying more food. I prefer gas to electric ovens.
 
Gas ovens fluctuate around the set temperature, in order to maintain an overall even temperature.

The test given above is a simple one, that you can do before getting someone out to repair it.
Type of gas was questioned because the jets are specific for each type. Some appliances will not work on a different gas.
 
Good luck with your oven, yes, if your adjustments don't work, it is better to be safe than sorry with gas for sure. I have used both gas and electric ovens..and I do like the chance to get the perfect temperatures with gas however,..over all I prefer electric because I find it much safer. I will never forget when I was in college..I had a gas oven in a trailer I was living in for a short period time.and there was a large boom every time I lit the oven. I used it twice.it scared me to death!
 
I think you need to have your oven looked at if it is being that unpredictable. Gas stoves and ovens are ones that can be controlled very easy and are good to cook with. I am looking at getting one myself. If your oven is not working as it should then there is probably something wrong with the temperature.
 
valedevento said:
The rental house where we live at the moment has a gas oven, I had always used electric and find this one rather difficult to handle. No matter if I put it on high, low or medium, the bottom part of my dish, cake, ... always seems to burn while the top isn't cooked yet. A friend recommended putting a bowl with water in the oven, to distribute the heat better. This has improved the burning a little bit, but I still find black and burnt dishes in the oven. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
We have a gas oven that is the same. I suspect yours is very small like ours. Tricks I have learnt are
  1. Ensure that the oven is fully warm before use, so heat it up using the highest setting and then drop it to what you want when your food is in.
  2. Make sure the flames have dropped in size before anything is put in it (goes with no. 1 but if you have never had a has oven before)
  3. Don't put anything anywhere near the bottom of the oven where the gas burns... So as high as you can get.
  4. Use the second shelf as close to the first shelf as possible and keep a baking sheet there to act as a sheild from the gas oven flames.
This has been learnt from trial and error and reading tthe handbook for our oven (Method 1is in the handbook!).

It is simply because it is a cheap, small oven for ours. I would not be at all surprised if you are in the same boat.
 
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