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. If three shelves are filled with cakes and tarts simultaneously, it is advisable to slot in an extra shelf between the two lower shelves (Fig. 5). 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 (200-220 °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. Should you cook very fat food, place the meat directly on the grill and the grill over the dripping pan in order not to dirty the oven. 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 and�to prevent steam�to 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. Warning! - Do not attempt to place objects on the bottom of the oven and do not cover it with aluminium foil while cooking, as you can damage the enamelled surfaces and the food you are cooking. Always place pans, heat-resisting pans and aluminium foils on the oven shelves.
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.
