[martin]

My vrochure says you shouldn't use foil because it may damage the elements.

I like to cook fish such as mackerel in foil in the oven so that it retains the juices and also cuts down on the smell of fish throughout the house.

Is there an alternative to use ?

[Suzanne]

Is this an conventional oven or a microwave oven?

If it's a conventional electric oven, there's no problem doing what you like to do. Just don't do strange things with foil like wrapping it around the heating elements.

But if it's a microwave, then no, you can't wrap your food in foil. That will block the "power" from getting to it. And it could cause sparking inside the oven. HOWEVER, in a microwave oven you can do the same thing with parchment paper or waxed paper that you would do with foil in a conventional oven. Just remember that you'll have to adjust the cooking time. (Was there a recipe booklet or cooking instruction booklet with the oven? That will give you some help on timing.)

BTW: the method of cooking food wrapped in packets of paper or foil is called "en papillote" (that's French). It's a great way to keep juices with the food, not running out into a pan and drying.

And another BTW: Welcome to ChefTalk, Martin! Do stop by the "Welcome Forum" and introduce yourself.

[KeeperOfTheGood]

Hey oh

Many years ago it was common practice for housewives to take out their elements, pop out their splatter catchers and wrap those catchers up with tin foil. Changing the tinfoil to clean the catchers. Also to line the bottom of stoves with tinfoil for the same reason. This was such a common practice that there are companies that make preshapped aluminum inserts to do just this.

However, the modern stoves are not just stamped metal. They use material coatings and shapes to improve the efficiancy of the stove (tops and ovens). Covering these with tinfoil only prevents them from working the way they were designed.

The above is a parraphrase of manuals I have read over the years on stoves. Generally, the tinfoil warning is about the use as a splatter catcher, and not as a food container. Since many of the modern instruction manuals are written by non english speakers, it is entirly possable some important information was lost in translation here.

[redace1960]

it's a fire hazard. believe it or not aluminum foil-and those foil insert thingies- can actually catch fire and/or melt. ditto aluminum pop cans. melting aluminum dropping on a hot oven element can blow it- an actual hole blows through the substance of the element coil and all kinds of nasty electrical sparking fiery things ensue. believe me-when we had renters i had to clean up after it.

[MikeLM]

Yeah... if you've ever had an electric stove or oven element fail, you remember it vividly.

Bright blue arc-light, loud noise, and clouds of acrid, ozony smoke! And spatters of melted metal on the adjoining surfaces.

Very exciting.

Mike