Convection Oven vs. "Regular" oven info?

I have noticed home ovens are very different from commercial ovens. My home "convection" doesn't get nearly as hot as the commercial ones, I look for that "slap in the face" of hot air from a commercial oven and I just don't get it from my home oven. I would actually prefer a conventional oven for items that benefit most from oven spring like croissants. In my home oven the butter just melts out the the crumb is wet, a commercial convection oven they come out beautifully and they were set at the same temperature. In a conventional oven I can trust that it will hold that intense heat I need. Besides i wish it would quit blowing my freaking parchment paper and delicate things all over the oven!!!!!!!!! 

"Even cooking" is simply untrue, the back and top racks are ALWAYS hotter than the rest of the oven. 

When you want to dry something out, if you are following an old recipe's cooking time, if you are roasting at low temperature, and if you are baking something that is too delicate to be in the oven with the fan going are all instances where you might use a normal oven.

Is a convection oven the same as a fan oven?  are all fan ovens convection? 

I don't know if it's the way people cook or if it'sn the fault of the oven, but i always thought that the food cooked for me by those people who have a fan oven was dry and not very good.  Of course they may just cook like that, i don;t know. 

I have, i believe, a fan/convection oven option in my microwave.  I rarely use it for regular cooking, just when i have to get dinner on the table in a very short time and i combine a low wattage microwave and a high heat oven to brown the outside but make sure it's cooked inside (mainly potatoes, or stuffed eggplant, peppers, etc).  Though it's the biggest microwave i could find, it's too small really, to bake in - once i had promised to bring a cake and my regular oven was broken and i ended up baking one layer of a cake in it, but it came out really bad but that could be because it was just too small and the cake was too close to the top and bottom - there is no "middle". in a box like that.  I can't imagine, though, how a fan in an oven can NOT dry out what you're baking. 

Anyway, I would cook roasts only at a very high heat, and just don;t like the slow cooking way.  Maybe i'm just a cave woman, but i like real fire to cook my food.  My resorting to the microwave is because i come home late and use it to defrost, and then sometimes to quick-cook something but it never comes as well as in the gas oven at high heat. 

Convection is forced circulating air which prevents in most cases what is known in regular ovens as 'Hot Spots" is best for roasting  not baking. When following a recipe one usually  has to cut down the temp given by 25 degrees, as convection does cook faster but again more even.

     When baking, convection has drawbacks in that it tends in some cases to blow parchment paper if used over the product. It in some delicate baking actually blow shift the batter in particular on sheet pans.

  Some convections have a switch which enables one to shut off the fan when you want and still use the oven. Many commercial ovens used to have this feature but lately I have not seen it.

     As far as micro, to me it is really not for cooking ,but is good for melting and heating and reheating providing  it does not dry the product out , which it tends to do.         

        Whenever you 'NUKE" something always try and pu a little water in a glass in at same time to create some steam or moisture in oven.

Convection might is more even but the real benefit of it is to remove the thermal boundary layer of stagnant air to increase heat transfer.  As Ed said you can reduce the temp by 25 degrees but another option is that you can cut the cooking time by 25%.  I actually prefer baking in a convection oven as you can generally finish with more moisture in your finished result than cooking with radiation alone.  As far as the evenness of the heating is concerned, the smaller your oven the more drastic the improvement in evenness will be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chefedb 

     As far as micro, to me it is really not for cooking ,but is good for melting and heating and reheating providing  it does not dry the product out , which it tends to do.         

        Whenever you 'NUKE" something always try and pu a little water in a glass in at same time to create some steam or moisture in oven.

 

I agree, chefedb, i rarely "cook" things in the microwave, unless i might be wanting some vegetable steamed (i rarely ever prefer steamed food, so i rarely do it) and wrap it tight first in parchment paper - like i might use a pressure cooker.  Otherwise I only use it when i get home late and have to feed the family (or me) quickly, and ALWAYS with a very high heat of the oven feature. Some people buy convenience foods  for these occasions - i don't, but this is convenient but better.  I've used it for things like potatoes cooked in cream to quickly cook them through with the low microwave, but also blast them with high heat to get the crust.  If i have time, i just use the gas oven.