[rp17]

I've been cooking with my Dacor oven since moving into my new house back in June, and can't help but wonder if I'm using the different cooking modes to the best of their abilities. Can anyone help with some insight into when I should be using each? It came with a manual but even the cooking tips in the manual are mostly for baked goods and frozen foods, rather than everyday meals with fresh meat, produce, etc.

The cooking modes are:
- Bake
- Convection Bake
- Pure Convection
- Broil
- Convection Broil

So far, I've been using Pure Convection most of the time for roasting vegetables, potatoes and most meats (such as bone-in chicken thighs or rack of lamb), and for cooking bacon.

I've used Bake for cakes, cookies, creme brulee, or anything deep and/or covered (casseroles, braised meats). I also used Bake for a prime rib because I had never made prime rib before and just wanted to follow the recipe as written without introducing another factor.

I've only used Broil as I would have in the past in my standard oven, just when wanting to brown something at the end of cooking or help melt some cheese on top.

I don't know whether I've been using the above correctly, nor when I should use Convection Bake or Convection Broil. I don't need an explanation of the heating elements involved in each - I fully understand that - I just don't really understand when I would want one cooking mode over another.

Oh, and while most vegetables have roasted quite nicely in Pure Convection mode, my sliced mushrooms did not perform as well. For some reason they just wouldn't get that deep brown color I've always gotten them in a standard oven. They looked more like sauteed mushrooms. I would have thought the circulating air of Convection would have helped them to brown, but it did not.

I'd love to hear some insights onto how to determine which mode I should use, and what kinds of things Convection Bake or Convection Broil would be good for.

Thanks!

 

[brianshaw]

Didn’t it come with a manual that explains the modes?

 

[rp17]

Didn't it come with a manual that explains the modes?

It did, and like I mentioned I already understand what the modes are (ie: Bake is bottom element only, Convection Broil is top element plus the circulating heat/fan of convection mode, etc). What I'm not sure about is the best use case of each of those modes. For example, in what situation would I want both the top element on and to be circulating hot air (Convection Broil) versus standard Broil? Same question for Convection Bake. I understand that when something is covered (ie: braising meat in a covered dutch oven), I would just use Bake as the circulating air of Convection would have no effect on a covered pan. I also understand that in most cases, Convection provides a more even heat and can assist with browning since it has a drying effect. But in what cases might I want to combine those two and use Convection Bake versus one over the other?