Getting a new oven can be tricky; perhaps equally as difficult is learning to cook with an oven for the first time. Very few chefs or home cooks get their roast out of the oven perfectly from the get-go, but these failed experiments teach them the tricks of the trade. Cooking is as much a science as an art; therefore, it requires precision as much as it begs for creativity.
You can prevent accidentally scorching food in the oven by following your recipe, understanding your oven, using the right cooking vessels, aluminum foil, and a whole array of other methods. If your food is scorched already, it can be salvaged too.
Nobody likes scorched food, washing burnt food off tough surfaces, or stinking up their kitchen with the smells of burnt food. Although charring is necessary for some dishes, it is hard to balance and sometimes better to avoid any black spots on your meat, vegetables, casseroles, or bread. If you’re prone to scorching your food or about to start cooking for the first time, get your tips right here!
How To Prevent Food From Scorching In The Oven
There are various causes of burnt food, and an oven has many risk factors leading to this problem. Although all ovens are different (and older ovens may be less predictable in terms of settings and outcomes), people always make some common mistakes. Using the wrong cooking vessel, the wrong oven settings, or the wrong positioning of ingredients can all lead to burnt food.
Follow The Recipe To A Tee
If you are using a recipe, they usually include the necessary steps and oven temperatures to prevent the food from scorching. Should you follow the recipe step-for-step and minute-by-minute, everything should turn out fine. Despite staying on track with the instructions, your food may still end up burning – in this case, it may be best to look for other possible solutions.
Know Your Oven Inside And Out
Inside and out is to be taken literally since both the controls and the internal workings of the oven matter quite a lot here. If you’re prone to forget about your food in the oven, try to use the timer function. Your oven doesn’t have a timer? Well, then, you should consider buying a kitchen timer or simply using the timer app each of us ought to have on our smartphones.
It would be best if you also learned what the different settings on your oven mean. Most ovens have everything from conventional fan heating to grilling from all angles and many more features depending on your oven model. It is best to scan your oven’s manual to acquaint yourself properly with what it all means. The grill function is usually the most likely culprit of scorched food.
Ovens all have “hot spots.” These spots are exposed to higher temperatures either by the grill or conventional functions. The best way to discover these spots is to grill something flat, cheap, and burnable, i.e., sliced bread, and see where the bread is most toasted or scorched. These will be the hottest spots regardless of what you cook. Adjust the rack or food position during cooking as needed.
Use The Appropriate Pots, Pans, And Grills
Sometimes the problem is not with the oven and your settings but rather with the vessel that carries the food. Instead of the heat burning the food, the contact surface results in scorched food. To prevent this, oil your pans well, and make sure they are made of the right materials (stainless steel, cast iron, glass, earthenware, etc., all have different properties).
Additional Tips And Tricks To Prevent Scorching
A common trick is when you are grilling something, i.e., a whole chicken, over a grilling surface, you should place a tray underneath it and add a little water. As the chicken cooks, fat will start dripping and be caught in the tray, keeping the oven clean. Furthermore, the water will keep the fat from burning to the tray’s surface.
Another important tip is that your food needs to be properly spaced, especially grilled vegetables, in a large baking tray. You should leave enough space between pieces to ensure that they all cook evenly and no parts are left burning while the rest is still undercooked.
Using aluminum foil can prevent food from scorching by insulating the heat inside without exposing it directly to the heat source. The steam is trapped within the foil, meaning that dry heat (which usually causes browning and then scorching) is now excluded from the equation.
Lastly, cooking food low-and-slow is recommended, especially for larger baking trays, big roasts, and other food types requiring a long cooking time. The outside layer of food, like meat, heats up much faster than the center, and if you don’t want your food to scorch at high temperatures, the center may often still be raw/too cold.
What Can You Do To Fix Food After It Scorched
Don’t worry if your food scorches a little in the oven; there is always a way to prevent an absolute failure and salvage some of your hard work! In the case of soupy/casserole dishes, if your liquid base is reduced too much, it could burn at the bottom. A fix to this is to add a little water, let it cook some more, and be careful when dishing up – do not scrape off the burnt bottom layer.
If you roasted meat, for instance, and the outer layer (skin) burnt, you could always scrape or pull off the burnt parts and taste-test the rest to see if it is edible. Ten-to-one, your meat should taste fine. It may have turned a bit dry. If the taste or texture is not to your liking, you could mask this by making a nice gravy to serve up with your dish.
Conclusion
Fret not! Your future dishes will scorch no more if you follow the advice above; should it already be burnt a bit, you can still save the dinner night with a couple of simple steps. Adding these gastronomic weapons to your artillery will make you a master home chef in no time.
