Thought I’d share something I just figured out on my oven. Maybe you already know, but I was proud of myself for thinking of it, so humor me.
Problem with many/most ovens and low temp cooks is that the minimum oven temp is above where you’d like to use it to cook for things like sausages and snack sticks. So here’s what I tried today and it works pretty good. (Sounds much more complicated than it is.)
1. Put a couple of cast iron pans on the lower rack of your oven. Heavier the better. You’re looking for mass. (You could also use bricks wrapped in foil. I’ve done that too.)
2. Preheat your oven to the minimum temp. That’s 170 for me. Give it a LONG preheat. You’re trying to make sure your cast iron/brick mass is fully preheated too. I waited about 40 minutes.
3. Find the probe that came with your oven for cooking roasts to temp. You probably threw it out or lost it. Go back in time 10 days(2 if you have Amazon Prime) and order another one.
4. Put your sausages in one of the top oven rack positions. And turn off the oven.
5. Now plug in your temperature probe and let it hang in the air. Close the oven.
6. Leave the oven off because your thermal mass will keep the oven warm.
7. In 20-25 minutes turn the oven on at its lowest setting and set the probe temp to 145(or 150, or whatever).
8. Now the probe will turn the oven off when it reaches your probe set point(or at least sound an alarm telling you to turn it off). And your thermal mass will help maintain that temperature.
9. Now in 30 more minutes you can use the same process to go up 10 degrees. Oven at lowest temp, probe set at 155, . . .
Now you’ve used your oven to maintain a set point below it’s programmed lowest setting.
Mine will maintain within a degree or two of the probe set point for about 30 minutes if I don’t open the door.
Yes, it takes a little minding and it’s not “set and forget” but it works. And if you’re just hanging around the house anyway . . .
Worth everything you paid for it.
Jbo
Problem with many/most ovens and low temp cooks is that the minimum oven temp is above where you’d like to use it to cook for things like sausages and snack sticks. So here’s what I tried today and it works pretty good. (Sounds much more complicated than it is.)
1. Put a couple of cast iron pans on the lower rack of your oven. Heavier the better. You’re looking for mass. (You could also use bricks wrapped in foil. I’ve done that too.)
2. Preheat your oven to the minimum temp. That’s 170 for me. Give it a LONG preheat. You’re trying to make sure your cast iron/brick mass is fully preheated too. I waited about 40 minutes.
3. Find the probe that came with your oven for cooking roasts to temp. You probably threw it out or lost it. Go back in time 10 days(2 if you have Amazon Prime) and order another one.
4. Put your sausages in one of the top oven rack positions. And turn off the oven.
5. Now plug in your temperature probe and let it hang in the air. Close the oven.
6. Leave the oven off because your thermal mass will keep the oven warm.
7. In 20-25 minutes turn the oven on at its lowest setting and set the probe temp to 145(or 150, or whatever).
8. Now the probe will turn the oven off when it reaches your probe set point(or at least sound an alarm telling you to turn it off). And your thermal mass will help maintain that temperature.
9. Now in 30 more minutes you can use the same process to go up 10 degrees. Oven at lowest temp, probe set at 155, . . .
Now you’ve used your oven to maintain a set point below it’s programmed lowest setting.
Mine will maintain within a degree or two of the probe set point for about 30 minutes if I don’t open the door.
Yes, it takes a little minding and it’s not “set and forget” but it works. And if you’re just hanging around the house anyway . . .
Worth everything you paid for it.
Jbo
