William, A really *good* convection oven makes all the difference in the world. Just make sure to keep the insides spotlessly clean, as the dark spots absorb more radiation than you'd think.
There are three general ways to heat: by conduction (with contact), by convection (with directed flow), and by radiation. All conventional (non-microwave or other exotic) ovens are radiation ovens by default; a "convection" oven just adds convection to the mix. To give you an idea of why convection is so good for baking and roasting, let's take the opposite -- cooling -- as an everyday example. When you're sweating and you come into a cool room and sit still, you cool a little bit because the liquid coolant of your sweat is evaporating slowly into the surrounding air, and you get cooling by evaporation. Now if you run a fan over your skin you feel significantly cooler because you're achieving cooling by convection, and here's why: if you shrunk down to microscopic size and peered at a droplet of sweat evaporating, you'd see a supersaturated layer of moist air just above the droplet, and that supersaturated layer acts as a kind of barrier to more moisture saturating the surrounding air (and thereby cooling you). A vector of air continually strips off that supersaturated air layer and allows the droplets to saturate the surrounding air faster, hence the drop in skin tempurature. Now reverse this principle using heating instead. Your loaf is heating by radiation, and the moisture is leaving through the top of the loaf, where a supersaturated layer of moist air slowly burns dry while the rest of the oven fills with even more moisture from the loaf, which absorbs some of the oven's heat and seeps out like a tiny steam leak (one reason why your kitchen gets so hot with a non-convection oven). Now stream a vector of hot air over that moise loaf of bread and you'll not only continually strip off that layer of moisture, you'll exhaust it from the oven in a controlled fashion so there's less steam to absorb radiant heat and leak out of your oven. This is another reason why you almost always get a better finish on baked goods and roasts, both of which are optimally "dry heat" cooking techniques that are hindered by moisture. I know this was long-winded, but hopefully it answers the "why" of it all, and hopefully this helps you. Respectfully, Adam Phillip Churvis Member of Team Macromedia http://www.ProductivityEnhancement.com Download Plum and other cool development tools, and get advanced intensive Master-level training: * C# & ASP.NET for ColdFusion Developers * ColdFusion MX Master Class * Advanced Development with CFMX and SQL Server 2000 ----- Original Message ----- From: "William Bowen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Community" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 12:21 AM Subject: Convection Ovens > Okay. So, the broiler element on our stove burned out this weekend. > Fabulous light show. Looked like we had a friggin' arc welder in our > oven. > > Now, before someone says the answer to my question is "Buy a new > broiler element," let me just say that my wife and I are in absolute > agreement; we hate our stove. The oven, timer and broiler are > controlled with a mid-eighties push button (silver buttons on black) > interface and a little half inch knob like on a cheap stereo. The > stove came with the house we bought a few years ago and is essentially > that last appliance left that was "used by someone else." > > So we're looking to upgrade. We've been doing our research and we've > found the cooktop type we want and we've zeroed in on brand as far as > maintenance and whatnot, but we're a little confounded about the true > advantage of the convection > oven. > > Is it really worth ~$400 extra for a 15 minute break on that lasagna? > or chocolate chip cookies that cook 25 degrees cooler but not any > faster? > > I am enthusiastic that ovens are now accurate to within 5 degrees > (instead of 25) and we both love to cook, but is a convection oven > really all that? > > -- > will > > > "If my life weren't funny, it would just be true; > and that would just be unacceptable." > - Carrie Fisher > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:147448 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
