Is my oven broken?!?
ok so not sure if this is the right forum for this (yeah I still get confused by the new forums!)
Since moving into our new place I am having real trouble with our oven, and I initially put it down to not being used to it but now I'm not too sure.
It is an old electric oven and I am used to fan assisted or gas ovens. The problems I have had with our current oven are:
*when baking bread the bottom of the rolls come out really over done, to the point of being burnt and the tops f the rolls are just about done
*when baking cookies, again bottoms are near on burnt and tops not ass cooked as I would like
*when cooking pizzas for both myself & N, the pizza on the bottom shelf comes out really well done and the pizza on the top shelf needs an extra 5mins cooking otherwise the dough is till uncooked (if N's pizza is on the top his cheese is all melted and looks done but uncooked base)
So it seems like the heat is not evenly distributed throughout the oven. So, is this normal in electric ovens and I just need to learn to cope with it, or is it broken?
I mentioned this at work and someone thought that maybe the top element and the bottom element should be lit when the oven is on. (they're not, only the bottom one is on and the top one comes on only when grilling things, but the the bottom element doesn't come on).
Someone else at work thought that maybe the thermostat wasn't working.
What do you guys think? Is it actually broken, or is it just how electric ovens operate? Do I just need to get used to it?
It's really bugging me because it means I can't really bake stuff, but I feel like I can't really complain to the agency because I can cook stuff in there, but just not everything I want to.
I want to bake, goddam it!!!
I would tell the agency you are renting from. It is working, but not properly. All ovens no matter what type should have evenly distributed heat. If you have 2 oven thermometers put one at the top and the other at the bottom and see how big the difference is. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
my boyfriend used to have an electric oven, and the top element was on whenever the oven was on (i found this out the hard way), though it's possible yours is different. As far as heating unevenly, I think that's just the deal with (old?) electric ovens. I hated baking in that thing. Maybe you can adjust the rack to be further from the bottom element?
Elements do eventually burn out on electric ovens which is why I hate them. In the process they get weaker and don't "light up" completely, like an electric fire that's getting old. Whether or not you can turn on the top element at will depends on the brand, but for even cooking you should be able to turn it on, even if it's not full-bore like a grill.
Definitely get someone to check it to make sure the elements are in good shape. As FB says, do try to keep the rack in the middle as much as you can.
Welcome to the unjoys of electric ovens.
Damn, I have had an old electric oven in the last 2 houses I've lived in. They suck, heat unevenly and you have to learn how to finesse it. Definitely get yourself an oven thermometer (at least 2!) and you'll eventually learn how to use it.