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Topics: Food and Drink, Life, Advice, Explained
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Food and Drink, Life, Advice, Explained
There's nothing much better than a lovingly-made home-cooked meal.
And, whether you're roasting a tray of potatoes, baking your favourite type of cake or grilling a lovely platter of veggies, it's clear the oven is a great kitchen appliance to get the job done best.
Now while, for the most part, an oven is a pretty simple gizmo to work, there are some symbols on it of which people are clearly none the wiser on when it comes to the functions behind them.
So, without further ado, let's get into what all one of the most commonly-used oven symbols really means - namely that elusive two-lined one...
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Luckily for us, the experts at Beko have shared a very handy guide to help decode what all the lines, squiggles and all the rest means on what is many of our go-to cooking appliances.
A fan oven is usually identified by an image of a fan, which is usually within a circle.
"In fan oven mode, your kitchen appliance will be able to distribute hot air evenly around the oven’s cavity," the experts explain.
Because of this, food will be cooked or baked uniformly no matter where in the oven it’s been placed
"A hot and dry environment is also achieved when an oven is set to fan oven mode," they added.
As well as an image of a fan, this symbol has a horizontal straight line under the fan and the element is best used for things like pies, quiches and pizzas.
"This is because the heat will be coming from the bottom of the oven - meaning the bottom of your food will be getting nicely cooked - but then some of that heat will be circulated around the rest of the oven to keep the top of a dish nice and moist," the experts share.
According to the pros, you’re looking for 'two horizontal straight lines, one at the top of the symbol and the other at the bottom' to try out the upper and lower heating elements of a conventional oven.
This function, which the experts say most people are unaware of, is characterised by only one horizontal straight line is present on this symbol, at the bottom.
It's best used when cooking food where you’re hoping for a crispy base but without the risk of burning the to - for example, pizza bases and pastry cases.
The science behind why this works is because the heat only comes from the bottom of the oven when the appliance is in this mode.
Ovens also have grill settings as well as functions to defrost, slow cook, preheat, plate warm and reheat.
The function works by direct heat coming from both above and below when food is cooked inside an oven set to its conventional oven mode making for the perfect way to evenly brown and consistently cook your food - which the experts say makes it 'a fantastic option when baking bread and cakes'.