how do you know your oven is preheated if your oven dosn't indicate its ready?

Question

i'm just curious how long, like how many minutes it takes to actually preheat the oven. i hate when cooking directions say preheat and i have no clue how long that takes.

Answer 1

Use an oven thermometer. Not only will you know when the oven is heated, but you will also see if the oven is heating to what you think it should be. Many ovens are not really heating to the temperature you set as they aren't calibrated correctly.

Also, if you don't want to go the thermometer route then just give it some time as takes about 15 - 20 minutes for an oven to get to temperature. When a pre-heat signal goes off it simply means that the air around the sensor has hit that temperature, but the over walls need to heat to be truly at the temperature you desire. You'll get better results if you give your oven more time to come to temperature. I used to work in a bakery, and we always gave the ovens extra time to come up to temperature in the morning so that the first items would come out the way they were supposed to. Yes, a bakery oven is different, but reliable baking cookbooks will tell you the same thing about home ovens.

Answer 2

Every oven (even 2 ovens of exactly the same brand and model) has a different way of heating up. There are many factors that affect its heating ability especially how your oven's internal thermometer is calibrated (by the manufacturer) and whether your oven is level.

A quick solution is to purchase a removable oven thermometer. This is a small device that sits on a rack in your oven and will measure the temperature (it has small clips that hold it to the rack). My advice is to place the thermometer in 4 different places of your oven to measure the temperature in each quadrant. Then you will know where the "hot spots" are so you don't burn one part of your cooking while under-cooking another (this is especially important when baking). After you determine where the coldest spot in your oven is, leave the oven thermometer there and use it to determine when the oven is preheated.

Be aware, however, that heat dissipates rapidly when the oven door is opened, so wait at least 10 minutes before you place your dish in the oven to allow the temperature to return to the right number.

In any event, if you are looking for accuracy in your oven temperature the best thing is to wait a full 20 minutes after it has reached the desired temperature to allow the walls of the oven to absorb some of the heat. That way when you open the oven to put in your dish it will return to the right temperature faster.

Answer 3

When your oven finishes preheating its burner will go off. This is easier to check in an electric oven where the element is visible inside the oven. If the oven doesn't have a light on its control panel that turns on and off with the burner then the best solution is to get an oven thermometer. How long it takes depends on how hot it has to get, what its power rating is and the temperature in the room.

Answer 4

You might not believe it, but some foods can taste different, and look different if you do not preheat the oven. When you make a dutch apple pie for instance, and you do not preheat the oven for at least 7 -10 minutes, it will take an 1/2 hr longer, and will not look as crisply delicous. Also, if you defrost pies, lets say, before you preheat the oven then put it in without preheating, it will look even worse. trust me.

Answer 5

I would give it 10 minutes. Any oven should be preheated by then.

Answer 6

Normal pre-heating time for either gas or electric is 5-6 minutes. That's why recipes say 15-20 minutes or 35-40 minutes. Unless there is something seriously wrong with your oven, 5 minutes is enough.

Answer 7

They usually say to preheat the oven before startin to prepare what goes in it,so 30.40minute be plenty of time.

Answer 8

Yours doesn't have a light when you turn it on? On mine the light turns on when I turn the oven on and when it gets to the temperature it turns off. Other than that I'd say 10 minutes to make sure.

Answer 9

8 - 10 minutes. My oven has a pre-heat timer and it's ready in this time frame.

Answer 10

When the oven reaches the temperature it is set to, the gas flames greatly diminish, or if electric, the heating element becomes less red. You could look at these to see what's up....