When it comes to cooking, so many different utensils, tools and equipment come out to play. All this is indeed necessary to execute a dish properly and to give the amount of attention that is due. Ovens are such indispensable equipments that play a huge role when it comes to cooking and baking. However, there are many types of ovens in the culinary world today. Conventional and convection ovens are two such types.
What is a Conventional Oven?
A conventional oven can be defined as a thermally insulated chamber that is often used in the culinary world for baking, cooking, heating or drying substances. While there are many types of conventional ovens existing in the world today, the modern conventional oven that can be found in most homes cooks food using heat. In this task, most ovens are heated from below which can be useful when it comes to baking or roasting. Most ovens also have a method of providing heat from above which can be used for grilling or broiling. Even the simplest oven has a thermostat which controls the heat in which it operates. They are also almost always accompanied by timers which allow the oven to turn off at a desired pre-set time. Conventional ovens are the most commonly used type of ovens used in the world today for a variety of purposes.
What is a Convection Oven?
A convection oven can be defined as a type of oven that is equipped with a fan to circulate the hot air all around the food. It is also called a fan oven or a fan-assisted oven simply to imply that heat is evenly distributed throughout the food, allowing the food to be cooked more evenly.
It is designed with a fan around the area where the heating element is found which circulates air in the chamber during cooking. They may also be equipped with heat sources at both top and bottom which improves the speed of cooking. Some ovens may have the heating elements hidden away from the food outside of the oven. This, however, may reduce the effectiveness of the oven as food tends to cook very slowly in such an oven but be cooked all the way through. Convection ovens are considered to be the ideal oven to cook from food such as meats, fish, vegetables, and other relatively firm dishes.
What is the difference between Conventional and Convection Oven?
Ovens perform the similar roles; baking, cooking being the most popular of them all. However, ovens can indeed be compared side by side with regards to their suitability, special characteristics and other such factors in order to decide what sort of oven is best for a certain type of dish. Two such types of ovens are the conventional oven and the convection oven. Each possesses unique characteristics which can be made proper use of if known properly.
• Conventional oven is the ordinary day to day oven that most people use. Convection oven is equipped with a fan that evenly distributes the hot air right throughout, allowing the oven to cook the food evenly and all the way through.
• Conventional oven has a heat source at the bottom most of the time. Convection oven is equipped with heating sources both at the top and the bottom.
• Convection oven is more costly than a conventional oven.
• Convection oven does not require the oven to be of a hot temperature as of a conventional oven.