Differences between conventional and convection oven: how they are used and for which recipes they are suggested

What are the differences between a convection oven and a static oven? For which cooking is the first one more suitable and for which one the second one? These may seem like silly questions, perhaps also a little trivial, but we assure you that they are very important questions. In the kitchen, knowing the tools and cooking techniques is essential to bring perfect dishes to the table, and knowing how to use the different types of oven can help us not to combine disasters. Movement and proliferation of heat, temperatures and cooking times are the main differences between a static oven and a convection oven; so let's get to know them in detail, let's see which recipes are suitable for and how to solve a problem when we lack one of the two.

Differences between static oven and convection oven

Let's clear the matter of any doubts; the difference between the two types of ovens is essentially one and has to do with the way in which the heat is spread and, consequently, it cooks the dishes. In the static oven we will have a cooking by radiation; just like in ancient ovens, the heat spreads from specific points (called resistances), and it slowly cooks first the external parts and then gradually the internal parts of cakes, focaccia bread and sponge cake. The convection oven, that was invented more recently, spreads the heat produced by the resistances evenly thanks to a fan, thus producing cooking by convection, which is faster than that by radiation. In the static oven we can only cook one dish at a time because the heat is not evenlydistributed in every corner of the oven; the convection oven, on the other hand, is different, in fact we can cook even more things together using all the shelves. And what about the gas oven? It falls into the category of static ovens and in this case the heat radiates only from the lower part, right where the flame is.

What to cook in the static oven and what to cook in the convection oven

Once we have seen the differences, the question remains; what to cook in the convection oven? And what to cook in the static oven? The cooking of the static oven is slower, less uniform and in some way even less "aggressive" and that is why it is recommended for preparations that contain yeast and which require a more "delicate" cooking such as pizza, focaccia bread, bread, cakes and sponge cake. Cooking in a convection oven is faster, the flow of air moved by the fan dehydrates the foods so as to form the classic crust on the surface; so the convection oven is excellent for lasagna, meat and fish in foil but also roasts, baked pasta, biscuits and tarts.

The right temperatures

Different types of cooking mean not only times but also different temperatures and, in order not to be mistaken, a difference of about 20 degrees C – 25 degrees C degrees must always be considered between static cooking and convection cooking. Being slower, cooking in a static oven requires 20 degrees C more than the convection oven and this information is very important if you only have one type of oven available; if for example your recipe wants a convection oven but you only have the static one, you can still cook your preparation by increasing the temperature by 20 degrees C and leaving the minutes unchanged (it is always better to use a kitchen timer). On the contrary, if you have a convection oven but your recipe calls for static cooking, you will have to lower the temperature by 20 degrees C.