In fact, the oven has many unique advantages, such as less oil smoke, uniform heating and even slow heating. Because of the slow heating, we can put a piece of meat in it for a long time without worrying, which is labor-saving and convenient; Because of the slow heating, the chemical reaction in cooking can proceed slowly. Take sweet potato as an example, slow baking can convert starch into sugar more fully, so the sweet potato baked in microwave oven must be sweeter than the sweet potato bitten quickly.

When cut open, the structure of the oven is very simple, just a box with a heating tube. When the upper tube and the lower tube are electrified, heat is generated, and then heat is transferred by air convection.

Because the structure and principle are simple, the basic oven is usually not expensive, and the entry-level choice of larger capacity can do a lot of things. My home is a beautiful 38L mechanical oven, which is very cheap. Although the internal temperature distribution is not very uniform and the temperature control is not very accurate, it does not affect its use frequency in my home at all.

I usually barbecue, grilled fish, roasted vegetables/nuts and stew in the oven. Let's talk about a simple stew. I often use an oven instead of a fire stew when the stove is not enough. It's inconvenient to take care of and needs to be stewed slowly at low temperature. Take a saucepan (usually a cast iron pan) that can be put into the oven as a whole. First, put the meat on the stove for high temperature treatment, and then pour in the soup. After cooking, they can be moved to the oven for further operation.

Here you may have to ask three questions: How much water do you want to pour? Do you want to report it? What is the temperature?

In fact, how to handle it depends on what effect you expect to achieve. If you want the meat cooked evenly, add water to drown it. If you want the outer layer to create more fragrance, add it to 1/2-2/3, and double it halfway. Many times when stewing, you need to cover it, because slow stewing is a long process. Without the cover, the water evaporates too quickly, but if the cover is too tight, the soup will be cooked too violently and emulsified seriously (some ingredients will be scattered, making the soup look turbid). Therefore, I usually use a half-lid or cut it into a circle with baking paper, so that the heat is mild, it will not be too dry, and it will also have a certain juice collection effect.

In the article about pressure cooker, I have introduced the influence of temperature on meat in detail, and it is the same here-the milder the temperature, the better the stew tastes. Generally, the temperature of oven stew can be set between 1 10- 165℃. I suggest not exceeding 150℃.

"Oil seal" is also a way of stewing meat, but oil is used instead of water as the medium. Oil will not evaporate, so the "oil seal" does not need to be stamped. The temperature of the traditional oil seal should be controlled at about 82-95℃, so this dish is very suitable for cooking in the oven. (refer to the recipe: duck leg with oil seal, which will be delivered in a few days)

I believe everyone has had the experience of outdoor barbecue. If not, there will always be a series of experiences in the evening. Kebabs, roasted chicken wings, grilled fish, roasted eggplant, roasted chicken legs, roasted shrimp, roasted gluten, roasted cauliflower, roasted potatoes, roasted mushrooms, roasted Flammulina velutipes and roasted leeks ... It can be said that as long as the ingredients can be seen in the barbecue stalls, they are all suitable for cooking in the oven.

Even the baking method is very similar. When barbecuing outdoors, we usually light some charcoal first, and then put a shelf on it after the charcoal fire burns stably. Sometimes it will be covered with tin foil to prevent sticking or local burning, and then food will be put on, brushed with oil and sauce, and turned over until it is cooked.

So is the oven. Preheat first, and then add the pretreated ingredients after the temperature is stable. If necessary, turn over or brush the sauce halfway until cooked.

So, as long as you can barbecue, there is no reason why you can't use the oven.

Of course, there are also great differences between the two. The heat of the oven comes from all directions, not just the bottom, and the barbecue temperature is much higher than that of the oven. Therefore, barbecue ingredients must be processed into small pieces of similar size, and the oven can handle large pieces of food (such as roast whole chicken) at a lower temperature.