How to Convert Your Favorite Recipes for a Convection Oven

First, your ancestors learned to cook on stoves instead of oven an open fire, and then on gas or electric ranges instead of wood-fired stoves. Now it's your turn to accommodate new cooking technology by adjusting your favorite recipes for convection cooking instead of conventional.

Convection heat uses less energy, requires shorter cook times, and leaves food more evenly cooked. It's also incredibly simple to modify your recipes for this type of cooking—even if you're working with instructions your great-grandmother used to cook over a woodstove.

What Is Convection Cooking?

Gas or electric convection ovens use fans to continuously circulate hot air throughout the oven, creating a more uniform temperature—no hot spots—that allows food to brown more evenly than in thermal ovens. The movement of the air throughout the oven also helps food cook more quickly.

"Convection is the way to go for just about all cooking," says Jeff Carter, executive chef at Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro in Townsend, Tenn. "The continual movement of the air leads to more even cooking, shorter cook times, and an all-around more efficient way to cook."

The even cooking produced by a convection oven is especially useful for baked goods, but it also helps to create juicy, well-browned meat and poultry. Convection ovens are available as an option in stoves, wall ovens, and in countertop ovens, and typically use less energy than conventional ovens.

How to Adjust a Recipe for Convection Cooking

Since generations of recipes have been developed using thermal ovens, switching to convection cooking requires one of two adjustments: Cut the cooking time or lower the cooking temperature, says Riley Wofford, our former associate food editor.

Adjust the Time

If you prefer to cook your food faster, a convection oven will allow you to reduce the suggested cook time by about 25 percent. Use convection to trim three minutes off a batch of chicken nuggets (because every second counts when your teen and his friends are waiting), or to lower the required time on a pot roast by at least 45 minutes and get Sunday dinner on the table that much faster.

Adjust the Temperature

The second way to adjust a recipe for convection cooking is to lower the temperature by 25 degrees. This technique allows you to use less energy heating the oven, and keep your home and kitchen cooler. Wofford prefers this option for baking, and the shorter cook schedule for more time-intensive roasts.

Check Your Settings

While many ovens with convection settings require you to adjust either the time or temperature, others have an auto-adjust feature, says Shaari Ward, Breville's North American test kitchen manager. When using a convection oven like this, there is no need to reduce the temperature or reduce the cook time: You can follow your recipe as usual. and the oven will accommodate you.

Test for Doneness

These methods for adjusting a recipe are reliable, but it's important to remember that food baked in a convection oven develops a golden-brown color quickly—and that color doesn't always indicate that it's fully cooked. Whichever approach you choose, be sure to follow the specific doneness test given in the original recipe, especially for meats and batter.

Use the Right Cookware

You don't need to switch out your pans or baking dishes for different materials when using convection heat, but you do want to make sure the air is circulating easily so that the time and temperature adjustments are correct. Opt for rimmed baking sheets or dishes with low sides and don't crowd your oven. If you want a dish with a lot of gravy or juice to stay moist, add a cover; this will prevent the air from drying it out too quickly.

The Best Foods to Cook With Convection Heat

Experts say that convection cooking can be your new default for just about every dish in your recipe box, from roasts to desserts. "Roasted meats and vegetables are great, because convection cooking allows you get more caramelization," says Michael Zentner, chef at The Drifter in Charleston, SC. He also recommends the even temperatures of a convection oven for pies, cookies, bacon, biscuits, and puff pastries.

Foods to Cook With Conventional Heat

Carter says his kitchen uses convection heat "for just about all our cooking," with a few exceptions. "If we are braising meats such as short ribs, or making duck or rabbit confit, we will use conventional ovens because we want to cook low and slow," he says. "Although you could use a convection oven to make dishes like this, we find the conventional oven to produce a more uniform braise or confit and won’t reduce the braising liquid too quickly."

Zentner also recommends using conventional heat for cakes and breads. Since foods brown so much faster in a convection oven, you can wind up with an overcooked outside and raw batter or dough in the middle. "The crust forms too quickly and the volume of the bread will suffer," he says. "The outside of the cake will cook faster than the inside, causing the cakes to burn."