Criteria for an Oven



Penning down my criteria for an oven for my own records as well as for sharing. These can be some factors to consider when buying your own oven.

Price

As I do not bake often now, I do not want to waste my money and spend a lot on a high-end oven. Hence, my budget for a built-in oven would be about few hundreds to a low $1k+ when I get one.

Functions/Features

I would prefer my oven to have the following functions:

1) Top and bottom heat aka traditional cooking – most commonly used function for cakes, macarons, baked rice, fish, chicken and a whole array of food.

2) Top and bottom with fan aka convection cooking – mainly for cookies and tarts

3) Grill function – so far, I do not usually use the grill function for my food but it can be a useful function to have especially when one hosts.

4) Light function for me to see my bakes. It is quite satisfying and therapeutic to see your bakes rising/ forming. Most ovens should have this.

5) Enamel or ceramic coating – for easier cleaning and scratch-resistant.

6) Oven doors should preferably be 3-4 layers thick or “cool to touch” so that Baby C or other young kids I have in my house would not touch the door and hurt themselves by accident. Most built-in ovens should have this safety feature or something similar.

7) Oven door being able to be left open at any or at least a certain angle, in addition to just being opened or closed fully. I like my door to be able to remain open at whatever angle i leave it at. Usually i use this function when i finish baking, just before I remove the sensitive products out of the oven eg. The egg filling for egg tarts will deflate if there’s a sudden change in temperature so one is supposed to leave it in the oven for a period of time for the oven temperature to slowly cool to room temperature. Most oven doors cannot open at an angle but just open/ close fully. So far, I have not seen this function in a tabletop oven. What I usually do in such cases would be to put a wooden spatula so that the oven door could be left ajar slightly. Not a deal breaker.

I have not shortlisted any built-in ovens for now but I hope the above helps those who are looking for an oven to shortlist theirs!


Spread the word:
Rainbow

A novice baker =)

Leave a Comment