13
Cooking advice
The oven offers a wide range of alternatives which allow
you to cook any type of food in the best possible way. With
time you will learn to make the best use of this versatile
cooking appliance and the following directions are only a
guideline which may be varied according to your own per-
sonal experience.
Baking cakes
The oven should always be warm before putting in cakes
wait till the end of preheating (about 15 min.). Cake-baking
temperatures are normally around 160°C. Do not open
the oven door during the baking process as this could
cause the cake to sink.
Beaten cake mixtures should not be too soft as this could
considerably lengthen cooking times. In general:
Pastry is too dry
Increase the temperature by 10°C and reduce the
cooking time.
Pastry dropped
Use less liquid or lower the temperature by 10°C.
Pastry is too dark on top
Place it on a lower rack, lower the temperature, and
increase the cooking time.
Cooked well on the inside but sticky on the
outside
Use less liquid, lower the temperature, and increase
the cooking time.
The pastry sticks to the pan
Grease the pan well and sprinkle it with a dusting of
flour.
Cooking fish and meat
Meat must weigh at least one Kg. to stop it becoming too
dry. When cooking white meat, fowl and fish use low
temperatures. (150°C-175°C). When red meat must be
superficially well-cooked but succulent inside, it is
advisable to start with a high temperature (200-220°C)
for a short time, and then to reduce it at a later point.
Generally speaking, the more meat there is, the lower the
temperature and the longer the cooking time should
be.Place the meat in the centre of the grid and put a spill-
tray underneath to catch grease drips. Insert the grid so
that it is in the middle of the oven. If more heat from below
is required, use the 1° bottom shelf. For tastier roasts,
wrap the meat with bacon rashers or dot the meat with
lard and place it in the upper part of the oven. When some
types of food are cooked in the ventilated oven (duck,
rabbit, large fowl) they become too dry; in these cases,
better results are obtained using the combined oven.
