Convection oven facts for kids
A convection oven is a special type of oven that uses fans to move hot air around your food. Think of it like a mini wind tunnel for cooking! This helps the heat spread out evenly, making your food cook faster and more consistently than in a regular oven.
Convection ovens are often called "fan ovens" because of these fans. They are great for baking and cooking many different foods. Smaller versions, often found on kitchen counters, are usually called air fryers.
When you cook with a convection oven, you usually set the temperature a bit lower than you would for a regular oven, often about 20 °C (40 °F) less. This is because the circulating hot air cooks food more quickly, and you don't want the outside to get overcooked before the inside is ready.
Both regular ovens and fan ovens use something called convection to cook. This means heat moves through the air. Regular ovens use "natural convection," where hot air rises and cooler air sinks. Convection ovens use "forced convection," where the fan actively pushes the hot air around. So, both types of ovens use convection, but in different ways!
Contents
How Convection Ovens Work
Convection ovens spread heat very evenly around your food. When you put food into a regular oven, a layer of cooler air can form around it. This layer acts like a blanket, slowing down how fast the heat gets to the food.
The fan in a convection oven blows this cooler air away. This helps the heat reach the food faster. Because the air is constantly moving and mixing, the oven's temperature stays very consistent everywhere inside. This means your food cooks more evenly and in less time.
History of Convection Ovens
The idea for an oven with a fan to move air around was first thought of in 1914. However, it wasn't sold to the public at that time.
The first widely used convection oven was called the Maxson Whirlwind Oven. It was invented in 1945.
Inside a Convection Oven
A convection oven has a fan, usually with a heating element wrapped around it. This fan circulates the hot air inside the cooking area.
Some convection ovens also have extra heating parts at the top and bottom. These help heat the oven up faster from the start. Other ovens hide all their heating elements outside the main cooking space. Even then, the oven walls get hot from the circulating air and still help cook the food.
Cooking with Convection
Using a convection oven often means you can set a lower cooking temperature than with a regular oven. This is because the moving air transfers heat more quickly. To cook food at the same speed, you need a slightly lower temperature to balance out the faster heat transfer.
The exact temperature difference can change depending on how much food you are cooking. It also depends on if something, like a very large baking tray, is blocking the airflow.
Different Types of Convection Ovens
There are a few different kinds of convection ovens, each designed for specific uses.
Impingement Ovens
An impingement oven is a type of convection oven that blows hot air directly onto the food from both above and below. These ovens are often used in restaurants to quickly cook things like pizzas or toast bread. Food usually moves through these ovens on a conveyor belt.
Impingement ovens can cook much faster than regular ovens. Some models can even use technology similar to microwave ovens to speed things up even more. They are built for speed, which is very important in busy restaurants.
Convection Microwave Ovens
Some ovens combine a convection oven with a microwave oven. These are called convection microwave ovens. They offer the speed of a microwave with the ability to brown food, like a convection oven. This means your food can cook quickly and still get that nice crispy or browned finish.
Combi Steamers
A combi steamer is an oven that mixes convection cooking with superheated steam. This combination helps food cook even faster. It also helps food keep more of its natural moisture and nutrients.
Air Fryers
An air fryer is a small convection oven made for your kitchen counter. It's designed to make food taste like it's been deep-fried, but without using a lot of oil. A strong fan blows very hot air around the food at high speed. This hot air creates a crispy outer layer through a process called the Maillard reaction, which is what gives browned food its flavor.
Some people say that regular convection ovens or convection toaster ovens can give similar results to air fryers. The main difference is that air fryers are usually smaller and designed specifically for this "air frying" effect.
The first Philips Airfryer used a special technology called "Rapid Air." It blew hot air upwards through the bottom of the food basket, making sure heat reached the food from all sides.
Traditional frying uses very hot oil (around 140 to 165 °C (284 to 329 °F)) to cook food. Air fryers work by coating food in a thin layer of oil and circulating air up to 200 °C (392 °F). This high heat causes the same browning reactions as deep frying.
Most air fryers have settings for temperature and time, so you can cook precisely. Food usually sits in a basket above a drip tray. You might need to shake the basket sometimes to make sure all the food cooks evenly.
History of Air Fryers
Convection ovens have been widely used since 1945.
In 2006, a company called Groupe SEB launched the first air fryer in France. It was sold under the Actifry brand.
Then, in 2010, Philips introduced their Airfryer brand at a big electronics show in Berlin. By 2018, the word "airfryer" started to be used by everyone, not just for the Philips brand.
Industrial Convection Ovens
Convection ovens aren't just for cooking food! Very large convection ovens are used in factories to make many different products. For example, they can be used in the aircraft industry to dry or cure materials.
See also
- Convective heat transfer
Images for kids
-
A tabletop convection oven cooking pork. The gridiron is reversed to place the meat low and far from the main heat source.
-
An industrial convection oven used in the aircraft manufacturing industry.
