Ovens

Why fan-forced ovens are not all they’re cracked up to be

Fan-forced ovens use only one element at a time and often do not produce enough heat to bake evenly. Several years ago, ovens that were labelled as fan-forced usually came with multiple features. Unfortunately, nowadays they usually claim to have four functions as marked on the selection dial — yet two of these are basically useless.

Eliminate the light function and the defrost functions you end up with only two useable functions: grill without fan — that’s all! This applies to all brands of fan-forced ovens. Imagine how frustrating it becomes when you have to completely cook the roast or chicken first then switch on another element and wait for it to brown and crisp the meat. An alternative to the fan forced oven is the fan-assisted or multi-function oven. These have concealed bottom elements: rear and two upper ones that enable you to bake and brown your roast at the same time.