How to Ensure your Oven Cooks your Food Evenly

So you’re cooking a roast dinner and the chicken’s done before the potatoes. Or you’re cooking two tiers of a cake and one is golden whilst the other is still pale and doughy. We’ve all been there, so there’s no need to hang your head and bemoan your culinary skills. Blame your oven instead, because it’s very likely your appliance could be causing your food to cook unevenly! Luckily we’re here to tell you how to fix it and ensure all of your oven parts are working properly.

Your Oven: The Guilty Culprits

Most ovens will have hot spots, but particularly uneven cooking can be a sign of an oven element (the part in your oven that gets hot) which is about to fail. So replace it before you’re left without heat completely. Open up your oven to get a look at the element; if it appears patchy, that’s a sign it could be faulty and you can test it with a multimeter to be certain. Fitting a new element is simple and you don’t even need to move your appliance in most cases. To see how this is done, click here or watch the video below!

A faulty oven thermostat can also cause the aforementioned uneven cooking scenarios. You can buy an oven thermometer to check the actual heat of your oven if you suspect it’s not reaching the right temperatures.

If you DO find that you need a new oven thermostat, the good news is that it’s another fix you can complete yourself at home by following our written tutorial or watching the following video…

A dirty oven will also cook less evenly than a clean one. That’s a bonafide fact right there for you. So no excuses; give your oven a good scrubbing. You can use a specialist oven cleaner to get this done (WPro’s Professional Cleaner Spray is a great choice!) - or, if you want to go chemical-free, a paste of baking soda and water left on your oven walls for a few hours then spritzed with vinegar should do the trick.

Dark coloured trays will absorb more heat, which could burn the bottom of your food. So, if your once silver baking trays have been turned brown with burnt-on grease, soak them in a solution of warm water and either washing machine or dishwasher detergent, then scrub them clean with a brillo pad. If it’s your non-stick oven trays that have turned brown, it may be worth buying oven trays as scrubbing them could remove their non-stick coating.

eSpares Tip: Protect your oven’s baking trays in future (and avoid pesky scrubbing) by covering them in kitchen foil or reusable baking sheets.

For a little guidance on getting your oven as clean as possible, watch our oven cleaning guide here!

Once you’ve got your oven up to scratch, keep these tips in mind for evenly cooked food in the future.

• Get to know your oven, either by paying attention to the areas that cook quicker when preparing your dinners or with a simple bread test. Lay some slices of white bread out on each oven shelf and turn the oven on. The browning of each slice will let you see which areas cook more or less. (You may wish to pop some beans on the hob at the same time so all that toast doesn’t go to waste…)
• Oven shelves are removable for a reason. Experiment with different positions for your shelves to discover the best cooking results.
• Check the recipes of the foods you’re cooking. They may let you know the optimal oven position to best cook the dish.
• If in doubt, position food as close to the middle of the oven as you can, as food in the centre tends to cook more evenly.
• Turn your food throughout the cooking process. However, bear in mind that each time the oven door is opened it loses heat, so this isn’t a good idea for all recipes and is best done halfway through the cooking process at the earliest.

We hope this guide has helped you ensure your oven is cooking as evenly as possible! And remember, our wide range of oven spare parts and our oven repair advice is always here to help.