Why do some cooking directions say "preheat the oven to 'x' degrees F"?!


Question: Why do some cooking directions say "preheat the oven to 'x' degrees F"!?
I just bought a pizza and on its box I read: "preheat the oven to 245 degrees F"!. Wouldn't it be more logical to turn the oven on, after you put the food in it!? What is the purpose of preheating the oven!? I'm not very good at cooking most things, so I don't pay much attention to these details, but today for some reason it caught my eye and now I'm racking my brains trying to find an answer!.Www@FoodAQ@Com


Answers:
Preheating means the oven wont cook the outside before the middle of the item is done cookin!. When you preheat your guarenteeing even cooking on the whole Item, with out leaving some raw or burning!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

You'll get different results, basically!.

If you put the pizza into the oven then turn it on, it still takes the oven some time to heat up, so you may need to leave the pizza in a little longer!.

On the other hand, pre-heating the oven means it's already hot when you put the pizza in, so the pizza doesn't need to be in the oven as long!.

Realistically, for things like frozen food, it makes no difference to the finished product!. Cooking something like a meatloaf won't really make too much of a difference either!. But if you were baking a cake or cookies, then having the oven at the proper temperature at all times becomes more important!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

If you put the food in first, the oven is turning on slowly so you don't cook it right!. It will not go as fast because a lot of the time it will be cooking at 0 degrees, 15 degrees, 50 degrees, and so on!. It takes a while for the oven to heat!. You are supposed to preheat for most things!. You can put it in when it is about 15 degrees off but to not preheat it won't work!. Put it in at around the temperature that it says to preheat at!. also it might cook unevenly but I don't know if that's right or not!.
Hope I helped you understand it and good luck!Www@FoodAQ@Com

Such good answers already!. One time in cooking class we were baking cookies and we set it for 325 and popped our cookies in the oven (after it was preheated) but realized the directions said 375 so we just turned up the oven!. Big mistake!. The sudden change of temperature burnt the cookies right away!. So, we learned from our teacher that SOME foods don't like the sudden blast of heat they get from raising the temperature!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

Is this a real question!?
The reason you pre heat the oven is so it is at the temperature that you need to cook your food at for whatever the recipe/box calls for!. If you put the food in when the oven is room temperature it wont cook anything, will it!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

If you heat the oven while trying to bake pizza you will get soggy crust!!

Pizza requires hot oven to have the crust all properly cooked evenly!.

Cakes and things also require the oven to be hot to the correct setting so they work right!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

You're not warming it up slowly, you are cooking it, quickly!. Put your oven at 425 and when it's ready, put the pizza in for whatever time is required as per instructions!. Dont make it complicated, it's not!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

so you can time the cooking , from when you put it in the oven, it will start cooking straight away , rather than waiting to heat up to the correct cooking tempWww@FoodAQ@Com

No - you want to put your food in when the oven is already heated to the right temperature so it cooks evenly and in the correct time frame that it is supposed to!. I assume you meant 425, btw!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

There's some stuff you can do that with like a casserole maybe!. But some things need an instant burst of heat as soon as they go in the oven to start cooking properly, hence, pre heating!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

It is to get that instant heat for the prescribed time!. Different ovens heat at different speeds, so that part of your pizza would be hot, whilst the rest is still heating!.Www@FoodAQ@Com

If you put the pizza into a cold oven, it won't be cooking long enough at the required temperature!. It takes awhile to heat up - especially to 425Www@FoodAQ@Com

So its heated ready for the pizza i dunno!. cause otherwise it would still be pretty cold and not fully heated if you turned it on after you put the pizza in :S
no idea :DWww@FoodAQ@Com





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