Cooking Advice

The oven offers a wide range of alternatives which allows 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 are only a guide, which may be varied according to your own personal taste.

Preheating

If the food being cooked needs to go into a preheated oven (this is generally the case when cooking leavened foods)

the 'fan assisted' mode can be used to reach the desired temperature as quickly as possible. When preheating is over, place food in the oven and select the most appropriate cooking mode.

Cooking on More Than One Shelf

If you want to cook on more than one shelf at a time, use

the “fan assisted” mode .

When cooking food on several shelves keep the following suggestions in mind:

•The oven is fitted with 5 shelf positions. During fan assisted cooking, use two of the three central shelf positions; the lowest and highest shelves receive the hot air directly and therefore delicate foodstuffs could be burnt on these shelf positions.

•As a general rule, use the 2nd and 4th shelf position from the bottom, placing the foodstuffs that require greater heat on the 2nd shelf position from the bottom. For example, when cooking meat roasts together with other food, place the roast on the 2nd shelf position from the bottom and the more delicate food on the 4th shelf position from the bottom.

•When cooking food that require differing times and temperatures, set a temperature that is somewhere between the two temperatures required, place the more delicate food on the 4th shelf position from the bottom and take the food requiring less time out of the oven first.

•Use the baking tray on the lower shelf position and the shelf on the upper position.

Baking Cakes

When baking cakes, always preheat the oven. Make sure you wait until the oven has preheated thoroughly. Do not open the oven door during baking to prevent the cake from dropping. In general, if:

Pastry is too dry

Increase the temperature by 10° C and reduce the cooking time.

Pastry has dropped

Use less liquid or lower the temperature by 10° C.

Pastry is too dark on top

Place it on a lower shelf, lower the temperature, and increase the cooking time.

It is 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 or use greaseproof paper.

You used more than one shelf (in the fan assisted oven mode) and they are not all at the same cooking point.

Use a lower temperature setting. It is not necessary to remove the food from all the shelves at the same time.

Using the Grill

The Grill setting grills traditional foods perfectly (such as toasted sandwiches, hotdogs etc.). The Fanned Grill

setting is extremely useful for grilling foods rapidly, as the distribution of heat makes it possible not only to brown the surface but also to cook the bottom part. This mode can also be used for browning foods at the end of the cooking process.

Important: always use the grill with the oven door closed. This will allow you both to attain excellent results and to save energy (approximately 10%). For best results when using the grill, it is recommended to use the highest temperature (200°C) (175°C for fanned grilling), the grill pan should be placed on the higher shelf.

Cooking Fish and Meat

Meat must weigh at least 1kg to prevent it from drying out. When cooking white meat, fowl and fish, use temperature settings from 150 °C to 200 °C. For red meat that should be well done on the outside while tender and juicy in the inside, it is a good idea to start with a high temperature setting (200°C-220°C) for a short time, then turn the oven down afterwards. In general, the larger the roast, the lower the temperature setting. Place the meat on the centre of the shelf and place the grill pan/baking tray beneath it to catch the fat. Make sure that the shelf is inserted so that it is in the centre of the oven. If you would like to increase the amount of heat from below, use the low shelf positions.

Cooking Pizza

For best results when cooking pizza, use the “fan assisted” mode:

•Preheat the oven for at least 10 minutes.

•Use a light aluminium pizza pan, placing it on the shelf supplied with the oven. If the baking tray is used, this will extend the cooking time, making it difficult to get a crispy crust.

•Do not open the oven door frequently while the pizza is cooking.

•If the pizza has a lot of toppings (three or four), we recommend you add the mozzarella cheese on top halfway through the cooking process.

Cooling ventilation

In order to cool down the exterior of the appliance, it is fitted with a cooling fan that comes on when the function selector "G" is turned. In this case, the fan is always on and a normal flow of air can be heard exiting between the oven door and the control panel.

Note: when cooking is finished, the fan stays on until the oven has cooled down sufficiently, even if the function selector “G” is set to “0”.

Once you have removed the food from the oven, we rec- ommend you leave the oven door ajar for a few minutes, this will drastically reduce the duration of the cooling cycle. The process is controlled by an additional thermostat and can consist of one or more cycles.