Using the Ovens
When you are cooking, keep children away from the vicinity of the oven.
Using the Main Oven
Ignition main oven
Push in and turn the main oven control knob anti clockwise to the ‘FULL ON’ position (gas mark 9). The ignition system will spark automatically. Push in the control knob to ignite the gas. The sparking will stop. If after 15 seconds, the burner has not lit, turn off the oven and leave the compartment door open. Wait at least one minute before a further attempt to ignite the burner.
Do not hold the control knob in for more than 15 seconds.
Turn the control knob clockwise to the required setting.
To turn off, return the control knob to the “off” position.
Pre-heating
Most cooking times given in recipies, or on convenience foods are based on a preheated oven.
Always preheat the main oven for at least 15 minutes. This will give the oven chance to maintain it’s optimum temperature.
To achive the best results when cooking items which are chilled, frozen, yeast based, batters, souffles
or sponges the oven must be preheated.
If the oven is not preheated before use, cooking times will need to be extended.
Zones of heat - main oven
The temperature at the centre of the oven corresponds with the selected gas mark and is slightly higher towards the top of the oven and slightly lower towards the oven base.
These zones of heat can be useful as different dishes requiring different temperatures may be cooked at the same time - eg; the temperature at the oven base is suitable for cooking baked vegetables, baked fruit, milk pudding, etc, and for warming bread rolls, soup, coffee, or ovenproof plates and dishes.
Baking guide - hints
To protect a very rich fruit cake during cooking, stand the tin larger tin or tie 2 layers of brown paper around the tin.
Cooking times for pastry dishes depend on the size and type of cooking dish and also the filling.
When cooking 2 trays of items, remove the top item when it is cooked and raise the lower item to the higher shelf to finish cooking, or where additional browning of the base is required - eg; pies and pastries - interchange part way through cooking.
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