"Preheating" the oven is all BS right?

Children die every time someone doesn’t preheat an oven. It’s literal murder.

You need to have a proper starting point where you can be sure your dish isn't under, or over, cooked. Different ovens have different times when they reach their optimum temperature for cooking the dish.

'What am I missing?'

A properly cooked meal? Maybe you don't notice because you have no taste.

I've found that preheating only shortens the cooking time a few minutes. You're still using energy to heat the oven. I almost never preheat anymore. I just add a few minutes to the cooking time.

If I'm reheating something, I put it in for bout 10 min., then turn the oven off and leave it there for another 5-10 to make use of the energy used to generate that residual heat.

Everything tastes fine.

Please stop cooking. Anyone who fails so miserably at basic logic should not be anywhere near an open flame.

For baking it is very important that you preheat.

For cooking, it's not really important, but preheating makes cooking easier. You can cook things consistently by knowing what was the temperature when you put it and how long it should take. Otherwise it is a guessing game of when it is done.

I'm going to preheat the oven when I make my DUTCH BABY on Sunday.

R1 But preheating is a waste of time when you throw the children in the oven

The witch in Hansel and Gretel would disagree with you R8

As r6 said, it’s very important for baking.

Do you have to be shirtless and buff to preheat the oven?

Don't invite me over for cake, OP.

I don't bother preheating. I mean, if you're baking, obviously it's important. Otherwise, I can't be bothered.

Martha - what say you?

There are only two states an oven can be: heated or unheated.

…and preheated.

Unless the oven is at absolute zero it has heat.

R3 and I just got engaged!

It's really only an issue for baking.

Who is the guy shown in the OP?

Gotta preheat if you want things to come out crispy like chicken nuggets or roasted potatoes. Sometimes it’s even a good thing to preheat the baking pan first before you put the food (tossed with olive oil) in. I do frozen broccoli like this and it always comes out nicely charred.

preheating ensures the inside cooks at the same rate as the inside. if you cook a frozen pizza without preheating the cheese and toppings will burn but the crust will be soft and underdone

*outside

You absolutely MUST preheat the oven when cooking a Yorkshire pudding. If you don't, it comes out all wrong. This rule also applies for many dough/pastry-type things.

Ah, yes. Popovers.

Everyone's favorite bread is burnt to a crisp on the outside and still doughy on the inside.

R16 missed the point entirely.

One thing I've discovered is that you don't need to start heating the water before you put pasta or potatoes in to boil. You can start them in cold water. But you'll need to adjust the cooking time and check for doneness rather than depending on the package directions or your recipe.

Is this new draining pasta thread??

I live by the meat thermometer. As above stated, for baking it's necessary to preheat. For general cooking, shove that thermometer in the thickest part of your meat, turn on the recommended temperature for the recipe. It will take a little longer to cook, but it's always the perfect cooked to the perfect temperature. I cook bacon in the oven. Tray lined with parchment paper, set for 425, place in non preheated oven and baked to perfection in 20 minutes or less. I buy reduced salt bacon, which tends to be thinner, and may cook faster.

OP, 'm surprised you made it to whatever age you are.

[quote] place in non preheated oven

Now THAT's what I'm looking for!

Preheating is like prelubing: you’ll end up with a shitty mess if you don’t do it.

Some dishes you can bake without preheating. I bake a particular pound cake recipe that calls for starting in a cold oven. You simply have to cook it longer. But some dishes would be ruined if you tried to start them in a cold oven.

I always prelube. I use a time released lube, the sphincter absorbs the lube, then releases with friction.

"I almost never preheat anymore. I just add a few minutes to the cooking time."

The stupid. It hurts.

R15, it can be overheated, like my boyfriend on Saturday night! Ooo-la-la

Here are the facts.

It's a matter of categories and ingredients. Preheating is important for many things. With some others it's not. In very rare cases a recipe will suggest popping something into a cold oven and letting it warm with the oven temperature. But the default for purposes of timing, which can be estimated only from a standard temperature, is to preheat. Of course, no one but the most thoughtful cooks have their oven temperatures calibrated, so the length of baking/roasting/whatever differs inevitably by cases, and the temperature of items heading into a preset (or just-lit/turned-on oven) makes a difference, too.

BUT in the case of the OP, who is heating frozen pizzas or other frozen crap, it doesn't matter whether the oven is preheated or not. To such typical Americans just now discovering that there is an appliance in their kitchenettes that gets hot, what does it matter to us, for that matter, what they do? It's not like the heat's or lack of heat's precise effect on a duck skin or how the butter in a pastry is going to melt differently is going to matter.

And since to such eaters the quality of the dish doesn't matter either, and the idea of "quality" is an abstract unreachable by their tongues or their minds, the heat of an oven at any portion of time in the process of "gettin' the shit goin'" means nothing. And don't confuse them ever by saying it's hot enough outside to fry an egg on the sidewalk, or the fool OP will crack it open and drop it at dawn because there ain't no need nohow to git that sidewalk preheated.

A rising crust frozen pizza will not turn out well if the oven is not preheated. Side note: Wondering if there's a really good reason as to why some people just can't follow the fucking cooking instructions....

Well they never give instructions on HOW to preheat the oven, we're just supposed to know this stuff?

^^^ “Fold in the cheese.” What does that mean?!

I've tried folding cheese and it just breaks.

I wonder if there are any food safety issues with putting something in a non-preheated oven. I know that some slow-cookers have food safety issues because they take too long to reach the target temperature and the food can be held at an unsafe temperature for too long.

[quote] A rising crust frozen pizza will not turn out well if the oven is not preheated.

It's a frozen pizza. It's always going to taste like crap.

No. Frozen pizza is not ideal, but a Frescetta doctored up with a few more toppings and more cheese is surprisingly satisfying.

During winter I bet OP just shuts his oven door right after turning it off.

I've been buying the Mediterranean frozen Pizza at Whole Foods. It's good for frozen pizza.

F40, you have to lean into the oven to see if it is lite. Farther... Farther ..

preheating is to cooking as foreplay is to sex,......everything comes out better if the heat is on when it goes in

you must be boring in bed OP

R40/OP - let's use a bag of Ora Ida french fries - On the back of the bag will be cooking instructions - the very first instruction for OVEN cooking should be "PREHEAT oven to 400 degrees F" - You would then walk to your oven, reach for the oven knob or buttons, set knob to 400 OR turn oven on and set to 400 via the buttons for the digital display - Your oven should give a loud BEEP at least once, but perhaps 2-3 times in quick succession to alert that it is now preheated to 400 degrees - should your oven NOT have this beeping alert feature, then on average it takes an oven to preheat to 350 degrees in about 10 minutes. 450 degrees takes about 15 minutes - adjust from there.

R40 is NOT the OP.

It’s a good idea to let what you are going to cook come up to room temperature first, if you have time. It will cook more evenly. Oh, and of course you should pre-heat philistine!!!

The great thing about microwave cooking is there’s no need to preheat.

[quote]It’s a good idea to let what you are going to cook come up to room temperature first, if you have time.

That really only applies to meat. You shouldn't do that with most frozen foods.

R54 I don’t cook frozen food.

My microwave doesn't have a tempreture gage, if a recipe calls for a 350 degree oven, I just have to guess.