Gas oven too hot?

[Dave-G]

I have COPD and even mild smoke sets me into a coughing fit that's sometimes scary. Sunday lunch cooking is usually a bad time for me to be in the house despite the nice smell of cooking but yesterday I actually saw smoke in the atmosphere. I took the batteries out the smoke alarm years ago because they went off with any use of the oven.

The wife has bad arthritis - especially in her hands that have become very badly deformed. I'm a typical bloke who went to work and left most domestics to the wife - especially those in the kitchen, and most specifically the washing up. 😮 

Now I'm fully retired I help out more in there and spent a few hours cleaning baked on grease from assorted baking and roasting trays yesterday, some of it can't have ever been cleaned off anywhere near properly. The wife kept telling me to not be so fussy, they're cheap enough to buy new ones but I explained just how bad the smoke affects my breathing and kept going, OK I got some brownie point there. 🙂

So she started into the oven with Mr. Muscle today - as she does about twice a year. She even has a set up where the oven racks are put into a bag to soak in something that I don't know about. After that was done I took a look at them... they still had crusty drips of dried baked on grease all over the place and the under edges of the drip tray above the burners were similar to P20 abrasive paper!  About four hours I'd got them done with wire wool, a wire brush for tight corners and weld joints - it was a bit of a workout to be fair. She'd not be able to do that herself.

I sometimes hear chicken and other stuff spitting in the oven while I'm on the other side of the kitchen/diner using the PC. So - my question is, is the burnt on **** because she sets the oven too hot? I'm hesitant to put that to her unless I'm sure its correct because us guys din't ought to criticise a wife's cooking.

I'm thinking turning it down will just make it take a bit longer - dare I risk teaching her to suck eggs?

 

Edited Monday at 15:01 by Dave-G

[ditchman]

Normal medium chicken should be done at 180-200 degs max for one and a half hours.........take it from there

[TIGHTCHOKE]

As above, no reason for an oven to be set at much more than 200 degrees C theses days.

What are the controls set at?

[Dougy]

@Dave-G

Mr Muscle is a waste of time, he's definitively not had his Weetabix. 

Get yourself a couple of "Oven Pride" boxs and follow instruction's, Mrs D may be using this stuff though. 

It says leave over night, for stubborn stuff leave longer, keep basting the dirty trays and racks keeping the chemical on to work, WEAR GLOVES AND KEEP OFF ANY WOOD WORK TOPS  Your hands wont drop off but it will burn, and mark wooden work tops. 

You can check the thermostat works by putting water in an over proof container, Pyrex bowl or similar, set temp to 90c or 200f it should not boil, then when its up to temp check its not boiling, then raise temp to 110c or 225f it should then boil. 

Top end temp use sugar, set temp at 177c 350f place a table spoon of sugar in a small foil made dish, it should melt, if it does its too hot, sugar melts at 186c 375f. 

The above costs nothing but time and the cost of heating the oven, or you could spend £6 on an oven thermometer. 

 

I never thought i would be thanking my "O" level cookery course on a shooting forum.  

Edited Monday at 17:08 by Dougy

[bruno22rf]

Would it not be a good idea to have an extractor fan fitted that vents outside? As for smoke I'm afraid it's kinda difficult to prevent, anything with fat in/on will spit and mist so your gas oven with an exposed flame is going to ignite and burn causing smoke. If your health is a major concern might I suggest getting an Air Purifier and have it in your sitting room, the dust they take from the air is amazing and they remove smells/smoke as well.

[ditchman]

25 minutes ago, bruno22rf said:

Would it not be a good idea to have an extractor fan fitted that vents outside? As for smoke I'm afraid it's kinda difficult to prevent, anything with fat in/on will spit and mist so your gas oven with an exposed flame is going to ignite and burn causing smoke. If your health is a major concern might I suggest getting an Air Purifier and have it in your sitting room, the dust they take from the air is amazing and they remove smells/smoke as well.

i have a carbon filter air cleaner above the cooker

[bruno22rf]

52 minutes ago, ditchman said:

i have a carbon filter air cleaner above the cooker

We have the same, in fact a row of 3 across the range cooker but they clog up over the years to a point where they dont really work so they need changing, more expense!!

[Dave-G]

Thank you all. we'll see how next Sunday goes with a lower oven temp and the sparkling clean interior. I've never checked the settings she uses but I'll be doing that from now on.

The cooker was bought new when we moved in over the millennium weekend - so its 25 years old.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

As an aside, I used to line the oven with foil and it kept a lot of the splashes off the walls.

Changed the foil every couple of months.

[Robden]

A few years ago, with a new oven, everything seemed to be under done. When we checked it, the thermostat was lower than the dial reading. So, maybe yours could be the opposite.

[marsh man]

We bought a new built in oven ( neff ) when we first bought the place where I am now , my wife then done all the cooking in the top and bottom ovens , to give me something to do when she passed away I cleaned both the ovens and brought them back looking like new , I would spray the cleaner in the oven just before I went to bed, then shut the oven door and leave it over night , it did involve a lot of donkey work with soft wire wool but now it is dead easy to keep clean , I don't use the bottom oven much and I still can't work out what all the symbols are on the dials but most of my meals I can get into the top oven and now I am getting used to it if the meal is underdone or overdone it is normally down to me rather than the cooker at fault , a case of living and learning     MM

[ditchman]

49 minutes ago, marsh man said:

We bought a new built in oven ( neff ) when we first bought the place where I am now , my wife then done all the cooking in the top and bottom ovens , to give me something to do when she passed away I cleaned both the ovens and brought them back looking like new , I would spray the cleaner in the oven just before I went to bed, then shut the oven door and leave it over night , it did involve a lot of donkey work with soft wire wool but now it is dead easy to keep clean , I don't use the bottom oven much and I still can't work out what all the symbols are on the dials but most of my meals I can get into the top oven and now I am getting used to it if the meal is underdone or overdone it is normally down to me rather than the cooker at fault , a case of living and learning     MM

john you are a born survivor............i know a few old boys who wives have died...and they are totally inept when it comes to cooking..and they havt the intelligence to learn to boil an egg......and bit by bit they waste away

sooooo...good for you

[Dave-G]

Thanks again all, I ought to have pointed out we switched from seed cooking oils to Lard a few months ago. 

Dunno if that matters a jot.

[Dave-G]

3 minutes ago, Dave-G said:

Thanks again all, I ought to have pointed out we switched from seed cooking oils to Lard a few months ago. 

Dunno if that matters a jot.

EDIT: I just had a quick Google and it seems that lard has a lower smoke point than seed oils.... 🤨

[ditchman]

lard is great for cooking .....but if you treat it bad it will smoke like hell..........cooking chips are an example unless you cook them in a temp controlled deep fat fryer..

[Dave-G]

8 minutes ago, ditchman said:

lard is great for cooking .....but if you treat it bad it will smoke like hell..........cooking chips are an example unless you cook them in a temp controlled deep fat fryer..

Cheers me dear.

[Agriv8]

On 14/01/2025 at 14:52, ditchman said:

lard is great for cooking .....but if you treat it bad it will smoke like hell..........cooking chips are an example unless you cook them in a temp controlled deep fat fryer..

Or get a cooks oil thermometer! Perfect chips and beer battered onion rings every time !

Agriv8

[ditchman]

1 minute ago, Agriv8 said:

Or get a cooks oil thermometer! Perfect chips and beer battered onion rings every time !

Agriv8

a decent chip fat fryer only costs less than £30 quid...temp right everytime

[clangerman]

to stop the copd kicking of when cooking I leave the back door open a bit touch cold but saves hacking 

[JohnfromUK]

A key bit of my cooking 'toolbox' is my ETI Thermapen.  Used to check food is cooked internally to correct temperature.  Not cheap, but a great help in getting things done 'just right'.  Whilst overcooked rather spoils the food, undercooked (especially poultry) can be risky.  Knowing the temperature of the actual food minimises risks.