Settle an argument for me. Do you do this...

[PinkBalloon123]

When cooking frozen food, chips or a birds eye breaded chicken etc. I just whack it in the oven for half an hour job done. But...

do you heat the oven up first?

I preheat if it's something that cooks quick like fish fingers or chicken nuggets. I don't bother for roast meats as they're in so long I figure the extra 5 mins heating up is neither here nor there

Always preheat.

My oven takes 15 minutes to get to the correct temperature- so yes I always preheat

Wow I'm really surprised at these answers! I always preheat until the light goes off and even with that leave in for an extra few minutes!

Always preheat. Slowly warming frozen food isn't a good idea, especially if its not achieving the proper core temperature.

Always, why wouldn't you plus makes a massive difference to oven chips

I'm slightly shocked that people don't preheat the oven!

Only if I'm baking

No, just whack it in at the same time and add a bit of time on to account for it.

I do for cakes or things that cook quickly like oven chips or fish. I don’t bother for other things.

oven is on all the time.... but with electric yes I heat the oven first till its at temp

Yes because it starts cooking the bottom of whatever I'm making as soon as it goes in.

Yes always.

Yes. I thought everyone did. My oven takes a good 15 minutes to get to temperature, and most recipes state preheat the oven. It's common sense to do so, surely.

Yes but it comes up to temp really quickly.

I turn the oven on, walk 2 metres to the freezer and back and bung it in. That's my version of pre-heating

Totally shocked at those who don’t pre heat!!

I pre-heat but that's because my oven hates me and takes a year and a half to get warm so if I just put the food in cold I have no idea when it actually started cooking from. If I had a fast heating oven I so wouldn't!

I guess it depends on the oven. Mine reaches temperature in a few minutes and preheating makes zero difference to the result of most things.

And preheating takes ages btw. I saw some food scientist on that factory programme explaining that if your oven has an indicator lamp it only tells you when the air is the correct temperature but that it takes a good 15 or so minutes for the trays, shelves and oven walls to be hot enough. When I started leaving my oven to preheat for much longer, I no longer had the soggy bottom/burnt top on things like pies and pizzas.

I always preheat

I try to for at least 10 mins. I have gas and it can heat unevenly unless preheated properly. Don't like the raw/cremated combo on the same tray of food because the front didn't heat cook as fast as the back.

I don't heat the oven up for frozen food unless it's for pizza, my husband does for everything.

I really don’t understand the pre heating thing
Why would you have an empty oven while it’s warming up? Obviously you need to add a bit more onto the cooking time to allow for it but it makes much more sense for the oven to start cooking the food as soon as it’s switched on rather than cooking nothing but air