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 didn’t used to preheat until I met my husband who told me to put it in when the res light went off. I find it cooks the food better now

Yes I do.

I pre-heat the oven with the empty oven tray inside. I firmly believe this gives crispier chips.

I always preheat to get required temperature and then cook required time or even a few minutes more.

Just whack it in- no pre heat- when it’s cooked it’s cooked

My oven takes about 20 minutes to heat, so I'd need to add at least 10-15 to make sure things were thoroughly cooked. So it's just easier to put things into the right temperature to start with. If you have to add time by putting things into a cold oven, then you may as well do it as per the instructions.

I think if you are cooking items like chips which would normally go into boiling hot fat then a preheated oven is a good idea. It helps to crisp them up on the outside, same with breaded coated type food. If it's something that you are just reheating, that's already cooked, putting it in to an unheated oven won't make much difference to the overall result as long as you heat it through properly. I also like to warm the plates before I serve hot food as it helps to keep the food hot for longer.

No I don't, and I never set it to the temp that the packet says either. I just put it on max.
And I put everything in the oven, even if it's supposed to be grilled.

You clearly don't do any baking Hopping

Frozen chips taste much better if the oven is preheated, crispy rather than hard.

No I would only preheat the oven if I was baking a cake or something which is hardly ever

Yes I do. Never occurred to me not to. Some foods specify a pre heated oven (oven chips) and a pre heated tray too. Might need a rethink after reading this.

Not for freezer food, I just turn it up a bit higher at first & cook for a bit longer.

Always do for roast potatoes though while the potatoes are par boiling & the tray is in with the fat on getting nice & hot.

I have to put my baking trays in while the oven heats up, then nothing sticks to them.
I don't like to use parchment paper all the time,such a waste.

Yeah we pre-heat the oven was handy when the element blew and we realised it wasn’t hitting up before we put our dinner in to cook....

Nope! DP does, I never do!

regardless of what I am cooking, I just shove it in and turn the dial to an approx number. then when it's cooked I take it out. literally never looked at timings or instructions when cooking food. never had a problem with this method.

I follow baking instructions to the t though.

The idea of not preheating the oven makes me feel a bit sick

Fan oven - I give it 5 minutes, it really heats up pretty quickly. Which is about the time to faff about getting stuff out of the freezer and onto trays etc.
Rayburn - this is oil, takes a good 20 minutes to get to temperature, so I generally ring /text home and get someone to put it on in advance or set the timer for it to come on and be hot when I need it.

I don’t I just whack them in

No I normally forget or in a rush.

I'm surprised to see so many preheaters.
I always gently mock DH for being such a square and following instructions to the letter.
'come on live a little, stick it in now'

Yeah I pre-heat until the oven temp light goes off.
The whole point of cooking for a set amount of time is that you cook at the desired temperature.

Rarest use commercially frozen food. The Aga is usually hot anyway so no need to preheat.