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?

Pre-heater here

You open the door anyway and let all the heat out to put food in. So I just see pre heating as a waste... guess I need to be educated?

No, like others I just add on the time it takes my oven to heat up.

This reminds me of American comedian Rich Hall’s Sniglets

I love Rich Hall - he's hilarious!

Incidentally, frozen broccoli and cauliflower go in too. So much nicer than steamed or boiled!

Oooh! That's interesting to know Coralfish. How long for?

love Rich Hall - he's hilarious!

SchadenfreudePersonified

Lol this is funny! I've never preheated and probably never will!

So, you never, ever bake?

Slowly heating frozen food is never a good idea. Dormant bacteria (if any) can start to multiply in the warm conditions and if the food is not heated to a high enough temperature for long enough then the food is more likely to make you ill.

Starting the food in a hot oven brings it to temperature more quickly giving bacteria (if any) less time to multiply and making it less likely to make you ill.

Obviously not all food will have any harmful bacteria to start with but you are definitely increasing the risk by not preheating.

No never

I ALWAYS preheat the oven. Not because I'm worried about cooking things through, as other posters said.

But purely because the instructions said so and it never crossed my mind to do anything other than what I was being told

I am not generally a rule follower and never stick to recipes when I cook properly, so I find myself baffled and astonished by this apparent reverence for The Commandments of the Freezer Gods

Think of all the time I have wasted! 🤦‍♀️

Nah, I stick everything in at the same time and don’t preheat the oven. Food always edible.

I tested this theory tonight.

Never usually pre-heat and food is always ok.

Pre-heated for 10 minutes, put my sausage rolls in (cooking time 30 minutes) and within 20 the fuckers were burnt.

So anyone saying pre-heat is wrong (and also owes me some sausage rolls )

OMG of course you got to preheat

Yes but my oven is shite and takes forever to cook things. Its 17 yrs old so I really should replace it.

No.

Um, the fact that “It hasn’t killed anyone yet” does not change the fact that you’re risking food poisoning, which can be particularly serious in children and other vulnerable groups, by not preheating.

Yeah I just chuck it in the oven, never preheat it and never time it. I just check it when it smells like it's cooked and judge if it needs more time or not.

I like to wing it.

No but then I bought an oven with a setting that basically means you don’t need to.

I used to pre-heat but then would forget and it would be on for an hour before any food went in

I usually heat the oven first, but I doubt it matters as long as the food is in there long enough to be properly cooked.

Of course, otherwise you can't follow the cooking instructions. I like the instructions. MiL doesn't - she just puts them in for the allotted time and then spends hours muttering about how her oven doesn't work properly. Infuriating.

Um, the fact that “It hasn’t killed anyone yet” does not change the fact that you’re risking food poisoning

I have to admit, my culinary bar is set shockingly low, and I am quite happy to settle for survival.

What doesn't kill us, strengthens us.

Always preheat the oven!

Yes.. electric oven so I always wait for the light to go off. I also cook for the exact number of minutes on the box. It just wouldn’t occur to me not to

Both. Preheat for mains esp chips which I can never get rightbut for small nibbles then straight in.