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?

Why can't I get the crossed out line to work in these posts?!

Yup, preheat until the light goes off.

Only for certain things that require special attention - like baking cakes but not bread - bread is fine going into a cold oven. Frozen chip etc - would just get chicked in.

I always warm the oven up first. Always have done, probably always will. It's a habit now.

I preheat. OH doesn't.

OH's food often comes out warm but not hot and goes back in for a few more minutes on a regular basis. Mine never does.

So many posters saying they don't preheat but add on a bit of time at the end.

So what do they think they're gaining by putting food into a cold oven and then leaving it in longer.

I imagine frozen food should be cooked at the temperature advised by the manufacturer if it's to come out of the oven at it's best, both in terms of being cooked thoroughly and for taste and texture.

If you put it in a cold oven it's being slowly warmed through for the first five minutes or so, rather than being cooked at the right temperature from the beginning. Surely that would affect the quality of the finished food?

And if you then go on to add a few minutes at the end, you're not even saving any time.

You are saving time because the few Minutes at the end if needed will never be as much as the preheating tine. Just to note all ovens are different - when my oven reads 200C it’s not going to be the same temp as your oven at 200c or the test kitchen’s oven. They will all vary. So the best way to avoid overcooking is to never leave it in the over for the recommended time before checking, check it 5-10mins earlier and adjust your cooking time accordingly. Of course some people like over done food.

If you have an electric fan oven - you do not need to preheat the oven for any food if the cooking time is 20 minutes or more
A non fan electric oven- needs to be preheated to the correct cooking temperature before putting the food in
If you have a gas oven - the oven needs to be on for 5-10 minutes before you put the food in however long it takes
If you have an Aga - put the food in the oven in the morning and it will be cooked by the evening, if you want sausages for breakfast put them in before you go to bed

Haven't read the comments but I wait until the light goes out, yeah.

No

I always, always pre-heat the oven. Before reading this thread if had honestly never occurred to me that some people wouldn't bother.

No. I kind of time cooking in cigarettes ie does it look cooked? Hmm, not yet. Will go and have a cigarette then look at it again. (repeat as many times as necessary.)
You might all be clutching your pearls but our dinners are generally tasty enough and none of us has died yet.

I always preheat the oven.

Dh insists on shoving things straight in, but i say if he wants to get food poisoning and pebbledash the toilet with diarrhoea, he's going to have to clean up the mess and make sure the bog brush goes in the dishwasher at the end of the day.

Ive never heard of people not preheating an oven! If the food needs 20 mins at 180 (or whatever), how can chucking it in at room temp do the trick? And with chicken? No chance would i risk illness from undercooking. Dh and i always preheat.

I put everything straight in, I'm yet to have food poisoning - most frozen food is crap any way.

How about this question?

How many of you let your meat or chicken reach room temperature before you put it in the oven? Or do you put it in straight from the fridge? That is more likely to cause food poisoning if you are following the time guidelines to the minute.

Eeek! Fastidiously preheat our fan oven before putting anything in. It only takes about three minutes.

I preheat the oven, because I don't want to figure out the extra time to add otherwise, but I don't bother preheating the baking trays.

I don’t preheat, but to be honest I don’t really use the oven for anything important (eg just reheating pizza, baked potatoes, M&S ready meals etc) so no real risk of uneven cooking/baking! Boring vegetarian over here. No food poisoning as yet

Preheating the oven in unnecessary for that sort of thing. It matters for baked goods but not much else.

My mum does this winging it malarkey, “Oh it’ll be ready when it’s ready.” Then whatever veggies or sides you are supposed to be eating with the oven stuff either get overcooked or undercooked.

I like to time things so that everything is ready at the same time. I assumed this was normal.

I always pre-heat; occasionally if I'm in a hurry I'll shove things in when it's nearly at temperature (say 160 rather than 180). My oven heats pretty quickly though.
I never use a timer function, but I guess if you do, you're starting cooking from cold, so if they design ovens that way it can't be too much of a big deal.

I do if I use the small oven as that is conventional oven but the fan oven part I don't as I thought fan ovens only needed preheating when making bread.

Why can't I get the crossed out line to work in these posts?!

Are you doing a double-hyphen immediately before and after the bit you want crossed out? And making sure there isn't a space at the beginning or end?

Messing with this is how I usually cock up my crossy-out or bold.

Sorry - that previous post was for Topazance