Help me understand traybakes

[HelpfulDH]

I see so many great recipes for traybakes and have been checking out the Roasting Tin books and love the idea of a one pan meal... but! It just never works for me!

What am I doing wrong?

If I put raw potato in a tray in my oven i swear it could cook for hours and still be raw. Or it will just stick and burn.

Is it my oven? My tray? I don't understand!

Everytime I see a recipe that says "and roast for 20 minutes " I mentally discard it as I know it would take ages. I've occasionally successfully roasted small pieces of sweet potatoes and Cauliflower but again that took at least 45 minutes, and some bits did get a bit burnt, while others were a little underdone.

Oh ffs I really thought I was on here reading about some Protestants secrets recipes 🤦‍♀️ 🤤🤤

Are you practicing good 'oven management' as my old be-ro recipe book calls it? 😂

We’ve just had a traybake.

Chicken thighs
Tinned potatoes
Mahoosive bag of peppers roughly chopped
Halved onions
My go-to powder mix: which contains - garlic granules + onion granules + dried herbs + smoked paprika + paprika
Splash of wine/gin (!)

Went in when spouse took kiddies upstairs for bedtime and whilst I finished up some work. 40 mins later we sit down to eat!

The Nigella one linked to hasn’t worked well for me with burnt chorizo and raw chicken - again, I think it comes down to sizes of pieces.

this mary berry sausage traybake works for me.

Preheat the oven with the roasting tin inside it. Slice solid veg like potatoes or carrots a bit smaller and stick them around the edges of the pan, as that gets hotter. Put more delicate veg, like tomatoes or courgettes, in the centre of the pan, that heats up less. If it says 30 mins, don't open the oven door for 30 mins, check on stuff then put back for 10 mins, or if cooked through but a bit pale, put under the grill for a couple of minutes before serving.

@ElizabethinherGermanGarden

If you're not a Protestant, that might be the source of your problem.

For those going "Huh?", I give you the MN Protestant Traybake Thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/3527870-Which-is-the-tastiest-Protestant-traybake

Do you have an oven thermometer? It may be your thermostat is wrongly calibrated. Next time you put the oven on check whether the actual temperature gets close to what you have set. There are videos on recalibrating the knobs but even if you don't want to do that knowing you need to set it 20 degrees higher than the temperature you want could help tide you over until you can get a new one.

I only clicked on the thread thinking it was protestant tray bakes

@PerkingFaintly I got to the end of page 1 (I have the max number of posts per page on my settings) and then realised there were another 9 pages!

Surely a recipe book came out of that thread?! I've barely heard of any those tray bakes and I want to make them all (except the one with mashed potato in). But another many hundred posts might be beyond me!

Could it be that you are using the temp. & timings for a fan oven and your oven is not fan-assisted ?

@PerkingFaintly thank you! I couldn't re-find it earlier. It is true that Protestants have the best traybakes: the Pope says so. theulsterfry.com/featured/protestants-make-the-best-traybakes-admits-pope/

100% your oven. We recently got a new one (without getting a new kitchen which we also need!) and everything cooks so much better. I made a traybake the other day and literally just shoved the veg in a tray (tossed in oil) and chicken thighs on top with chorizo sprinkled around, put in oven at 180 fan for about 45 min and everything was perfect. No turning, no chopping things small. It is a decent Neff oven that cost about £900 but still… the problem is your oven!

I just bought the Green Roasting Tin and in that the author did say that if your tray is too small, things will be piled up and that will slow down the cooking.