Please advise me with regard to Oven Shelves!! Which sort are most useful/necessary?

[Flightattendant12]

I have an ex display oven which came with one, yes one, delightfully inadequate oven shelf.

It is a wire one.

I've been sent a diagram with all the available parts on by Smeg-R-us (joke) and am being asked to choose which ones I want.

The trouble is there are about 5 different oven shelves as far as I can see, and I can't afford the lot, so what sort do I want?

Please be gentle, I am a cooking/baking virgin and the problem has only aris (?) due to the fact I could not cook both ready made chicken balls and oven chips on the same shelf.

There is the choice of:

1. another wire rack

1. a wire rack on top of a grill pan (already have second oven/grill with one of these in, but it don't fit the main oven)

1. a plain flat shelf thing by the look of it.

(that's 3 innit, duh)

I do intend to do some baking and generally make use of it, but what is the shelf of choice please.

Thankyou

Wire rack

If you have a grill pan you are unlikely to need another

I never had a flat shelf & tbh I'm not sure how the heat would distribute over it

Ah thankyou I thought I mihgt have done boring thread of the year for a minute

Yes that;s what concerned me. Distribution factor.

But it would be good for pizzas and various small items requiring stability, non? for instance a little pie.

don't feel obliged to stay and answer that, I understand boredom threshold may have been reached

Yes but you would put that on a baking sheet then on the grill

You wouldn't want to be washing the shelves every use (well I wouldn't)

That's true.

hmm.

& also what would you put the next thing in the ove on if you washing the sheet?

that would be a genuine prblem. I am a slow washer upper.

Thankyou Katymac. I will order the wire rack

wire rack.

you want a wire rack, i have one wire rack and a bottom flat shelf it is not great as it gets too hot and then bottom of things gobrown and crispy before being cooked on top

Ah it is looking definitive now.

I am sure I heard of things that wanted cooking on a flat tray. Where did I read that?

I have got a pizza stone so could use that on it for pizza, (didn't actually occur to me until now)

No that was it - I need a tray to put under a shelf, to collect drips. Does that sound right? Otherwise all the drips (cheese etc) fall on the bottom and stick.

Maybe one of each then?

Would having a tray under a shelf affect heat circulation? It is a fan oven.

i got a silicone mat in lidl for four quid, put that on the bottom and it's easy to get the drips off. or just use a crappy old baking tray. i wouldn't buy something special.

Wouldn't you just put a baking sheet under it?

I haven't got a big one

I could just get a big one.

tell you something weird about my fan oven... it's an under counter double oven and has racks for three shelves BUT the instructions say not to put anything on the middle shelf as that is problematic for air circulation. weird, eh? must be a standard design regardless of whether it's a fan or not.

Whats a silicon mat, please H?

It says in the 'manual' I'm not allowed to put a tray on the bottom of the oven, as it could damage the surface. Blardy Italian manual nonsense. Translated from what probably originally said 'Hoh yes please do put a baking sheet on the bottom to catch any drips, they arte available from Lidl'.

What? Not put anything on the middle shelf> so why give you a middle shelf? To catch people out who don't read the booklet, thus invalidating their insurance cover?

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280296790921&cguid=fb945e1411c0a0e202d22582ffedc66e

bidding ended but it was 2 quid. generally about 15 tho'.

Wow, that is really useful looking bit of kit. I think I might get one just for the worktops if not in the oven, thanks Aitch

i bought two in lidl. one for rolling out baking, the other for the oven floor.