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Modifying cooking due to oven failure

nossmf

My oven is 20 years old, and just this week it's chosen to start failing, right in time for Thanksgiving. The new noises I can work around, and the range top seems to be still working just fine, it's the baking interior which is slightly off in temperature…the last two meals I cooked I had to add extra time to ensure everything was cooked all the way through.

On my way home from work today I'm going to grab an oven thermometer so I can see where the temp is exactly, so it's possible I may still be able to cook Thanksgiving meal as normal by adjusting the temp setting a little higher to offset the reduction encountered.

But just in case the oven proves completely unreliable to bake things until we can afford a replacement, we've been discussing alternative methods of cooking…

For the turkey, we have a countertop roaster we bought years ago, tried once to less-than-satisfying results, but can brush off the dust and use.
For the ham, which is already cooked and mostly just needs to be warmed up, we can plunk it in the crock pot.
For the dinner rolls, I was thinking about firing up my BBQ grill to a controlled low setting with the lid closed, hoping the baking sheet closest to the flames doesn't overheat and burn the rolls from the bottom up while the center/top remains uncooked.

All the rest of our meal items are stovetop or microwave based. We also have access to an air fryer, which is large enough for the dinner rolls perhaps but not the meats.

This thread is mostly just me venting and thinking through my thoughts "out loud" as it were, but has anybody else experienced a failure of a cooking appliance and been forced to modify their cooking method to still get a desired result?

Replies

acpgee

Some cheap tools that you can probably get with next day delivery might help on the big day. Both take no room to store. The meat thermometer is the size of a dinner fork, and I keep my blow torch attached to a gas canister in the shelf with bottles of oil and vinegar.

An instant read meat thermometer which cost me about $10 and is really useful, even when you have a working oven. Not sure about turkey but chicken is cooked perfectly when the internal temperature is 72C or 160F. Google internal temperature for other types of meat for the degree of doneness you want.

I haven't tried browning poultry with my blow torch, but have used it for scorching fish that I was afraid of otherwise overcooking it. Go for a blow torch head that fits onto a gas canister for camping. I bought mine for about $14. The smaller ones designed for kitchen use need to be filled with lighter fluid so are fiddly. Also more expensive on average.

I bake bread, cheesecake, pies and casseroles in my air fryer. But alas you do need baking tins that fit in it. Also it might mean having to cook in batches. But that might be manageable if you can use your oven for warming things up just before service, or keeping things warm.

acpgee

For browning poultry, you might consider brushing on a glaze that contains sugar which should caramelize at low heat. In my family we glazed birds with a half and half mixture of honey and mustard. The tricky thing is timing. In a hot oven I would brush on the glaze with 10 minutes to go to prevent it from burning. If you don't want the sweetness, you might try brushing on a thin coat of soy sauce or anything else that adds colour.

acpgee

I might have an oven problem at Xmas. I had to order an 11 lb goose because the smaller ones were sold out. I am hoping it will fit in my built in oven which has a standard external width of 60 cm.

nossmf

Update: the countertop roaster worked great! In fact, it cooked the bird in HALF the time I expected. Based on size, I was counting on eating at 6pm, but grew suspicious at 2pm about the state of the bird so checked the internal temperature, and sure enough, the roaster had completely cooked the bird in only three hours when oven directions would have expected closer to six. So I turned the roaster to a "keep warm" setting and got the rest of the food ready, and we ended up eating at 3 instead of at 6. Turkey came out so moist and perfect, my daughter suggested that even if we get the oven issues ironed out, we should continue to use the roaster on future meals! lol