Quick Fixes for Uneven Baking in a New Oven Before Calling for Appliance Repair

When your old oven finally decided to cook its last meal, you headed straight to your local appliance store and purchased a brand new shiny oven. You’ve never been a mastermind in the kitchen, but every time you cook something in your new appliance it comes out unevenly cooked. Your frustration level begins to sky-rocket as you think of the money you spent on the appliance.

Like most things in your life, a new oven can take a while to get use to. Before you throw in the towel and call a oven appliance repair company, try a few of these tricks to find out if your oven cooking unevenly is a malfunction that needs to be handled by a professional, or a problem you can solve on your own.

After years of use, the temperature in an older oven has a tendency to get hotter. When you begin using your new oven, which comes calibrated correctly, you may find yourself frustrated with the amount of time food takes to cook. Before you throw in the towel and come to the conclusion that your new oven is broken, test the appliance by baking a cake and following the temperature and cooking time in the directions to a tee. If your cake comes out cooked evenly it is safe to assume, your new appliance is working properly, and it’s only a matter of getting use to your oven’s heating and cooking times.
If your new oven is baking your food unevenly, your problem can be as simple as the appliance not standing level. Investing in a carpenter’s leveler, if you don’t already have one, is the easiest way to diagnose the problem. Placing the leveler on top of the appliance and checking both side to side and front to back tells you which part of your oven is the lowest. Whether the issue is your oven’s leveling legs or your floor being uneven, a quick adjustment to the appliance’s legs should solve your problem.
Poor circulation in your oven can cause uneven cooking. You can avoid this problem by not crowding the oven racks with pans. Leaving a sufficient amount of space between baking pans while cooking allows your oven to heat properly. While covering the oven bottom or a rack with aluminum foil makes for a quick clean-up, it can drastically effect the air circulation and the general baking results of the appliance.
The finishing on a pan used in your oven influences the cooking times of your food. When you bake with a darker pan, you must take into account that they absorb heat, which produces a darker browning. A shiny pan reflects heat, so you are left with a lighter browning. When you use a darker pan or a glass pan, it is recommended you reduce your baking temperature.
Uneven cooking in a new oven is caused by many factors. Before phoning an appliance repair company consider the above recommendations. If your appliance is still baking your food unevenly, please contact us today, and we’ll have your oven working properly in no time.