TIPS TO MAXIMIZE OVEN SPACE AND COOK MULTIPLE DISHES

Not all dishes need to be baked on the day they’re going to be served. Most pies, for instance, can be made ahead of time and then reheated before serving. Review your recipes to determine if any dishes can be baked in advance.

Once you’ve settled on your recipes, you need to make a concrete plan to ensure every dish is properly cooked for mealtime. 

The first step to planning any multi-course meal is to determine when you want food ready to eat. Then, work backward from there to determine what needs oven space, how much space is needed, and when it must start cooking. You may want to cook baked goods or dishes that need less time to cook and time to rest first, then move on to dishes like meats that often require more cooking times. 

You also must plan for dishes that need a quick rewarming or a brief broil before serving.

Cooking multiple dishes at once often means putting entrees, sides, and desserts in the oven at the same time, even if they cook at different temperatures. Most people don’t realize that you can bake several dishes at once by setting your oven to the average recommended temperature across recipes. For instance, if one dish cooks at a temperature of 350℉ and another at 400℉, set the temperature to 375℉. What’s important here is to monitor each dish closely as it cooks to ensure it doesn’t burn or end up being undercooked, for when you want to serve it.

Remember, baked goods and other recipes that rely on precise cooking temperatures must be baked according to the recipe’s recommended temperature. Using a double oven like the double wall ovens from KitchenAid brand gives you the freedom to manage multiple cook times and temperatures to create extravagant meals in one shot. You can create even more using a KitchenAid^® countertop oven with select models equipped with settings your main oven may not have, such as convection cooking, air frying, and proofing for bread dough.

Ovens require hot air circulation to thoroughly cook dishes. This means that dishes that are situated too close together on racks may prevent food from achieving an even cook. It’s best to leave a couple of inches between dishes and another couple of inches between the dishes and the oven wall, ensuring that no bakeware overlaps. Also, make sure that no two dishes are directly above or beneath each other.

You may have other appliances capable of prepping ingredients for your meal. If possible, consider using a convection cooking setting like the one on these KitchenAid^® microwaves to bake dishes similar to how an oven would, or crisp and brown foods with an air fryer or air fry setting like the one on select KitchenAid^® countertop ovens. Select models usually have 9–12 settings for common cooking techniques, which can free up oven space, including but not limited to:

• Broiling

• Roasting

• Baking

• Proofing dough 

Conventional ovens employ radiant heat generated from the elements at the top and bottom of the oven cavity. This is why dishes closer to an element will potentially cook faster. Some ovens may also get hotter near the back, where heat has less time and opportunity to escape when the door opens. 

A smart tip is to rotate dishes from front to back and between the top and bottom racks to help them cook as evenly as possible.

Skipping the preheating stage isn’t always ideal, but you can start cooking faster by using your broiler to reduce the oven’s preheating time. Simply set the oven to broil for 3 to 5 minutes, then change the settings to the required baking temperature. This may be able to reduce the overall time it takes for your oven to heat to the desired baking temperatures.

Keep in mind that using the broiler to preheat may result in uneven heat in the oven. It’s best to only use this method with meats or frozen foods when necessary, and avoid it for delicate or fresh dishes.

Ovens with a convection cooking function work by circulating hot air throughout the cavity in an effort to reduce moisture and allow the food on different racks to cook evenly. Try cooking dishes using a convection setting, as this will promote even heating across racks and help reduce the moisture that can be introduced when cooking several dishes at once. Additionally, the even heat circulation of convection cooking makes rotating dishes unnecessary to achieve evenly baked results. 

Often overlooked is that some recipes may be written for conventional ovens. In this case, you must check for instructions for converting to convection cooking. Generally, you should lower the cooking temperature by 25°F and check for doneness with 20-25% of the time remaining. Select KitchenAid^® ovens come with the EasyConvect™ Conversion System, which automatically converts conventional settings into convection cooking settings.