Tip #22 Overcoming an overcrowded oven

How did you fare over Halloween?  Thanksgiving is right around the corner and parties are being planned as we speak.  Here is a good tip for cooking for a crowd.  Recently someone called with a question:  she wanted to know if she had too much stuff in her oven and how it would affect her food.  Everyone's oven is different, but generally speaking an overcrowded oven means 2 things.  1) It will take longer for your food to cook and 2) It will cook unevenly- you may have overdone spots and underdone spots.  Most ovens rely on air to evenly distribute the heat.  You should try and have at least 1-2 inches of space between pans and nothing should touch the oven walls.  I have this problem when I roast vegetables.  I usually want to roast more than one sheet of  veggies at a time, i.e. the asparagus I want to roast won't all fit on one sheet.  I use 2 racks and put one sheet on the far left and one on the far right and rotate them halfway through.  It's a bit risky- sometimes the asparagus on the lower rack comes out more steamed than roasted, but I have had moderate success. If you are crowding more things into your oven than you think is probably wise, try lowering your heat 5-10 degrees, rotating and moving pans from high to low, back to front and left and right once or twice during cooking and give yourself more time to get everything done.  Make sure the edge of the pan that was facing the middle now faces the outside when you move it.  The outside cooks fastest.  That brings me to another point:  put your thickest cut meats at the edges of your pans, and thinner or smaller cuts in the middle.

Good luck!
~Here's to Healthy Eating