Yes, I mean cook, since I’m talking of chickens, not cookies:
I prepare chickens the same exact way as my sister does. (same exact seasoning, same exact pan, same length of time)
ONLY our ovens are different.
Yet her chickens come out tender, crisp, tasty, you name it.
Mine come out way inferior. AND, it’s not only me. Another relative also prepares chicken the same exact way as my sister, and she has the same problem as me.
So, I was wondering what’s the cause? Does it have to do with the size of the oven, or some other reason?
You leave some variables open here:
Are you at substantially different altitudes?
Are you buying chicken from the same source? (identical chickens are highly unlikely, but they at least need to be similar.)
Are your ovens the same type (i.e. gas vs. electric)?
Is the temperature control accurate on both ovens?
Are you holding your mouth right?
It’s pretty common for oven thermostats to be off by 25 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Buy an oven thermometer and see what the “actual” temperature is, and adjust your recipes accordingly.
(1) I’m at a drop higher altitude BUT my other relative is at about the same altitude, yet she also has the same problem
(2) Sometimes, but still the same problem
(3) we both have gas but mine is a 1950’s Estate oven and hers is later. I never checked the make of her oven.
(4) My ancient doesn’t have temp. control Again, not sure about hers.
As to that last part, don’t hold your breath (unless you chew garlic, perhaps?
a couple of other variables: age of spices used. and are you certain that you’re following the same exact recipe??
I ask this since, my grandma, bless her heart, believed that my Mom had lied about her banana cake recipe 'cause grandma’s version was drier than the Sahara and Mom’s was moist as they come.
What the difference was, mom would say “use 3 or 4 OVERRIPE bananas” when in reality, Mom would use as many as she had, and grandma firmly believed that fresh yellow bananas would produce a better cake. So, sometimes, while you might be “using the same” recipe, you might be making some slight change believing that it wouldn’t matter.
Uh, I have a candy thermometer. Would that do the trick? But still, I wouldn’t know to compare, unless I have my sister stick a thermometer in her oven, too. And I doubt she has one.
Someone recently had given me a tip to place a pan of water on the shelf beneath, so food shouldn’t dry out. But that didn’t do anything to make the chickens taste as good as my sister’s.
But, you know something? You gave me an idea. Maybe next time, I’ll just set the oven for 300 degrees, rather than 350, and if that doesn’t do the trick, I might even try lower.
Oven temperatures are incredibly inaccurate. I have a high end oven, and one of the reasons is that when I dial in 350 degrees, I GET 350 degrees. You can’t count on that with your normal, run of the mill ovens. If you have one from the 50’s, who knows what temperature you’re cooking things at!
Go buy an oven thermometer. You can get 'em at any hardware store, and I’ve seen them at Target/KMart/Grocery stores, too. They’re only about $3-$5. Use that, not your oven temperature know, to determine what the temp is. I’m not sure a candy thermometer will work - what you want is something that will hang down in the oven and get the temp of the air in the oven, not the temp of the oven racks.
Also, are you buying fryers or roasters? A roasting chicken is much jucier, etc. You might want to try that.
I’ve moved around a lot lately, and I’m a serious cook, and the variability of ovens really gets on my tits.
An oven thermometer costs less than five bucks, and you can probably find one at your basic supermarket, over by the wooden spoons and melon ballers. Take a reading of your oven and see how far off it is. Then take the thermometer over to your sister’s and do the same. Synchronize your ovens, as it were, and see if that works.
If not, you cook a chicken at your sister’s and have her cook one at your place. If they’re still different, it’s not the oven. Have your sister show you step by step what she does, and shout “Eureka!” when you discover what she does differently. It’s important that you don’t simply have her tell you over the phone, or write down her recipe; technique has to be observed and can rarely be communicated with absolute clarity via language.
. . . and lower, and lower, till you die of salmonella poisoning!
Athena, everyone, thanks so much for your helpful info! I never did try a roaster; both my sister & I have used rectangular disposable aluminum pans. I did just buy a roaster, and I was about to try it next, but for a while after the fiasco’s I’d been using the crockpot since that never fails to come out tender.
OFF-TOPIC:
BTW, I’m not too worried about salmonella, my system is too sluggish for anything much to have effect on me one way or the other. You wouldn’t believe I’ve eaten large quantities of raw fish gall, and it had no effect either. (I did this, btw, because I have progressive jaundice & so I experimented.)
Um, jally, the “roaster” that Athena is talking about is a kind of chicken, not a kind of pan. :eek:
Don’t assume that your oven heat is uniform or stays at one temperature while you’re cooking stuff, either. Get an oven thermometer, and test it out in a variety of different places in the oven, and at different times during the heating cycle. My own ancient oven cycles up and down through about a 50-degree range. (The landlord promised us a new one a couple of months ago, but I’ll believe it when I see it).
No matter what, you still need to cook chicken to an internal temperature of 165°, and you still need to worry about salmonella–you might not worry about it, but what if someone else ate that same chicken and got seriously ill? Salmonella, for the most part, does not kill most humans from 3 to 75, but is still a very uncomfortable and nasty thing to get. As a chef in training, this is drilled into my head on a regular basis.
About the ovens: every oven is different, so go with the general reply, and buy an oven thermometer. No, not a candy thermometer–it will break. Spend the $5, it will pay for itself in the long run. Find out what temperature it gets to when you set it for 350°. I bet you that it probably doesn’t get over 300°, considering you own a relic. Also, don’t lower your oven temperature, raise it–you need 350° to 375° to get that texture on the chicken–crisp skin and juicy insides.
Don’t put the pan of water in the oven!! You end up steaming the bird, not roasting it! The steam will automatically make the skin of the bird moist, and not necessarily keep the rest of the chicken moist.
The way I cook a whole chicken: I preheat my oven to 425°, let the chicken cook at 425° for about 10 minutes (to sear the skin–helps get the skin crisp); I then turn my oven down to 350° and let it cook the rest of the way through. I really do not use timers with this, as I always check doneness with chicken by checking the internal temperature with a meat thermometer.
Something else just came to mind. My SO used to live in an apartment with an ooooold oven. It would eventually get up to the right temperature, but it took about 30 minutes. Whenever we’d roast meat, it always came out weird because it always would start out at a lower temp than I thought it was, so I’d turn it up, only to have it reach the higher temperature 30 minutes later and overcook things. I figured this out when I finally bought an oven thermometer. If you’re getting weird results, that might be your problem. I’d suggest getting a new oven, if yours really is 50 years old.
If you’re really feeling crazy, get one of those new ovens that has a door with hinges on the side. I hear they also make them with reversible doors, and I also heard tell of a super-duper space efficient oven with four doors.
Seriously though, I’d go with the earlier suggestion of having your sister make chicken in your oven before springing for a new appliance. This will tell you, without a doubt, whether it is the oven or you that is making the chicken unpalatable.
Um, this is the opposite of what I would have suggested. I don’t have much experience with roasting chicken, but for turkey, the slow cook method is better. Try cooking at 250 until you reach 165 internal temperature, then turning up the oven temp at the end to crisp up the skin.
Oh, one other thing to try: use a rack and roast the chicken upside down for most of the cooking time. It lets the juices settle in the breasts, which tend to dry out more easily.
Again, not sure about hers.