I’ve occasionally set my electric oven to minimum (170°F) to keep stuff warm, but otherwise I can’t remember ever cooking anything at less than 325°. Is there anything you would want to cook at, say 250°?
Keeping plates/food warm
Confit.
250 sure? Plenty of slow cooked meats get cooked at that level. I even do my steaks at 250-275 for about 25-30 minutes and finish over super high heat on a pan or grill. 170? Not as much, but I’m sure I can come up with something if you’re not a stickler about food safety.
Even lower for making beef jerky, as low most ovens will go.
Slow-roasted brisket (250°F).
Not quite 250, but I have a pound cake recipe that bakes at 275 for 3.5 hours.
And to chime in with others have said about slow-roasting meats, pork butts do really well in a cast iron dutch oven at 250 for about 6-8 hours. Low and slow is the way to go.
And a quick scan found a lot of recipes for low-temperature cooking. Some examples:
Slow roasted chicken (250°F)
Low-temp steak (160°F)
Pretzels with melted chocolate (250°F)
Sweet potato chips (250°F)
Meringue Cookies (200°F)
I know, it pisses me off that my oven won’t go low enough for jerky.
I do faux barbecue – pork shoulder, brisket – at 250 all the time. It’s not the real item but it tastes awfully good, and it’s easier than digging a pit in the back garden.
Order a pizza, set oven for 225, delivered pizza goes straight into oven. Keeps it hot and gooey until the conclusion of pizza-eating.
If you’re doing a lot of cooking on your stove top using large, cast iron pans, it helps to pre-heat them in a 200-250 degree oven so they’re hot all the way through, otherwise you can end up with hot spots (or have to take forever waiting for them to heat up…).
Don’t even need a Dutch oven. Do it on the rack and get a nice crispy bark! That’s how I do it the very rare occasion I feel like pulled pork and don’t want to stoke the smoker. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t any less juicy.
Oh, that’s a good point. I dry my peppers in the oven this way, too.
I cook brisket at 275. Nothing else will do.
I’ve oven-dried peppers, too. As an added bonus, doing so makes the house smell really good.
You can also use a slightly-warm oven to hasten the rising of bread.
Man, I wish I’d said that.
Well, good to know! I’ll try it!
I roast my rare prime rib roasts at 200F, so they’re rare all the way through – not just a little bit in the middle. It’s the only way to do them.
Also have a 6-hour pork roast recipe using 250F. Gorgeous, and again, no better way to do them.
When your morning newspaper gets wet, the only way to save it is to lay sections flat in a 200° oven, keeping a close watch over it so nothing burns.
Biscotti also user the lower settings. You have an initial cook at something higher (like 350), cut them into slices and then cook for a longer time at a lower temperature (250-275). The second cook is designed to dry them out so that they’re crunchy all the way through and perfect for dunking in coffee. At a higher temperature, you’d over-brown the outside before getting the middle sufficiently dry.
Which is essentially the answer for everything you cook at a low temperature: thorough heat penetration without excessive browning/cooking of the exterior.
Mine can be adjusted quite low. I can make yogurt in it by setting it to 115 degrees, ideal yogurt-incubating temperature.