Do I need the turntable in a combi microwave when using convection mode?
I have question. I bought a microwave oven that has a grill and convection oven function. It comes with a grill rack and turntable.
2 days ago, I tried to cook frozen pizza with the grill rack without the turntable and while it is cook, the center of the pizza is not really cooked. Yesterday I tried frozen fried calamari with the grill rack on the turntable and it doesn't brown as much. I read somewhere that convection oven cooks faster but in my case, it seems slower.
The question I need help with would be do I put the grill rack on top of the turntable while using the convection mode? So I am not sure if I should cook with the grill rack on or off the turntable.
Best Answer
I hope the moderators will allow me to go off tangent and contribute my own notes of my personal experience. As per your observation,
"...the center of the pizza is not really cooked."
So will other foods you put in to bake in convection mode. It does not work as well as a industrial turntable oven.
So because the center of the cake will cook slower, you probably need to lower the temperature even further and hence a usual size cake may take up to 1-1/2 hours to bake.
Worse for cookies. Those that are lined near the rim of the round baking pan have their outer halves more baked than the inner halves. So at the half way mark of the baking time, I have to take them out and rotate each and every cookie 180ยบ. Since I bake them on three levels, I also switch the bottom tray with the center one as the heat is not even for these two levels.
Lesson learned. I will get a normal oven for my kind of bakes. For anyone out there interested to get a turntable oven, make sure the one you are interested has a blast of heat directing at the center.
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Do you remove the turntable in a convection microwave?
Answers. You can leave it in while cooking or remove it if you would like to cook with a larger pan . There needs to be airflow under the pan when using convection cooking.Do you have to use a rack in a convection microwave?
1) Always use the rack provided with the unit when baking or roasting in the convection oven. Always. (I hadn't used the rack for the infamous brownie trial run several days before.) You have to get your dish up off the oven floor so that air can circulate around the pan.Are microwave turntables necessary?
Microwave ovens don't need a turntable. The ones that can come without turntables are called Flatbed Microwaves. These microwaves can heat up and cook food effectively. They have a rotating motor that drives the stirring blades under the flatbed, which distributes the waves evenly to heat the food.How use your microwave turntable options
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Answer 2
Mine requires the turntable in all modes. In grill or oven mode there's a metal baking sheet that goes on top, then the (optional) grill rack. Mine applies heat (grill or convection) simultaneously with the microwaves; some alternate the two, which is slower, and preheating is more important.
If you look carefully you'll probably find that the grill element doesn't cover the whole cooking area, so the food needs to keep moving to cook evenly. I find that preheating on convection only, then using a combination mode is very quick, but if the microwave part is set too high the food cooks before it browns. Some foods are best started on combination then finished with just convection to brown them. Convection alone is slower than microwave alone for almost all foods.
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