As well as providing a statement centrepiece within your kitchen, the best range cookers offer so much more in terms of flexibility and cooking capacity.

When it comes to cooking up a storm, it is important to know exactly what your range cooker can do. Knowing what types of oven you have, multifunction, fanned or conventional can have a big effect on the way you cook. To help you get to grips with your new range cooker, we are here to explore just what each type of oven really offers…

Conventional Ovens

The electric oven was invented in the late 19^th century and became popular in the UK in the 1920’s and 1930’s when companies such as Belling began to see opportunities for a significant cooking change. There is the same principle today, with elements placed at the top and bottom of the oven cavity, inducing a natural convection which makes the oven hotter at the top than at the bottom.

A conventional oven has two heating elements that heat air inside the oven. The bottom heating element is the primary source of heat and is ideal for roasting large cuts of meat, like turkey or whole chickens. The upper heating element delivers intense heat and works for browning, with the middle rack being considered the favoured position for items such as baked goods.

Conventional ovens do not have a fan to circulate the hot air, so where you place your food within the oven is key for the best results, with dishes often requiring rotation. The classic roast dinner could be cooked with the meat in the middle of the oven, potatoes at the top for maximum heat and crispiness and dessert can be heated up at a more gentle temperature at the bottom of the oven.

Fanned Ovens

Invented in 1945, the first fanned ovens were introduced into the US airline industry, in order to prepare hot meals more quickly. The Maxson Whirlwind Oven did this an impressive 25% quicker, but the domestic fanned oven didn’t really begin to develop until the 1960’s, with it gathering pace within the UK in the 1980’s.

A fanned oven consists of a fan that is designed to circulate air around the cavity and the food. The fan distributes the heat in order to cook the food as evenly as possible, often in less time and at a lower temperature, giving you better results and perfect for batch cooking. This has various advantages over a conventional oven:

• The oven gets to the required temperature much quicker, meaning heat reaches all parts of your cooking at the same time and often also speeding up cooking time.
• More food can be cooked at one time, without having to change the positions of the dishes within the oven.
• With the air constantly moving around, mixing of flavours if minimised if cooking different types of food, e.g. sweet and savoury.
• Some fanned ovens even allow you to use the fan without the heating element, meaning it is a great way to defrost any meats or other frozen food.

Multifunction Ovens

A multifunction oven comes with two or more cooking styles to change the heating style to meet your food’s requirements. They are built with multiple heating elements behind the oven walls – a top element, a bottom element and one coiled around the electric element. A multifunction oven essentially takes a conventional oven and a fan oven and combines them. This means it is great for all types of cooking, meaning it can ensure juicy meat, perfect pastry and crispy potatoes all at the same time!

Many multifunction ovens also include additional features and functions that will suit your every cooking need, often including:

• A defrost function is a very common feature on many multifunction ovens. The fan distributes unheated air so that it won’t accidentally start to cook the food.
• Browning functions that perfectly brown or toast your dishes.
• Base heat functions utilising only the lower element to bring a slow cooking style required for specific dishes. It is also ideal for giving your pizza the perfect crispy base.
• Rapid response means that the oven heats up much faster than a regular gas oven.

Here are some of the functions that the top manufacturers we work with have to offer…

Rangemaster

The multifunction oven on a Rangemaster range cooker offers up to 11 different functions to allow really flexible cooking.

Rapid Response (on selected models)

Rapid Response pre-heats the oven 30% faster than a fan oven, so it means no wasted time waiting for the temperature light to go out before you start your cooking. Tests have shown that you can place chilled foods in a cold oven, select Rapid Response, and still get the same results as you would when starting with a pre-heated oven.

Delicate Mode (on selected models)

For cooking more fragile food items such as crème brulee.  This function operates the fan only and the base element.

Duo Mode (on selected models)

Provides a gentle heat, operating both the fan and base elements. This is suitable for baking pastries, cakes and open tarts, e.g. quiches.

Fanned Grilling

This function operates the fan whilst the top element is on. It produces a more even, less fierce heat than a conventional grill. Thick pieces of meat are ideal for cooking in this way, as the circulated air reduces the intense heat from the grill.

Defrost

This function operates the fan to circulate cold air only. This enables small items such as desserts and pieces of meat, fish and poultry to be defrosted. Defrosting in this way speeds up the process and protects the food from contamination.

Rangemaster Nexus SE

The Rangemaster Nexus SE mixes traditional cooking methods with contemporary styling. It’s sleek and highly modern appearance makes it a winning choice for any contemporary kitchen. 

This enhanced Rangemaster takes the performance up a notch with a versatile multifunction oven, which includes impressive specifications and functions such as browning element, base heat and defrost. It includes a fanned second oven and even a slow cook oven. It also comes with a dual circuit electric grill, which offers even more cooking flexibility and capacity thanks to its new deeper pan design.

On top is a special seven burner hob with five gas burners, including a triple ring wok burner, and two ceramic cooking zones which also act as a heat source the well-designed removable griddle.

ILVE
Whether you’re an amateur baker or a confident chef, ILVE’s specialist functions are very well thought out and give a wide range of benefits…

ECO Cooking

Save energy whilst cooking by choosing ILVE’s ECO cooking function. This setting works for slow cooking your food, which is great for pasta bakes and delicate foods such as pastries, but won’t be so good for frozen foods.

Pizza/Bread

Take all of your favourite toppings and create an authentic Italian style pizza in your oven with this handy setting. It can also be used to bake bread, with heat being distributed evenly from below and ensuring a perfect bake.

Fan Grill with Rotisserie

The rotisserie function grills meat whilst it rotates around on the spindle provided, ensuring evenly cooked and succulent meat.

Quick Start

If you are short of time, this setting is ideal. The ILVE quick start function will heat your oven to 200°C in as little as 6 minutes. This saves precious time and gets food onto those plates much quicker.

ILVE Roma 120 7 Burner

This dual cavity ILVE range cookers offers copious cooking capacity and A+ rated energy efficiency in a premium and very refined package. The versatile and huge 97 litre multifunction main oven gives you 15 fanned, conventional and grill functions, with the 43 litre second oven offering non-fanned cooking and grilling functions. Both ovens feature a rotisserie, easy clean enamel interiors and two-height halogen lighting for a great view of what is going on. There are even steam discharge vents to allow you to control the humidity or condensation levels to let a little out for wetter dishes or keep it in for baking.

On top the detail continues, with 7 solid brass gas burners of the highest quality. 

DeLonghi

Well-considered features and distinctive Italian styling make the DeLonghi range cookers so special…

True Fan Cooking

With the heating element located around the fan, many different kinds of foods can be cooked on different levels with flavours and smells mixing. This is a great function for foods that need to be well cooked but at also need to stay tender.

Keep Warm

By setting the temperature at 50°C and using the fan to evenly spread the heat, you can keep food warm for a longer period of time without spoiling it.

Hot Air Cooking

The circular element and the fan are on with this setting, with the heat being diffused by forced convection. It is highly recommended to use this setting for foods that must be well done on the outside and tender or rare on the inside, e.g. lasagne, roast beef, whole fish etc.

Ventilated Grill Cooking

The infra-red ray grill and the fan are both on. The heat is mainly diffused by radiation and the fan then distributes it throughout the oven. This is recommended for grill cooking when a fast outside browning is necessary to keep juices in, e.g. steaks and hamburgers.

DeLonghi Vintage 90DF Twin

This statement two cavity model has a distinctly retro appearance and a high quality feel. The programmable A-rated main oven has 8 different fanned and conventional cooking functions and includes a grill. The second conventional oven includes a very clever Rotisserie and another grill, along with a useful plate warming shelf. The ovens are coated with a special easy-to-clean vitreous enamel and the double glazed doors feature removable inner glass panels.

On top is a seamless sheet of stainless steel, making cleaning a dream and the very smart looking upstand is removable if preferred.

For any information on anything mentioned in this post, please call our team on 01244 402 975 or visit our website here.