If you put two things in the oven, do you double the time

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Table of Contents Show

Feeling the Heat Directly
Waves of Heat
Complications in the Oven
Use Your Senses
Can you cook 2 or more dishes in the oven at once?
Can you cook one dish & bake another simultaneously?
Tips for cooking multiple dishes
Does it take longer to cook 2 things in the oven?
How do you adjust cooking times for multiple items?
Should I double cooking time if you double recipe?
How do you adjust cooking time when doubling a recipe?

Judging time and temperature in baking is more an art than a science -- it varies depending on many factors, including how many dishes you have in the oven. That said, although two dishes cook more slowly than one, they need only a few more minutes to cook and not double the time. Understanding how foods cook in the oven helps you to use all the means at your disposal when deciding how long to bake foods.

Feeling the Heat Directly

During baking, hot oven air collides with the cool food you just added to the oven in a process called conduction. With just one dish in the oven, you have the maximum amount of space for hot air molecules to move about and contact the food. When you add two dishes, one dish blocks the heat molecules from hitting the other dish, thus slowing down the cooking process and forcing you to give the foods a few more minutes of cooking time.

Waves of Heat

In addition to the heat transferred to food by the air in your oven, the oven's walls, floors and heating elements transfer infrared radiation, also called electromagnetic radiation, which is absorbed by foods, which in turn become hotter themselves. As with conduction, one dish blocks the radiation from reaching the second dish and decreases the amount of heat the food absorbs. In addition to giving the food a few more minutes to cook, rotate the cooking dishes to help the foods cook evenly.

Complications in the Oven

Your oven's cooking quirks will affect the way your two dishes cook. Many ovens have hot spots, so the two dishes may actually be cooking at different temperatures. Rotating the dishes for this reason will help the foods cook more evenly. To check if your oven does have hot spots, place slices of bread on a cookie sheet and bake them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for five or six minutes. You may see that some slices are darker than others, indicating an oven hot spot.

Use Your Senses

While two dishes will take a few minutes more to cook at the same time, you can't just set a timer to five minutes. Instead, follow the recipe's physical clues. For example, cake recipes may call for the edges of the cake to separate from the pan, to be golden-brown, for a toothpick inserted in the cake to come out clean or for a slight indentation to be left when you press on the dough.

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Hosting a holiday is a serious undertaking — especially when you have about 20 dishes to make and you don’t have the luxury of multiple ovens. Sure, we all wish we had a stainless-steel double oven paired with a fancy fridge and granite countertops, but the reality for most of us is that we have only one oven. While it seems like the only solution is to jump ship and have someone else host, don’t give up yet. We have some tips to help you pull it off.

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Can you cook 2 or more dishes in the oven at once?

Yes. Most people fret when it comes to cooking two dishes at once, but it’s your oven’s job to keep the internal temperature set to what you selected. It may have to work a little harder when two or more cold dishes are inserted but trust that it will do its job.

The dishes will typically take 15 percent longer to cook than if only one is cooking, so adjust the time accordingly. To ensure even cooking, make sure the oven is fully preheated before inserting dishes, and rotate the dishes halfway through. We highly recommend purchasing an oven thermometer
because even though the dial is set to the correct temperature, the temperature inside could be totally different.

Image: Courtesy of KT THERMO.

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You can also try using cast iron cookware to cook your food in because cast iron holds heat a lot better than traditional cookware so you won’t lose as much heat if you do need to open the oven to add a new dish. We recommend Le Creuset cookware for optimal heat retention.

Image: Courtesy of Le Creuset.

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Lodge also makes quality cast iron cookware at an affordable price.

Image: Lodge.

Can you cook one dish & bake another simultaneously?

Yes, but there are some guidelines you’ll need to follow. First, baked goods are not flexible when it comes to temperature. Preheat the oven to the correct temperature for the baked good. Most cooked dishes are flexible when it comes to temperature — this includes meats, veggies, casseroles, baked potatoes and the like. It may take a little less or more time for the cooked dish to be done, but it will turn out the same. Baked goods are more of a science, and each variable needs to be precise.

Second, make sure the meat (or main dish) doesn’t have a strong flavor, such as garlic. If that’s the case, it’s best to cook the items separately so the flavors don’t cross over.

Tips for cooking multiple dishes

Meat is the most flexible. Technically meat can cook at any temperature until it’s done. The lower the temperature, the longer it will take, and the juicier it will be. If cooking multiple dishes, set the temperature to what the nonmeat dish requires.
Meat stays hot for a while. Large roasts, such as a ham or turkey, will stay hot for an hour after coming out of the oven. Plan on cooking smaller side dishes during this time.
Most ovens have a 25-degree variance. If one dish needs to be cooked at 350 degrees F and another at 400 degrees F, set the oven for 375. Most ovens are off by about 25 degrees anyway, so as long as it’s set around the required temperature, the dish will turn out fine.
Arrange the dishes so there is enough space between them. Air should be able to circulate between all the dishes, so space them out accordingly.

A version of this article was originally published in November 2013.

Does it take longer to cook 2 things in the oven?

How do you adjust cooking times for multiple items?

How to adjust cooking times for different temperatures..

Work out the percentage difference in temperature. Start Temperature / End Temp = % Difference. ... .

Adjust Expected Time. Multiply initial time by the % Difference. ... .

Add a safety margin. ... .

Opening the oven. ... .

Space around the food. ... .

Shelf Height / Position in the Oven..

Should I double cooking time if you double recipe?

There is no set rule. As you can see, the trick in increasing quantities of a recipe like a cake or casserole is to keep the thickness of the product close to the same, so that you can bake at the same temperature, for close to the same amount of time.

How do you adjust cooking time when doubling a recipe?

Use the original cooking temperature called for in the recipe when using one larger pan. When cooking two pans at the same time, raise the temperature by 25 degrees from what was called for in the original recipe. Cook Time. Rarely will the cook times be twice that of the original recipe.