The Henchman wrote:
>
> Did my first ever gas oven cooking. Actually it wasn't cooking. It was
> taking 2 lbs of frozen cheesy mac and cheese from a box and heating it but
> hey I have no counters or sink or facuet or new electrical outlets in place
> yet.
>
> Our old oven was a Moffat Electric. Our new oven is GE free standing range
> with gas oven, model series JGB8. This oven felt like it cooked about 50
> degrees F lower than the electric. I tried the convection and the fan
> comes on but I set the temp for 375 and it seemed to cook around 325 or 335.
> On the regular bake it seemed to bake around 340.
>
> Can anyone give me some hints about using a gas range? Are they always
> slower than electric? Will I always have to use 425 to get 375?
>
> When do I use use convection gas and when not too? We often will have
> multiple trays/roasting pans or Dutch ovens in the oven. Some times three
> racks will be full. But I tried one tray and it was slow.
>
> Any advice is appreciated!!!

Definitely check the actual oven temperatures and have the unit serviced
if it is not within a reasonable tolerance to the setpoint.

There isn't a lot of difference functionally between an electric oven
and a gas oven, the only notable differences a

- A gas oven exposes what you're cooking to some moisture (and other
combustion by-products) while an electric oven does not. This will cause
some differences in sensitive items, mostly baked goods.

- A gas oven usually has a wider hysteresis than an electric oven so the
temperature will vary over a bit larger range than an electric oven.

- Electric ovens often have better controls than gas ovens, at least in
the low to upper-midrange models.

Generally speaking you should be operating convection more often than
not. The fan forced convection air currents will reduce temperature
variations in the oven and produce more even cooking. The convection
will also result in a bit faster cooking due to more rapid heat transfer
to the food.

The only place you may not want to run convection is with some baked
goods where the convection air currents may cause the item to bake a bit
lopsided. This is less of an issue in a residential convection oven
which has a smaller fan than commercial convection ovens. The higher end
commercial convection ovens reverse the convection fan every minute or
two to eliminate this issue.