Preheat The Oven?

[Jennykenny]

How long would you preheat the oven?
I suppose it would depend on what you were cooking, but often the instructions, whether it is for roast chicken or oven chips, or a couple of pieces of fresh cod, just says. "Preheat the oven,"

[Elina]

5 mins?

[bednobs]

i would heat it till it was at the temperature it needs to be.

[woofgang]

until it comes to the temperature at which you are supposed to cook the item.....but I never ever bother.....oh except for yorkies but then I heat the oil up in the oven so the oil and tin got into a cold oven.

[Buenchico]

With a gas oven it's simple. It's reached the required temperature when the sound of the flames drops from a roar to almost silent.

That typically takes just a minute or two for low temperatures, up to 4 or 5 minutes for the highest, so I'd assume that the same sort of times would apply to an electric oven.

[Old_Geezer]

Until it goes, "BEEP !"

[Jennykenny]

Thank you.
Electric oven. I would have thought 5 minutes would have been enough.

[Pigletion]

Electric ovens have two lights, one for on, one for heating - the heating one goes off when the desired temp is reached (you can tell, because if you turn the dial down, the second light will go off, telling you the approx temp that the oven currently is at).

[Jennykenny]

Wolfgang, I thought you meant the chocolate bars Yorkies(!!!).
Brought up in Scotland I had no idea that you meant something different.

[Jennykenny]

Pig, I'm not sure if I have that. My cooker is six years old.

[Jennykenny]

Those of you who follow my life (as if) know I have my nephew staying with me.
He tends to put the oven on to heat, disappear upstairs for 'ages' and then come back down to cook.
I don't want to nag him. He's a really good lad, but I am trying my best to cut down on gas, electric and water. I don't want this to be an issue but 20+ minutes seems a lot.

[ethandron]

My oven takes just under ten minutes to reach 200, so I typically turn it on and set my phone timer for ten minutes.
I preheat it for most things as I find they cook properly, the times recommended for cooking things are based on a preheated oven. Some things I don't bother preheating but just shove them in and switch the oven on, mainly things like casseroles, oven chips, some roasted veg. I wouldn't preheat to roast a chicken but probably would for some fresh cod.

[Cloverjo]

I don't bother with preheating. I find most cooking instructions give times that are a bit too long anyway. I've never given anyone food poisoning yet.

[Jackdaw33]

My oven (12 years old) has a little light which comes on when I turn the oven on. When it goes out the oven is at the required temperature.

[EDDIE51]

It takes about 20 mins for my electric oven to get to normal cooking temperature 200 deg C . I always preheat the oven. Never heard of a recipe where you put the food in a cold oven.
It does not use a lot of power just keeping an oven at cooking temperature if it is well insulated and you don't keep opening it. In a pro-kitchen the ovens are put on first thing in the morning and not turned off until all cooking is over for the day.

[Jennykenny]

Thanks Eddie, that was very informative.