Stupid question:
I understand why you don't cook or bake things at a higher heat for less time. The outside gets burnt while the inside is still raw.
But why do the Pizza instructions tell me to pre-heat the oven. It's not like the inside can get too well done for the outside. Is it just because they don't know how fast the oven heats up or is there more to it?
>>7196943
>tell me to pre-heat the oven.
proven conspiracy between the electric company and oven makers to use more product and wear out your oven faster
>>7196943
With frozen pizzas in a typical home oven, there are only two ways to get a crisp crust on the bottom: a pizza stone or directly on the rack. Since they assume (rightly) that not everyone has a pizza stone, the directions say to put the pizza directly on the rack. If you put the pizza in a cold oven, it will slowly heat up and defrost the dough before it bakes and fall through the rack. If the oven is preheated, it doesn't have enough time to droop through the rack before it rises and crisps. Oh, and cooking on a pizza stone only works well if you preheat that, too. It takes longer to heat up than the oven anyway.
>>7196985
the pizza was just an example I chose and the pizza doesn't fall through the rack when I don't pre-heat anyway.
Is there a general reason for the pre-heating, like the general reason for not using higher than recomended temperatures?
You want the outside of pizza to be cooked more, because it's raw dough, while the "inside" is just cheese and toppings that need to just be heated/melted.
When do you add anchovies to your pizza, by the way?
>>7196998
I think it's because different ovens will get up to the desired heat over different periods of time. If you have different ovens, but start the pizza at the desired temperature for all of them, you're going to have less variables when they only need to maintain that heat.
>>7196998
No, I think that really is the reason. Some people's ovens heat up really slowly, and they can't account for all the variations in home oven efficiencies out there. They can reliably use the preheated temperature as a set point for what they think is the optimal cook time of their product. Ovens just vary. You can certainly deviate from their instructions to suit your pizza preferences.
>>7196998
It fucks up the crust and dough.
If you put it in before pre-heating, its going to take longer to get fully cooked, and the crust and dough is going to be tough as hell to chew, and have an unpleasant texture.
Use a temperature too high, and the crust and toppings on the outside will start to burn waay before the inside dough starts to cook.
Did you read pizza instructions out of sheer curiosity or is it something you regularly do?
>>7197003
Holy shit this guy again
