Which built-in oven should you choose for your kitchen?

It’s almost lunchtime and you can already smell something delicious in the oven... A central element of your kitchen, the built-in oven is your ally in preparing meals to share with family and friends. Whether a traditional or multifunction oven, convection heat or steam, choose the cooking mode best suited to how you cook.

The different cooking functions

Choosing the right built-in oven is primarily a question of budget and cooking habits. Are you a dab hand in the kitchen or a fan of quick and simple dishes? To help you to choose, ixina provides all the key characteristics of each type of oven.

Traditional oven

Also associated with the term natural convection or static heat, this type of oven is heated by elements located at the top and bottom. This gives you the choice between two vertical cooking modes depending on what you want to cook. The grill function allows you to brown or grill gratins or meat. The simplicity of its functions makes a built-in oven the cheapest option.

Advantages and disadvantages

+ Easy to use and clean.

– Energy consumption and slow preheating.

Fan-assisted oven

Two cooking types exist in this category of built-in oven:

Fan-assisted

A fan at the back of the oven circulates the air for faster cooking and better heat distribution.

Convection

UAn additional element, combined with ventilation, distributes perfectly consistent heat.

Advantages and disadvantages

+ Consistent cooking of your dishes, no mixing of odours, rapid preheating.

– Higher price than a traditional oven and quite noisy.

Multifunction oven

This allows you to switch between convection heat and natural convection. This multifunction system avoids mixing of odours and tastes. This means you can happily cook a roast alongside a delicious apple pie.

Advantages and disadvantages

+ Take advantage of two cooking modes.

– Slightly noisy fan.

Steam oven

A steam oven, or a combined steam and multifunction oven, provides low-temperature cooking, at between 40°C and 120°C. Some even offer high-pressure cooking, similar to a traditional pressure cooker! This preserves your dishes’ vitamins, nutrients and flavours.

Advantages and disadvantages

+ Eat healthier, with foods that are always moist and fat-free.

– Slow cooking is not suitable for all dishes.

Different types of cleaning for built-in ovens

Catalytic: The catalytic cleaning system absorbs grease particles through porous walls when the oven is above 200°C. However, residues on the grills and the door are not removed, so a little cleaning is still required. Pyrolytic: During pyrolytic cleaning, the temperature rises to 500°C to destroy all cooking residues (sugars and grease), for perfect results! Then just wipe with a sponge to remove the micro-ash.