Probably that bread called for an oven lined with stone...or at least a very large baking stone in the bottom.
It takes that long to really heat one of those stones.
My oven has a light on it which goes out when it gets to temperature.
Linda C

I do have a baking stone at the bottom of my oven. My oven beeps when it reaches the temperature it's set for, but I don't know if that pics up on the temperature of the stone. The recipe said nothing about lining the oven with a stone, but the stone stays at the bottom of my oven most of the time.

Sally

My oven (electric) also beeps when it supposedly reaches the temperature it is set for.
It is less than two years old, and I found out the first time I used it, when it was new, that it beeps when it reaches 250 degrees.
It came from Lowes, and they wouldn't do anything about it because we installed it ourselves.
Soo-oo-o-ooo. ..I keep a thermometer in it all the time. Maybe if you set a thermometer on the baking stone?
I can certainly understand you not wanting to waste the gas running an oven that long!

Rusty

My oven beeps when it is supposedly preheated. But like Rusty, mine is only barely at 250. So I called for service on it and the tech told me to always preheat it 30 mins. She said this is the way it's supposed to be.

My question is what is that little beep for if the oven's not really preheated??? My oven has been like this since it was brand new.

The "beep" is when the air temp in the oven reaches the set temperature, but the moment you open the oven door, the temp plummets when heat escapes. SO pre-heat 'beeps' are of limited usage. Fine for general casseroles, but not great for baking. So, you do want to heat the oven long enough for all the oven surfaces to reach a high enough temp so that you don't lose it all when you open the oven door.

But I don't think that takes 90 minutes unless you have a wood-fired clay oven!

Mine beeps when it reaches the temperature that it is set for. When baking bread/pizza on a stone, even if the oven has reached the desired temperature I give it at least another 30 minutes minimum for the stone to get really hot. I want that stone at 500°F before baking bread or pizza.

I usually turn on the oven just before shaping the bread for its final rise.

Ann

Nope, air temp in NOT at the set temp when mine beeps.

I keep an oven thermometer in there all the time, on the rack I plan to use.
I turn the light on, look through the door without opening when it beeps, and the thermometer in there reads between 225 & 250.

Never fails.

If the temperature is critical to your finished product, use an oven thermometer to be sure.

Rusty

Is it possible that the oven beeps not when it's at the right temperature, but when the coils turn off? I can see how, if you're a serious baker, you need strict control over oven temperature, but for my needs, it seems like as long as I wait for the coils to stop being orange before I put the food in, I don't have any problems. It doesn't seem like those hot coils would allow for a very consistent temperature anyway-- doesn't the oven get hotter and cooler throughout the cooking time, as the coils kick on and off, no matter the temperature?

A modern oven should not have a large temp swing during operation, Jessica. But opening the oven door will create the largest temp swing of all.

I can't speak for Rusty's oven, which just seems to have problems all its own. ;-)

Ditto what Rusty says. I peek thru the window to read the thermometer and it's barely at 250 when the preheat beeper beeps. This beep goes off in about 6 or 7 minutes.

Based on my understanding, when a recipe calls for such high temperature and long pre-heating time it usually aims for a very thick, crispy crust and a lot of oven spring. A stone is usually required to achieve results like that. I belong to a bread forum, my fellow forum members there do pre-heat their oven and stone for 1.5 hours for the crusty crust they are after.

When the oven reaches the target temperature and beeps that doesn't mean the stone is hot enough. Depends on the size of the stone, it takes somewhere between 1 to 2 hours to heat it up enough for to make a special type of artisan breads.

I don't make a lot of artisan breads because my family likes soft crumb and soft crust so I don't even bother to pre-heat the oven. I make sure there's enough moisture in the oven when I turn it on. I put the loaves into the oven while it's still cold, turn it on, and let the oven spring take place in the first 10 pre-heating minutes (usually takes this long to get to target temperatures). I bake my sourdough breads in low temperature (350F) for no more than 50 minutes. As long as the internal temperature reaches 190F I just take the loaf out and let it continue to "cook" on a cooling rack for the next two hours. That's for the type of breads I make.

When baking most breads in bread pans, if I preheat, it is only for as long as the oven says it needs to heat up to the temp I have indicated - never any problems. Sometimes for bread in loaf pans, I don't preheat at all.

For baking pizza on my pizza stone, I will preheat at 500 for 45 to 60 minutes to get the stone really good and hot to bake the pizza quickly. This way I get a really good crust -- almost charred sometimes.

rusty and Shaun, I must have the same oven. I'll turn it on to preheat, the digital display will say it reached the set temperature and it beeps, but my oven thermometer says about 250 to 275.

I just adapt by preheating for at least a half hour if I'm baking cookies or cakes, I turn the oven on when I shape the loaves if I'm baking bread, and I just don't even worry about it if I'm making baked potatoes, a casserole, etc.

Annie

Annie that's exactly what I do too. I just know now to preheat it for a good 30 minutes. When we first moved here and got this oven, I thought I had forgotten how to cook! My roasts were coming out grey and not done and my cakes/cookies weren't cooking right.

So I had the service tech come out and that's when I found out that I needed to preheat for at least 30 mins. I said, What if I'm making something that only takes 10 minutes to cook? I have to preheat a half hour for that? Answer was yes. My old oven wasnt like this.

Sally, where did you get the recipe from?

Many times, when reading cookbooks, I find that the author/chef would give general information, tips and instructions at the "Introduction" portion of the book. One of my cookbook, the chef mentioned that all the recipes has a certain ingredient added to them and it's not listed in the recipe. On another book, it mentioned that all recipes are made with certain type of appliance.

This could also be in your case. As Linda_C and other mentioned, your recipe may be written to use with a baking stone and/or oven lined stone. If the recipe is from a cookbook, you may want to read the first few pages of the cookbook and see if this is mentioned. However, if you got the recipe from someone else or downloaded from a website, this information may have been left out.

My fairly new oven dose the same thing. It beeps after about 8 minutes but itÂs only at 250 so I set my timer for 25 minutes to reach the desired temp. I never had to do that with a gas oven but was told electric was better for baking. I wish I would have stayed with gas it was so much easier to control. What I really wish is the new ovens had knobs to set the temperature and not a computer chip or whatever it is.

Claudia

This has been very enlightening. Silly me, I just trusted that the little digital display that says 425 degrees meant 425 degrees, and the beep meant the oven was at the correct temperature. I'll dig out my oven thermometer and use it next time I bake.

Ntt hou, the recipe came from King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. You're right, they may mention using a stone somewhere in the text pages before the recipe, but not in the exact recipe. I just keep a big stone sitting on the bottom of my oven because it's convenient, and seems like a good idea for baking bread. Now I know that they weren't kidding when they wanted me to turn the oven on when shaping the loaf. I'll do that next time, but I'll wait till one of our cooler days to do that recipe again.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I knew I could count on you all!

Sally

I don't worry about preheating temps if baking potatoes or doing a casserole type dish...same goes for a pot roast. I do give it at least 30 minutes for general baking. Like others mentioned if I want my stone hot I preheat at the highest setting for at least 45-60 minutes and then adjust the temp.

Maybe it's just me...but it has always taken me some time to get to know my ovens, cooktops, and ranges over the years. Once I get use to them I have no problems or challenges. Seems they have a mind of their own..LOL!

David

The thermal dynamics inside an oven is extremely complicated.

There is heating by convection, conduction and radiation occurring simultaneously. It all depends on the construction and the design of the oven and the food that is being cooked. Preset preheating of the oven is highly inaccurate given the fact that the outside temperature of your kitchen also plays a part. Of course you all know inside temperature varies depending on the placement of your food.

If you want an accurate instant reading of the temperature on the surface of your food or deferent areas of your oven, a non-contact remote reading thermometer is not that expensive.

dcarch

Oh, boy, another gadget to look for! Actually, that's probably what I would need, as the glass on my oven is designed with a pattern on it, which makes looking through it and actually seeing what's happening inside a bit tricky. I doubt I could easily read a thermometer through the glass. I think I've seen thermometers like you mentioned on Alton Brown's show.

Sally

Claudia, my oven is gas. Now, I bought it when I was still a single Mom, struggling for every nickel, and I bought the cheapest stove I could find, but it's gas. Not electric, not convection, not even self cleaning, and I still have the pre-heat issue that I never had with my ancient gas KitchenAid before it quit working entirely and the repair man told me he couldn't fix it.

Annie

What good it would do you to know the surface temperature of the oven walls?

"Posted by foodonastump----------
What good it would do you to know the surface temperature of the oven walls?"

Very useful info. You can find out where are the hot/cold spots in your oven.
I found out the areas right over the gas fire were way too hot, so I put some quarry tiles over them. Now my oven heats much more evenly.

dcarch

I use an oven thermometer, and I have a vintage O'Keefe. I usually do let the over pre-heat for a good long time, esp. with bread, because I do want to take advantage of the oven spring, even if I'm not using a stone.

LOL Annie thatÂs what I mean. With my old oven I could turn the knob to 350 mix up a cake batter and put it in the oven and it always came out just fine. With the new oven after pushing the buttons I have to go dust the living room, take a shower or do something for about ½ hour before I mix up the batter to make sure the over is hot enough. I guess the up side is my living room gets dusted more often. Weather gas or electric they just donÂt make them like they used to.

Claudia

My wife and I bought a house recently, with a Dacor gas range. It's ten years old. If we set the bake temperature to 400, we find that the temperature inside the oven, measured with an oven thermometer, goes up to about 550 before the "beep" indicating the desired temperature has been reached. It takes about 15 minutes after the beep for the temperature to come back down to the desired 400. The manufacturer says this is normal. Do you think that's true? Is that normal in other brands?

I have a new stove. The oven has an optional rapid heat. It seems to take a while for the oven to heat if I just go with the regular preheat but heats it very quickly with rapid heat. If I'm making bread/pizza etc, I'm in no hurry so I just use the regular setting but if I'm baking scones or biscuits in the morning I use the rapid heat option.

Ann