Compensating electric oven temp

[Chopstix]

I have two items to bake. One normally takes 1 hour to bake by itself. The other normally takes 40 min by itself. Both use same temp, say 350 degrees.

I baked these together once before and it was a near-disaster of a dinner. I found out that both dishes took about one half times or twice longer to finish. It dawned on me that baking BOTH items together caused the temp to drop so much and it took much longer to come back up. The guests got hungry and the baked dishes ended up dry.

My question to you is, if I'm baking these two dishes together again, should I compensate by making the oven hotter than 350 degrees? If so, by how many degrees? Like 400 degrees?

I'd still like to bake them at their usual individual time to prevent drying out. I have an oven thermometer so I'll be able check the actual inner temp and lower/raise the oven temp accordingly as the baking progresses.

Whaddayathink? Thanks!

 

[Andy M.]

Are these baked goods - cakes, breads, etc., or are they other foods such as roasts, veggies, etc.?

 

[Chopstix]

Hi Andy, one dish is all chicken legs to be roasted in a baking pan. The other is like a casserole (specifically a potato dauphinoise)...

 

[Andy M.]

Try this:

Start the oven @ 400 F and put in the chicken. Bake at 400 Ffor 20 minutes and add the potatoes and turn the oven down to 350 F.

 

[Chopstix]

That makes sense Andy! Say, following your logic, would it be better to wait say 10-20 minutes after adding the potatoes before lowering the temp to 350F? (Only because adding the potatoes will cause a drop in the temp anyway?)

 

[Andy M.]

It's difficult to say. At some point, you run into the posibility that the chicken will be over done by the time the potaotes are ready. If you're going to be doing these two dishes together regularly, I'd keep some notes on the settings and the results until you find the right combination.

One reason you may have had problems in the first place is if the pans are so large that they don't allow enough circulation of heated air to cook efficiently. If that's the case, smaller pans might be a good solution. No shelf should be so full of pans that there isn't an inch or two of open space on all sides to allow for circulation.

 

[Chopstix]

Thanks Andy. Great tip on the pan sizes. Never occurred to me. That's most probably one of the culprits.