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Cooking Two Dishes in One Oven: Temps and Timing

Updated

Cooking two dishes in the oven at the same time works when their temperatures are within about 25 °F of each other: set the oven between them, cook the hotter dish a little longer and the cooler one a little less, and check both by doneness rather than the clock. When one of them is a cake or bread, let that dish set the temperature and bend the other one around it.

Pick the shared temperature

Most savoury oven dishes are more forgiving than their recipes suggest. A casserole written for 375 °F and roast vegetables written for 400 °F will both cook well at 375 °F to 390 °F; the vegetables take longer and brown a touch less, and the casserole may finish a few minutes early.

A simple rule:

  • Within 25 °F: set the oven to the middle, or to the lower of the two, and adjust times.
  • Within 50 °F: use the lower temperature and give the hotter dish more time, then move it to the top rack or turn the heat up for the last 10 minutes to finish browning.
  • More than 50 °F apart: cook them one after another. A dish that wants 450 °F for a crisp crust will not get it at 350 °F, however long it stays in.

Let the fussy dish win

Not every dish bends the same amount. Baked goods depend on a specific temperature to rise and set: cakes, breads, pastry and soufflés should get the temperature their recipe asks for. Roasts, casseroles, gratins and roasted vegetables are far more flexible.

So when a cake shares the oven with roast potatoes, the cake gets its 350 °F and the potatoes get more time. Starting the potatoes earlier, or finishing them alone at high heat once the cake is out, gets them crisp.

Adjust the cooking times

Two things change the time when the oven is shared. The new temperature is the obvious one: cooking at 25 °F lower than written adds time, and cooking hotter takes it away. The less obvious one is the extra food. A full oven takes longer to come back up to heat after the door opens, and two large dishes take longer than either one alone.

As a starting point, plan for each dish to take 10 to 15 minutes longer than written in a full oven, and start checking at the time the recipe gives. A food thermometer settles it for meat, poultry and egg dishes: chicken at 165 °F, egg casseroles at 160 °F, whole cuts of beef or pork at 145 °F with a three-minute rest.

Place the racks for airflow

Hot air has to move around the food to cook it evenly. With two dishes:

  • Stagger the pans so one is not directly above the other. A pan straight overhead shields the lower one from the top heat.
  • Leave space at the sides, roughly an inch or two between the pans and the oven walls.
  • Rotate and swap halfway through: turn each pan around and trade the top and bottom racks. Most ovens are hotter at the top and at the back.
  • Use the top rack for browning and the lower-middle rack for things that need steady heat from below, such as a pie crust.

Bigger pans also change the time. A recipe spread across a wider pan cooks faster; one piled deeper in a smaller dish cooks slower. The guide to scaling a recipe explains why pan size doesn’t follow the ingredients.

Convection helps, with a lower setting

A fan or convection setting is useful for a shared oven because it moves the hot air around both dishes and evens out the hot and cool spots. It also cooks faster, so the temperature is usually set lower than for a conventional oven, often by about 25 °F. If your oven converts automatically on its convection setting, check the manual before you subtract the difference twice.

Keep the door closed

Every time the door opens, the oven loses heat and needs a few minutes to recover. With two dishes in, checking one means cooling both. Use the oven light and the window where you can, and when you do open it, check both dishes and rotate them in the same visit.

If your oven runs hot or cold, a cheap oven thermometer on the middle rack will show you by how much, and you can adjust the dial to match.

When to stop sharing

Sometimes the second dish is better off elsewhere. Rice, grains, sauces and many vegetables cook happily on the stovetop. A dish that needs a short, very hot blast, such as garlic bread, can go in during the five or ten minutes a roast rests. The guide to cooking several dishes at once shows how to plan the whole meal backward from when you eat, so the oven only holds what has to be there.

Planning the oven with Kre

Cook with Kre is one option when several recipes need the same oven. You bring the recipes by link and Kre coordinates them as one meal, aiming to finish them together without promising an exact time. Kre goes by what you tell it and by the timers, so the thermometer check stays yours. See how Kre cooks with you.

FAQ

Can I bake two trays of cookies at once?

Yes. Use the upper and lower-middle racks, and swap and turn the trays halfway through. Expect them to take a minute or two longer than a single tray.

Does a full oven need a higher temperature?

No. Keep the temperature the recipes need and allow more time. Turning the heat up browns the outside before the centre is done.

Should I preheat longer with two dishes?

Make sure the oven has fully reached temperature before both go in, and put them in quickly so the door is open as briefly as possible.

Sources

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