Testing out the new oven

Our old stove (which came with the house) started having problems with its oven functions a few months ago, and no one made the replacement circuit boards necessary to repair it, so we had to upgrade. The new oven has a convection setting; time to find out how it performs.

Our test subject is a 2.42lb top round roast, which I rolled in Montreal steak seasoning last night, wrapped, and placed in the refrigerator. I had preheated the oven to 350°F a bit earlier when trying to calibrate it (I suspect this thing is going to need a pizza stone to help even out the temperature variations during non-convection baking), let it cool somewhat while prepping the roast, and I set it to 300° convection roasting. (With a thermal probe stuck in the middle to keep an eye on the internal temperature, and the roast sitting on a rack elevating it about ½” above the broiling pan to allow the convection currents room to pass through.) The target temperature is medium rare, 145°, and the temperature of a roast can apparently rise by 30° after exiting a convection oven, so my plan is to pull it out when it hits 115° internally, then give it 15 minutes to rest in foil.

Getting to 115° took just under an hour; the broiling pan caught no juices, so this is not a technology for creating gravy. 15 minutes’ rest took the temperature to 120°. (Meanwhile, sending two large potatoes through the microwave for 6 minutes cooked them through but not as fluffy as proper baking.) Cutting into it started with slices that started at medium rare and went to rare. Overall result was tasty and moist, but next time I’ll set the temperature alarm to 130°.