Yesterday, I focused on healthy cooking through steam cookers, but today, I'd like to take a look at another popular cooking method: convection cooking.  Once again, SEFA has provided some very good info on this topic, and Serv-U can take care of all your oven needs, from steam to convection and more.

Convection ovens force heated air, via fans located on the rear oven wall, over and around the food racks. This provides more even cooking speed, better heat efficiency, and a better product—cooked more evenly and thoroughly. Oven temperature settings can be reduced from 25% to 75%. These ovens also accept heavier work loads for greater business volume.

Using convection ovens instead of conventional ovens reduces energy requirements per pound cooked and at the same time increases production capabilities. Energy savings are especially dramatic when new reduced input convection ovens are compared with conventional ovens. Meat roasting using low temperature techniques requires up to 24% less energy per pound in convection ovens than in conventional ovens. Frozen lasagna heated in a convection oven requires up to 25% less energy than when heated in a conventional oven. Cakes baked in convection ovens require 32% to 47% less energy per pound than cakes baked in conventional ovens. Meat roasting capacity is doubled in convection ovens; casserole capacity is more than doubled; baking capacity is doubled, tripled, and in some cases five times greater than in conventional ovens.

Convection Oven Sizing Guide

Meals  Served              Size

50 to 100                     1-half size convection oven

100 to 400                   1-full convection oven

400 to 750                   1-double convection oven

750 and up                   1-double convection oven, plus 1 single convection oven

            (Consideration should also be given to mobile roll-in or drive-in style ovens.)