How you use your ESSE is up to you; it will adapt to suit you and your lifestyle perfectly. When running the cooker on tick-over mode remember to allow a heat-up period before you wish to cook. The length of this heat-up period will vary depending on how hot you need the cooker to be. As a rule allow 15 minutes to 45 minutes depending on the setting.
On full temperature, the top oven is a very hot roasting oven with a hot baking oven below. When set at moderate / hot the top oven is very versatile and will turn its hand to many cooking tasks whilst the bottom oven will be superb for simmer or keeping cooked food hot. On lower temperatures (cool) the top oven will simmer or braise and the bottom oven can be used for warming or drying. The cooking zones within the ovens mean that exact temperatures are less critical than in fan-assisted ovens. If the centre of the oven isn’t quite hot enough, or if it’s too hot, then the food to be cooked can be moved up or down to find the right level of heat.
The oven floor is a useful cooking area in its own right: pasty and pizza will cook evenly and quickly on the floor of the oven and the floor can also be used in the same way as the hotplate for frying or browning foods that would normally be cooked on top of the cooker. Cooking pastry items here eliminates the need for tedious and time-consuming blind baking. A frying pan placed on the floor of the hot oven will ensure that eggs or sausages cook perfectly without all the splashes of fat that accompany cooking such foods on the hotplate.
