Do You Always Need to Preheat the Oven? Here's What the Pros Say

Any loyal follower of recipes, particularly baking recipes, will recognize a common first instruction: "Preheat your oven to..." In baking, we learn that precision is important, but that doesn't mean a few rules can't be bent sometimes.

"Whether you preheat your oven or not will depend on what kind of food you are making, the size of what you're baking, and what kind of texture you're after," says Trung Vu, chef-instructor of pastry and baking arts at the Institute of Culinary Education's New York City campus.

To find out exactly when preheating is mandatory and when it's OK to save time and skip this step, we spoke to the experts—here's what they told us.

When You Need to Preheat the Oven

While we are questioning if preheating the oven is always necessary, we don't mean you should stop doing this for everything you bake or roast. It's important to keep in mind that some recipes do necessitate a thorough preheat before the food goes into the oven.

Preheating is necessary for baked goods that have a high-fat content:

• All buttery dough (like pie dough and cookies)
• Biscuits and scones
• Anything involving puff pastry
• Many French pastries (like croissants)
• Buttery cookies
  

"The fats could melt before the starches gelatinize, or the proteins coagulate," says Stephen Chavez, senior chef-instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education's Los Angeles campus. "This could result in things like over-spread in a cookie or improper rise with a biscuit."

Temperature is especially important for buttery doughs because cold butter going into a hot, preheated oven will steam, and that steam pushes the layers of dough up and apart, resulting in light and flaky pastry. A buttery dough in an oven that's too cold will cause the butter to melt before steaming, resulting in pastry that is not only flat but also dry from the butter melting out of it. 

You also need to preheat the oven for foods that require a rise (this may overlap with foods with a high-fat content) or foods that have a crust.

• Crusty breads
• Baguettes
• Ciabatta
• Pizza

Foods that have a crusty exterior and a moist interior, like a baguette, require that initial hit of heat. Also, breads made with "lean dough," like baguettes, ciabatta, or pizza dough, require preheating.

When It's OK Not to Preheat

Some foods, both sweet and savory, benefit from starting in a cold oven that heats up slowly to the desired temperature. 

Sweet Foods

Pound cake, loaf cakes, and quick breads: Pound cake, or nearly any loaf or quick bread baked in a loaf pan, does not require preheating the oven. Starting in a cold oven benefits these types of cakes because it allows for gentle crust development as the inside bakes, and "it would, in fact, give the chemical leaveners more time to rise the cake," says Vu. Many standard cakes and muffins benefit in the same way for the same reasons. 

Cheesecake and cheesecake bars, custard-based desserts, and flourless cakes: These are another great example; they do not depend on a hot oven as much for rise but do benefit from an even, gradual temperature that starting in a cold oven can provide. "A technique commonly used to ensure an even bake is to use a water bath," says Vu, and he notes that the same technique can and should be used for other custard-based desserts, such as crème brûlée, flan, and many other flourless cakes.

Savory Foods

Roast chicken: "If you're looking to render a thick layer of skin and fat on the outside, roast chicken could benefit from a low and slower cold oven start," says Vu. And don't just start in a cold oven, for cooking chicken, keep the temperature low and cook it slow. This results in tender, fall-apart dark meat and moist white meat, not unlike the technique so successful in producing delicious rotisserie chickens.

Bacon: With bacon, again, it comes down to considering an ingredient's fat content. Cooking large batches of bacon on a sheet pan is a perfect candidate for a cold oven start—just as you would start bacon in a cold pan on the stove, a cold oven allows for a slow render of the fat before the bacon gets burnished and crisp.

Braises and stews: These types of cozy dishes are another obvious contender for starting in a cold oven. The meat and vegetables benefit from a slow cook to help them cook and break down. Dutch ovens retain heat especially well, so they regulate temperature—never heating or cooling too fast—as your oven is preheating and as the dish cools once it's finished. 

Baked pasta: Once cooked pasta is mixed with sauce and topped with cheese, it doesn't need to go into a preheated oven. A slow bake starting in a cool oven encourages the flavors to meld, the cheese to melt slowly, and layers (if you’re making a lasagna, for example) to become nicely acquainted. Once the pasta is fully baked, however, it wouldn’t hurt to blast it under the broiler for a perfectly golden brown top and crispy edges. 

Potatoes: Just as you would start boiled potatoes in cold water on the stovetop, roasting potatoes starting in a cold oven encourages them to steam gradually from the inside out, resulting in crispy exteriors and fluffy, tender interiors. 

When Things Go Wrong

If you make a mistake when baking, don't worry, says Vu. He recalls when he put chocolate chip cookies in an underheated oven and they took longer to bake. Instead of having a moist and chewy center, they were quite crispy throughout. When I have a kitchen fail like this, it becomes ice cream mix-ins, he says.