Is Preheating the Oven Always Necessary? For These 10 Recipes, Starting with a Cold Oven Is Actually Best

If you flip through any cookbook or click on the creations in our ample recipe archives, you’ll likely see a very familiar refrain in step 1: “Preheat the oven to…” 

While this requires extremely little effort, it does require time. It takes 12 to 15 minutes or so to reach 350° F, according to the appliance pros at Whirlpool. A friend confided in me recently that on busy weeknights, the requirement to preheat is sometimes enough to turn her off from making a recipe.

That conversation inspired me to wonder: “Is preheating the oven always necessary?” I turned to veteran chefs from coast to coast to find out. 

The Benefits of Preheating Your Oven

MacKenzie Smith, a New Smyrna Beach, Florida-based food blogger and author of Grilled Cheese Social, likes to describe the oven like your “kitchen wingman. Sometimes you need it to come in hot and fast, and other times you want it to ease into things, like it’s rolling out of bed on a Sunday morning,” Smith says. “Understanding when to preheat and when to skip it is like unlocking a secret level of kitchen confidence. It gives you way more control—and way less stress.”

Here’s a breakdown of why you might want to preheat, according to the pros:

• For consistency. Not all ovens heat up at the same pace, Smith confirms. Some preheat in 8, while others take 20. “So for consistency, recipe developers typically start with a preheated oven to help ensure everyone’s cooking on the same timeline,” Smith explains. Starting at the same approximate temperature as the recipe developers who dialed-in the dish makes it much easier to nail it each and every time, says George Formaro, chef-partner of Orchestrate Hospitality restaurants in Des Moines, Iowa.
• To inspire important chemical reactions. Many baked goods, including cakes, cookies, muffins, and breads, rely on an initial burst of heat to generate specific chemical reactions. “Doughs rise, crusts crisp, and sugars caramelize like they’re supposed to,” Smith tells BHG. “Basically, it helps your food show up on time and dressed for the occasion.” Starting with a cold oven often results in baked goods that are “dense and underwhelming,” adds Erin Clarke, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based recipe developer and the author of Well Plated Everyday.

The Benefits of Starting with a Cold Oven

Sure, preheating is important and beneficial for many recipes, but it’s not always necessary. In fact, you can occasionally even end up with better results if you start with a cold oven, then turn it on after you add the food. 

"I like to compare this to making mashed potatoes. You start diced potatoes in cold water so they cook evenly from the inside out. If you toss them into boiling water, the outside cooks way faster than the inside—hello, mushy edges and raw centers,” Smith laughs. “The mashed potatoes will definitely be subpar. Same goes for the oven;” certain dishes do better taking their time.

The chefs breakdown when and why you might want to try this tactic:

• For gentler cooking. Think of a cold oven as a gentle start, Clarke says: “The slower climb in temperature helps the inside heat evenly without drying out the outside too quickly.” The heat gradually works its way into the food, cooking it evenly and giving ingredients time to transform together. “This helps render fats more gracefully, keeps proteins from tightening up too fast, and often gives you a more consistent texture—especially in layered or dense dishes,” Smith verifies.
• To save time and energy. Warming the oven for 15 minutes or so before you even begin cooking eats up time and power, and can also heat up your kitchen—which is something Clarke admits that she attempts to avoid, especially during hot summer months. Starting with a cold oven “saves a little energy by combining the preheat and cooking time,” says Maxine Sharf, the Los Angeles, California-based recipe developer and founder of Maxi’s Kitchen.

When to Start With a Cold Oven Rather Than Preheating

If you’re following a specific recipe—especially from a baker or a creator you trust—it’s usually best to stick to their method, including the preheating step, Smith advises.

“Most recipes today are tested with a preheated oven in mind, so if it says to preheat, there’s usually a reason! That said, once you get a feel for it, it’s definitely something you can play around with,” Sharf says.

If you’re improvising or riffing on a recipe you know like the back of your most trusted wooden spoon, here’s a general rule from Sharf: Preheat the oven for anything needing a quick rise or crust, like cakes, cookies, or pizza. A cold start is A-OK for slow-cooked or dense foods, like braises, casseroles, or roasted veggies.

10 Recipes to Start With a Cold Oven

Now that we’ve covered the reasons why you might want to preheat—and the instances in which it’s better to go in cold—we asked the culinary experts to leave us with a handful of examples of dishes they think are best when you flip the oven on after you add the food (not well before).

If a recipe doesn’t specify or if you’re up for playing around, “feel free to experiment with cold oven techniques. This is a great reminder that not all cooking needs to be fast and hot. Sometimes, slower is better,” says Richard Sandoval, the Denver, Colorado-based chef and restaurateur behind Toro Toro inside The Worthington Renaissance Fort Worth in Texas. Experience will help you learn when gradual heat is actually an advantage, Formaro adds.

1. Bacon. If you’re baking your bacon on a wire rack, as we do for our Million Dollar Bacon, you’re often just fine starting with a cold oven, Sharf, Smith, and Formaro agree. This gives the bacon fat time to render slowly and cook evenly, so you get that perfect crispy, chewy texture without burning or curling the strips.
2. Toasted Nuts. When toasting walnuts, pecans, pistachios, and the link on a sheet pan rather than a skillet, “starting with a cold oven allows for more control and helps prevent scorching,” Fomaro says.
3. Roast Chicken. Our Classic Roast Chicken recipe calls for preheating, but Sharf gives you permission to break the rules if you’re in a hurry and would like to skip that step. “A cold start generally allows the fat to render gradually, giving juicier meat and crispier skin,” she explains.
4. Roast Beef. Similarly, starting a large red meat roast like beef chuck or prime rib is akin to smoking it low and slow. “Starting with a cold oven helps the fat render at the same time the meat breaks down, resulting in super juicy, fall-apart-tender beef with deep, developed flavor,” Smith says. If you’d like a crisper crust than you end up with, just before the meat is at your desired temperature, “ crank the oven heat just enough to develop color without losing that perfect interior,” Formaro recommends.
5. Stuffed Peppers. When you're cooking the meat and grains in a skillet before stuffing your peppers, flip the oven on as you add the pan—not before. “The gentle warm up gives the peppers time to soften,” she explains. By the time the veggies are tender, the filling will be warm, and your dinner will be golden.
6. Some Casseroles. Breakfast casseroles, enchilada casseroles, and many baked pastas (we’re looking at you, lasagna!) are ideal to start with a cold oven to avoid overcooking the edges before the middle sets, Formaro and Sandoval say.
7. Roasted Garlic. Gradually warming a whole garlic bulb is crucial so you can prevent the outside cloves from burning before the center softens and sweetens, according to Sharf.
8. Roasted Root Vegetables. Slowly roasting large, round-shape roots like beets and sweet potatoes is fantastic to “bring out the natural sugars,” Sandoval explains.
9. Frozen Pies. Perhaps you’re starting with a homemade frozen pie. Or maybe you snagged one at the supermarket. (Hey, even Ina gladly admits she serves Trader Joe’s Apple Tart at dinner parties!) Either way, Formaro suggests starting with a cold oven since it’s going to take some time for the chill to come off. Cooking it too hot from the beginning may put you at risk for burning or overbrowning the crust.
10. Pound Cake. Home cooks on Reddit and Southern baking pros like Carla Hall agree that starting a pound cake in a cold oven is key for a light, velvety crumb inside and a thick, golden crust that tastes a bit like caramel. Try it next time you give our Cream Cheese Pound Cake or Sour Cream Pound Cake a go.