Q. My son's new house has a convection oven. I want to cook a turkey there, but I am unsure how to adjust the temperature or cooking time from a regular oven. When adapting recipes designed for a regular oven, most manufacturers suggest reducing the convection oven temperature by 25 degrees and the cooking time by 25 percent, according to Fine Cooking magazine and Cyndi Martin, regional sales manager for Gaggenau, an appliance manufacturer.
Convection ovens have a fan that continuously circulates hot air through the oven cavity.
When the hot air is blowing onto food, it cooks faster and more evenly. Another added benefit of the circulating air flow, Martin says, is the ability to bake or cook more than one dish in the oven. For example, when baking two sheets of cookies in a conventional oven, the cookies on the bottom rack are done sooner and brown more quickly than the ones on top. In a convection oven, the cookies on both racks bake evenly and at the same time. You should cook with a wine that you consider good enough to drink.