When teaching people to bake I often get asked “is it really that important to preheat your oven?” The simple answer is YES! Preheating your oven and allowing it time to reach the correct temperature before you put anything in it is possibly the single most important thing you can do when you are baking.

Why do you need to preheat oven?

Preheating your oven helps ensure your food goes from refrigerator cold to blazing hot more quickly — spending as little time in the danger zone as possible. And even if this is a short amount of time, just know that some bacteria can multiply in the danger zone in as little as 20 minutes.

What is preheat in cooking?

transitive verb. : to heat (something) beforehand especially : to heat (an oven) to a designated temperature before using for cooking.