Oven - o-bun (English spelling) oven

Japanese: オーブン - おーぶん（英語表記）oven

A cooking utensil for steaming food. Also called a Tenka. Generally box-shaped, it traps heated air and steam generated by food inside and heats the food to over 100°C. Therefore, unlike direct-fire cooking, the food does not burn from the intense heat or harden from strong contraction, making it easy to make food with a good texture and flavor.

The principle of the oven is very old, apparently having been known for over 10,000 years. In ancient times, after a fire was made in a hole dug in the ground, animals and other prey were placed inside and then steamed by covering them with heated pebbles and soil. This later evolved into hearth-shaped ovens made from earth and brick ovens, but when metal became available, small ovens like those we see today began to be made. Since bread was already being baked in Roman times, it can be imagined that hearth-shaped ovens were in use at that time.

[Tomomi Kono and Midori Otaki]

kinds

They can be broadly divided into gas and electric ovens based on the heating method. Gas ovens heat from the bottom and emit hot air from the top, while electric ovens have heaters located above and below. Both gas and electric ovens are available in models that use a fan to blow hot air, models that are combined with a microwave oven, and models that can blow steam. In addition, ovens with many other functions are available, such as automatic temperature control, automatic cooking, yeast fermentation devices, and infrared browning heaters. In Japan, box-shaped top-mounted ovens that can be placed on top of stoves have been around since the Meiji period, but the temperature inside the oven was uneven and they were inferior in terms of heat retention as an oven.

[Tomomi Kono and Midori Otaki]

Usage notes

Since an oven is characterized by distributing a large amount of heat energy evenly inside the oven, it is important to heat the oven thoroughly in advance and open and close the oven door as little as possible to avoid lowering the temperature inside the oven. For low-temperature cooking such as pudding, water is used on the baking sheet.

[Tomomi Kono and Midori Otaki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

食品を蒸し焼きにするための調理器具。天火ともいう。一般に箱形で、熱せられた空気と食品から発生する水蒸気を器内に閉じ込め、100℃以上に加熱して調理を行う。したがって直火(じかび)焼きのように食品が強い熱で焦げたり、強い収縮で固くなったりすることもなく、口あたりや風味のよい料理がつくりやすい。

　オーブンの原理は非常に古く、1万年以上前から知られていたようで、古くは土に掘った穴の中で十分に火を燃やしたあと、動物などの獲物を入れ、その上から焼いた小石や土をかけて蒸し焼きを行っていた。のちに土でつくったかまど形オーブンやれんが積みオーブンへと発展するが、金属が使えるようになって、現在のような小形のオーブンがつくられるようになった。すでにローマ時代にパンが焼かれていることから、この時代にかまど形オーブンが用いられていたことが想像できる。

［河野友美・大滝　緑］

種類

加熱方式が、ガスのものと電気のものに大別できる。ガス式は、下部より加熱して上部からも熱気を出す形式であるが、電気式は上下にヒーターが配置されている。ガス、電気とも、熱気をファンで送り込むもの、電子レンジと組み合わせたもの、水蒸気を送り込めるものもある。そのほか、自動温度調節、自動調理、イースト発酵装置、赤外線による焦げ目ヒーターなど多くの機能をもったものがつくられている。なお、日本ではこんろの上にのせる箱型の上置式天火が明治時代からあったが、器内温度にむらがあり、保温力の点でもオーブンとしての性能は劣っていた。

［河野友美・大滝　緑］